
code-review
Correctness lens for a PR or diff, used by build and review — bugs, security, performance, and code quality. Use when asked to review a PR or give pull request feedback, even when the diff is pasted inline. Don't use for local uncommitted changes, creating PRs, or merging.
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/helderberto/agent-skills --skill code-review- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads code-review automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Review Pull Request
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS — a PR number or URL, and/or a mode. BUGS, SECURITY, or PERFORMANCE narrows the review to that axis; otherwise apply all.
Input
A diff pasted inline → review that text, nothing to fetch. Otherwise the PR number or URL, else the current branch's PR → gh pr view + gh pr diff. No PR found → ask for one.
Approval standard
Approve when the change definitely improves overall code health, even if it isn't perfect. Don't block a change because it isn't how you would have written it. If it improves the codebase and follows its conventions, approve.
If the change is too large to review well (~1000+ lines), asking the author to split it is a valid outcome. Suggest a strategy: stack (small change, next one based on it), by file group, horizontal (shared code first, then consumers), or vertical (one end-to-end slice per PR).
Review criteria
Review every changed file, not just the latest commit. Review the tests first: do they test behavior, cover the edge cases, and would they catch a regression? With the branch checked out locally, answer the last one by experiment: invert one condition the change adds, run the suite, restore the file. Still green → a missing test; name it. Reviewing alongside other agents → skip the experiment: test-auditor runs mutants in a scratch copy, and an in-place edit would race it.
- Correctness: logic bugs, off-by-ones, race conditions, unhandled states, missing error paths
- Readability: functions > 50 lines, nesting > 2 levels, dead code, unused imports
- Security: exposed secrets, unvalidated external data
- Type safety & immutability:
anyor unjustified assertions; in-place mutation of shared data - Patterns: consistent with codebase conventions, no reinvented wheels
- Performance: unnecessary re-renders, O(n²) where O(n) works
- Code smells: match the diff against the baseline in smells.md — always judgement calls; the repo's documented style overrides the baseline
- Dependency upgrades (manifest/lockfile in the diff): one dependency per change — a bulk bump that breaks hides which package did it; verify against the changelog, not the version number; review the lockfile diff (one direct bump pulls dozens of transitive changes); flag hand-edited lockfiles
Output
Group by severity, file:line on every finding, a suggested fix for every Critical:
- Critical — must fix before merge (bugs, vulnerabilities)
- Suggestions — improvements worth considering
- Nit — minor and optional; label true nitpicks as Nit rather than dropping or inflating them
- FYI — informational
- Positives — good patterns to call out
- Verified — what you ran (tests, build, experiments) and what you only read
One structural problem and ten nits: the structural problem is the review — lead with it. Close with the verdict against the approval standard.
FAQ
What does the code-review skill do?
Correctness lens for a PR or diff, used by build and review — bugs, security, performance, and code quality. Use when asked to review a PR or give pull request feedback, even when the diff is pasted inline. Don't use for local uncommitted changes, creating PRs, or merging.
How do I install code-review?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/helderberto/agent-skills --skill code-review in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/code-review/ (personal) or .claude/skills/code-review/ (project).
Which AI agents can use code-review?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is code-review safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains code-review?
It is published by helderberto in helderberto/agent-skills. It has 623 recorded installs.
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