Code review

code-review

When to use

Use this skill when:

• Reviewing a PR (own or someone else's)
• Self-reviewing local changes before creating a PR
• Responding to review feedback on your PR
• The user asks to "review", "check", or "look at" code changes

Procedure: Review code

Mindset

• Be thorough but pragmatic — catch real bugs, not style nitpicks that tools handle.
• Understand intent first — read the PR description, linked ticket, and commit messages before looking at code.
• Check the full picture — a change in a service may require changes in tests, migrations, docs.
• Assume good intent — suggest improvements, don't criticize.

Review order

1. Understand the goal — what is this change trying to achieve?
2. Detect the change-type + depth — route to the right checklist and pick the review depth (below).
3. Architecture — does the approach make sense? Right layer? Right pattern?
4. Correctness — does it actually work? Edge cases? Error handling?
5. Quality — types, naming, readability, DRY, SOLID?
6. Security — input validation, authorization, injection?
7. Performance — N+1 queries, missing indexes, unbounded queries?
8. Tests — are new paths covered? Are existing tests still valid?
9. Conventions — does it follow project standards?

Change-type routing — load only the checklist the diff needs

Per-domain checklists live in checklists/, loaded on demand — a review carries only the depth the change needs (progressive disclosure; a dependency bump does not pay for the backend security table). Detect the change-type from the diff's file paths, then read the matching file:

Change-type	File-pattern signal (any match)	Checklist
dependency (expedited)	ONLY composer.json/*.lock, package.json/lockfiles, pyproject.toml, go.mod/go.sum, Cargo.toml/*.lock	checklists/dependency.md
migration / database	**/migrations/**, **/*migration*, schema files, query-heavy data-access code	checklists/database.md
frontend / UI	*.tsx, *.jsx, *.vue, *.blade.php, *.css, components/**, resources/views/**	checklists/frontend.md
infra / IaC / CI	*.tf, Dockerfile*, k8s/**, *.yaml under .github/workflows/, Pulumi/Ansible	checklists/infra.md
test-only	ONLY tests/**, *.test.*, *.spec.*, *Test.php	checklists/test-only.md
docs-only	ONLY *.md, docs/**	checklists/docs.md
backend / default	anything else (server-side logic)	checklists/backend.md

A diff spanning several types loads each matching checklist; a mixed diff is never downgraded to the expedited path (a lockfile bump plus code is backend

• dependency). Every checklists/*.md file MUST be reachable from a row above.

Framework-specific conventions defer to the carve-outs: PHP / Laravel → laravel, laravel-validation, eloquent, pest-testing, blade-ui, php-coder; Symfony → symfony-workflow; Next.js / TS → nextjs-patterns, react-shadcn-ui.

Metadata gates — verdict ❓ until satisfied

Some changes are unverifiable from source; when a gate fires the verdict is ❓, not approval — ask for the missing evidence:

• UI diff without a screenshot / visual check → ❓ (rendered result unverifiable from source).
• New module / feature without a test plan → ❓ (behaviour coverage unconfirmable).
• Optional cross-cutting gate (per-project): a new state-changing op without a telemetry OR authz touch → ❓.

Adaptive review depth

Pick depth from diff size, override upward on risk:

Diff / surface size	Depth	What it means
SMALL (single file / few lines)	DEEP	Read every line; trace each branch.
MEDIUM (a feature, several files)	FOCUSED	Deep on changed logic + its callers; skim the rest.
LARGE (sweeping / many files)	SURGICAL	Deep on the risk-bearing files; explicitly bound the rest as un-deep-reviewed.

Risk triggers force HIGH depth regardless of diff size: auth / crypto, external calls / SSRF, removal of a validation or authz check, money / tenant-boundary code. blast-radius-analyzer is one input to sizing; the depth policy + coverage-honesty line are this skill's addition. Every review ends with a Coverage & confidence line (deep-reviewed vs skimmed/bounded-out files + confidence) — silent partial coverage reads as full coverage.

Re-review scoping + parallel-review de-biasing

• Re-review scoping — on a follow-up push, scope to the changed lines only; never flag new issues in untouched code (note pre-existing issues separately, never in the blocking set). Same discipline fix-pr-comments reply rounds apply.
• Ordering-bias — when N reviewers/lenses get the same file set (parallelizable: files; council lenses), give each an independently shuffled file order (deterministic seed per session, logged for replay) so a fixed order does not correlate their blind spots. Single-reviewer → no shuffle.

Before creating a PR

1. When quality.local_auto_run: true: run the project's quality pipeline (see the stack carve-out for the exact commands — PHP: quality-tools) and tests via the project's runner (make test, npm test, pytest, go test ./..., or the project's wrapper script). Under the default (false / missing): skip both — remote CI on the PR is the gate.
2. Ensure CI passes on the branch (remote CI is authoritative).
3. Self-review the diff: git diff origin/main..HEAD.

