Auto Review

Run an independent review when the user or an owning workflow asks for one.

This is code review, not Guardian approval routing. Let the reviewer choose how

to analyze the change; provide the target, relevant context, and desired severity.

Findings are advice to verify, not instructions to apply blindly.

Run

Use scripts/autoreview beside this skill. Keep its custom codex exec path:

native codex review cannot combine explicit Git target flags with custom instructions.

The helper combines those with evidence, severity filtering, and validated JSON;

it leaves review judgment to Codex. For an OpenClaw checkout:

AUTOREVIEW=".agents/skills/autoreview/scripts/autoreview"
"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode local

In the canonical agent-skills repo, the path is

skills/autoreview/scripts/autoreview. On Windows, invoke the helper with Python.

Use --help for the complete flags and environment overrides.

Choose the Git target explicitly when the default is ambiguous:

| Target | Arguments | Scope |

| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |

| Local work | --mode local | HEAD → index → working tree, plus untracked files |

| Local candidate against a base | --mode local --base <ref> | Pinned base → index → working tree, plus untracked files |

| Committed branch/PR | --mode branch --base <ref> | Merge-base → HEAD; excludes dirty work |

| One commit | --mode commit --commit <ref> | Raw parent → commit; a root compares against the empty tree |

--mode auto selects local work when dirty, otherwise a branch review using the

PR base or origin/main. Clean main has no implicit review target.

--mode uncommitted is an alias for local. The helper does not fetch refs.

Registered nested linked checkouts from the same repository are outside the

current review scope. Their presence or edits do not make the parent dirty;

ordinary adjacent files remain included in the review. Worktree boundaries are

revalidated without changing Git ignore rules.

For a complete PR candidate including dirty rewrites, use local mode with

its pinned merge base—not branch mode:

pr_base=$(gh pr view --json baseRefName --jq .baseRefName)
merge_base=$(git merge-base HEAD "origin/$pr_base")
"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode local --base "$merge_base"

When a file has both staged and unstaged changes, both states are reviewed.

A defect in the index remains actionable even if the working tree fixes it;

the report labels it INDEX-only.

Git display settings cannot suppress context markers or add patch colors;

repository configuration is not changed. Source paths and text retain literal

whitespace. An empty present

source uses line 1, column 1, and an empty excerpt; empty physical lines also

use an empty excerpt at column 1. Source identity remains mandatory.

Context and severity

Use --prompt for task-specific guidance, or --prompt-file and --dataset for

repository-relative context files. Context does not expand the selected Git

target. The reviewer cannot read unchanged repository files from its empty

sandbox; supply relevant source or dependency evidence when the diff is insufficient.

The default threshold is P0 only: material blockers to normal operation or

safety. Use --max-priority P1, P2, or P3 when the caller requests a wider

review. Do not add unrelated redesign goals or prescribe file counts, reading

sequences, or ritual extra passes. Historical blame requires a verified

parent-relative patch; otherwise leave the attribution unknown.

"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode local --prompt-file review-notes.md --dataset evidence.json

Engines

Codex is the default: gpt-6-astra, high reasoning, with a gpt-5.6-terra retry

only for an account-access failure. Honor explicit engine/model choices; do not

switch because a review is slow or rate-limited.

Use --engine, --model, and --thinking to override the defaults.

--codex-speed fast selects priority service when supported. Only Claude accepts

--fallback-model. Per-engine environment overrides use AUTOREVIEW_<ENGINE>_*.

By default, Codex preserves only authentication settings from user configuration;

provider, profile, context and catalogue settings remain ignored. To project a

named route, select it explicitly through the existing config override:

"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode local --codex-config 'model_provider="review_api"'

The selector must match model_provider in the operator's external

CODEX_HOME/config.toml. It accepts one bare or simply quoted identifier;

provider definitions and other capabilities cannot be supplied through overrides.

Projection requires Python 3.11 or tomli; default auth-only operation retains

its existing fallback parser.

The selected route must use https://api.openai.com/v1 and command authentication

with an absolute external executable. Fixed arguments belong in that executable's

wrapper; omitted or empty auth.args are accepted. Omitted wire_api and

requires_openai_auth retain Codex's responses and false defaults. Optional

auth timing and context settings keep native defaults and semantics.

On POSIX, a private launcher restores the validated caller HOME only for the

selected authentication executable; the engine and reviewer tools retain their

isolated environment and filesystem access. Caller HOME must be an available

absolute directory with no repository-owned path or symlink provenance. Windows

keeps the native executable route. Command-auth runs suppress raw provider

diagnostics and report fixed failure categories, while retaining compact progress,

usage and assistant report streaming. An empty final report fails without exposing

captured stdout.

Catalogue and authentication working-directory paths resolve relative to the

operator config directory and must remain outside the reviewed repository.