Receiving feedback

The response pattern

Constraint: understand each comment fully before touching code, verify it against codebase reality, and implement one item at a time (test each). Restate anything ambiguous in your own words — or ask. Push back with technical reasoning when a suggestion is unsound for this codebase rather than complying reflexively.

If any item is unclear, STOP — do not implement anything yet. Items may be related; partial understanding leads to wrong implementation.

No performative agreement

• Do NOT reply with "Great point!", "You're absolutely right!", "Excellent catch!" or similar.
• Instead: Just fix it. "Fixed." or "Updated — [brief description of what changed]."
• Actions speak louder than words — the code itself shows you heard the feedback.

Source-specific handling

Internal team feedback (trusted colleagues):

• Implement after understanding — no need for deep skepticism.
• Still ask if scope is unclear.
• Skip to action or technical acknowledgment.

External / Copilot / bot feedback (less context):

• Check: Technically correct for THIS codebase?
• Check: Does it break existing functionality?
• Check: Is there a reason for the current implementation?
• Check: Does the reviewer understand the full context?
• YAGNI check: If the reviewer suggests "implementing properly", grep the codebase for actual usage. If unused → suggest removing (YAGNI).
• If it conflicts with existing architectural decisions → discuss with the team first.

When to push back

Push back when:

• Suggestion breaks existing functionality.
• Reviewer lacks full context.
• Violates YAGNI (unused feature).
• Technically incorrect for this stack.
• Legacy/compatibility reasons exist.
• Conflicts with architectural decisions.

How: Use technical reasoning, not defensiveness. Reference working tests/code.

Addressing PR comments systematically

Constraint: clarify anything unclear before implementing, fix one item at a time (test each), and reply in each review thread — not as a top-level PR comment. Triage first (blocking → simple → complex) so blockers land first; gh pr view --comments lists the threads.

# Reply to a specific review comment thread
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/comments/{comment_id}/replies \
  -f body="Fixed in latest commit."

Rubric pass (optional, surfacing-only)

After completing a review, run judge-artifact-completeness with rubric pr-review-score to verify evidence-fit, risk/blast-radius coverage, and migration/rollback completeness. Invoke when the review is high-risk or the user asks for a completeness check — not by default.

Output format

Validate, then emit these parts in order:

1. Reasoned validation first — group candidates by file + line range, disposition each CONFIRMED / adjusted / DROPPED with a one-line reason (not vote-counting).
2. Tier 1 — Mechanical — enumerated, fix-ready findings by severity blocks, never mixed.
3. Tier 2 — Alignment — each flag names the principle/ADR at stake + the concern (from the governance-conflict scan); not fix-ready by construction.
4. Dropped false positives — collapsible; each DROPPED candidate + reason. Empty is fine, but the section is mandatory (its presence proves validation ran).
5. Verdict line — YES / NOT-SURE (❓, a metadata gate fired or coverage bounded) / NO, plus Tier-1 blocker/suggestion counts.
6. Coverage & confidence line — deep vs skimmed/bounded-out files + confidence.

Full template, governance-conflict scan (status-aware over docs/decisions/, incl. draft ADRs; guarded git blame reviewer hint), and the security-class deep-verify path → checklists/producing-the-review.md.

Tally-vs-reasoned boundary. Finding-level review uses reasoned validation (each finding stands on its own traced reason); option-level decisions use the council stance tally (ai-council). Never cross-apply — no resolving a bug finding by counting votes, no resolving a design option by reasoned-validating one take. Mirrored in ai-council so the boundary is grep-checkable from both sides.

Group related findings; skip what the linter / type-checker already catches.

Adversarial review

Before creating a PR or presenting code changes, run the adversarial-review skill. Focus on the "Code changes / Refactoring" attack questions.

Auto-trigger keywords

• code review
• PR review
• pull request
• review checklist
• review feedback
• review changes
• check my code

Gotcha

• Don't rewrite code that works and is tested just because you'd write it differently.
• The model tends to suggest changes that are out of scope — stay focused on the PR's intent.
• "I would prefer X" is not a valid review comment unless X prevents a bug or violates a rule.
• Always check if the PR has tests — missing tests is always worth flagging.

Do NOT

• Do NOT approve without actually reading the code.
• Do NOT agree with review comments without verifying them against the codebase.
• Do NOT use performative language when responding to feedback ("Great point!", "Excellent catch!").
• Do NOT nitpick style issues the project's formatter / auto-refactor (ECS, Prettier, Ruff, gofmt) handles automatically.
• Do NOT merge without CI passing and quality checks green.