A supplied catalogue is copied byte-for-byte into the private client runtime;

retries use the same route and catalogue snapshot. Dry runs check the same

ownership and route shape without executing authentication. Codex owns catalogue

validation, model access and context clamping. Other custom provider forms and

split context overrides are unsupported when projection is selected.

| Optional engine | Prerequisites |

| --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| Claude | CLI 2.1.169+; safe mode with web-only tools |

| Amp | AMP_API_KEY for a plugin-free account; local POSIX execution, no custom endpoint or cloud/orb agent |

| Pi | CLI 0.79.0+; configured model; no tools or project resources |

| Kimi | CLI 0.30.0+; configured model; Python 3.11+ or tomli for TOML config |

Runtime boundaries

The helper owns reviewer isolation, sanitized authentication, process cleanup,

Git scope, and structured result validation. Keep those controls enabled.

Every reviewer pass must inspect its bundle for real credentials and report

suspected credentials as P0 findings without reproducing their values. Harmless

placeholders and test fixtures are not credentials. Autoreview does not require

or invoke an external secret scanner. Never work around an isolation failure.

Intentional scanner-free policy

Keep approved secret scanning outside autoreview; reviewer findings happen after

transmission. Reintroducing a scanner requires an explicit maintainer decision.

See #240 for rationale and history.

Reviewer isolation

On macOS, reviewer tools cannot access the shared /tmp and /var/tmp trees

(including their /private aliases). Codex preflight rejects those temporary

roots before workspace, runtime, or authentication setup; unset a shared

TMPDIR/TMP/TEMP override to use macOS's private

temporary directory. Other engines and platforms retain their normal isolation.

Tools installed in shared scratch or requiring writes there will be denied too.

Review files have no size/count cap and are never truncated. Large diffs and

datasets are partitioned automatically. Intact instructions and required mixed

source context must still fit the per-pass prompt budget. A failed pass does not

produce a partial clean verdict.

Do not edit inputs during a review: the helper verifies captured sources before

sending and publishing results. Long reviews are normal; advancing heartbeats

mean progress. Use --stream-engine-output for visibility, not extra reviewer

runs. --dry-run checks preparation and startup without contacting a reviewer.

Results

--output, --json-output, and --status-output paths must be outside the

reviewed repository. When using --status-output, all output paths must differ;

case-only and Unicode normalization aliases are conservatively refused on every

platform, even when the filesystem would permit distinct files.

| Exit | Meaning |

| ---- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| 0 | scoped-clean, or a correct verdict with only filtered lower-priority findings |

| 1 | Accepted findings, an incorrect provider verdict, or a failed review attempt |

| 2 | Incomplete scope/attribution, or a missing required finding |

Treat scoped-clean as clean only for the selected target and requested priority.

filtered is not clean; resolve incomplete before claiming completion.

Verify findings against the actual code and task before changing anything.

No extra review rounds for a nicer verdict; follow the owning workflow after fixes.

Use --status-output /outside/repo/status.json for a separate, versioned

machine-readable outcome. It preserves the existing exit codes and

--json-output validated-report format. Completed reviews report scoped-clean,

findings, filtered, incorrect, or incomplete; a launched reviewer that

fails or returns an invalid report reports reviewer_unavailable with exit 1.

A failed later pass never publishes a partial review report.

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "status": "reviewer_unavailable",
  "exit_code": 1,
  "engine": "codex",
  "report_produced": false,
  "reason": "engine_failed",
  "reviewer_exit_code": 124,
  "timed_out": true
}

reason is engine_failed, invalid_report, or runtime_validation_failed

for unavailable reviewers and null for completed reviews. The last reason means

Amp's post-launch isolation attestation or private-result validation refused

the result; it is not a transient-provider classification. These guards still

run before report acceptance and retain their existing failure diagnostics.

reviewer_exit_code is the last reviewer process's exit code when retained,

including zero for rejected output, otherwise null. timed_out identifies the

helper's deadline, not a reviewer that happens to exit 124. Completed envelopes

have report_produced: true; this means a validated final report exists, not

that its verdict is clean. --expect-findings changes exit codes as before;

inspect status independently of exit_code.

The sidecar contains no provider logs, prompts, findings, or model identifiers.

Existing bounded, display-safe diagnostics remain on stderr; command-auth

diagnostic suppression remains in force. Use a fresh status path per invocation:

after argument and output-path validation, a previous sidecar is removed before

target selection. Dry runs, preflight refusals, pre-launch isolation failures, source mutations,

interruptions, and output failures produce no new status. Absence means no

outcome was published, never a clean review. No retry policy is added.

Report material findings and status plainly. Do not add transcripts, proof

ledgers, commits, pushes, or a new workstream unless requested.