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.

Before starting a review, read the complete diagnostic and result guidance. It is part of this skill; follow its output-path, status, failure, usage, and diagnostic rules.

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:

--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.

Local selection honors core.autocrlf from external operator Git configuration, with repository-local values and attributes retaining precedence. Only its validated scalar value reaches diff/status; other global and system Git configuration stays disabled. Repository-owned or relative global-config overrides are not imported, and reviewed source bytes are not rewritten.

Local collection disables effective Git clean/process commands and requires conversion to succeed. Unused drivers, unchanged filtered neighbors, staged-only changes, and deletions can still be reviewed without executing converters. If Git needs executable conversion to assemble the diff, collection fails before any reviewer starts. This can include an unchanged filtered file whose stat cache needs refreshing. Use explicit branch or commit mode for committed content in that case. Built-in line-ending normalization remains enabled; raw bytes never stand in for a required executable conversion. PR-base discovery uses trusted external Git and a scoped GitHub CLI environment, preserving external authentication/configuration and proxy settings while excluding inherited Git routing, GH_REPO redirection, and checkout-owned executables. A differently named AUTOREVIEW_GIT override that cannot also be selected as git by the child requires an explicit --base; rejected GitHub configuration paths also require one.

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. --prompt-file also accepts an absolute path inside the repository; the same sensitive-path, symlink, and mutation checks apply. --dataset stays repo-relative. Repeated paths in the same evidence role share one validated capture. Equal content at different paths and prompt-file versus dataset roles stay distinct.

For unchanged committed source, use repeatable --source-context <repo-relative-path> with branch or commit mode. Use --source-context-file <repo-relative-path> when that source must stay intact in every review pass. Both read the exact regular-file blob from the frozen reviewed commit (branch HEAD or --commit), including executable source files. Local mode, including an auto-selected local target, is unsupported. No separate context revision or working-copy substitution is accepted. The checkout path must remain a regular file; its bytes and path topology are revalidated throughout review. Repeated normalized source-context paths share one capture after every argument is validated; different paths and evidence roles remain distinct.

Both roles use tracked-source filename classification, so source names such as src/token_count.py are accepted. Credential directories, stores and keyfiles remain forbidden. Existing prompt-file and dataset restrictions are unchanged. Every source block carries path, commit, blob and mode provenance. --source-context bytes are partitioned with the change when needed. --source-context-file blocks stay complete in every pass and must fit with the instructions and change framing; the helper refuses an over-capacity plan without dropping required evidence. Context never adds finding targets or instruction authority. This is a source-provenance contract, not secret-content scanning.

"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode branch --base origin/main --source-context src/token_count.py
"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode branch --base origin/main --source-context-file src/token_count.py

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. AUTOREVIEW_MAX_PRIORITY accepts the same P0–P3 values; an explicit flag overrides it. Invalid resolved priorities fail during argument parsing, before preparation or reviewer startup. 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

For automatic reviewer selection, try OpenAI models through Codex before Claude. Start with --engine codex even when the invoking agent uses Codex or asks for an independent second opinion. Use Claude only when the user explicitly selects it or Codex is unavailable for the review; report the concrete availability failure before switching. Do not switch because a review is slow, rate-limited, or returns findings, or to bypass a safety refusal or isolation failure.

Codex defaults to gpt-6-sol, high reasoning, with a gpt-6-luna retry only for an account-access failure. Explicit gpt-6-sol selections use the same retry; other explicit models, including Luna and Astra, have no model fallback. Explicit gpt-5.6-sol selections retain their access-only gpt-5.6-terra retry. GPT-6 Sol and Luna reject unsupported minimal effort before review preparation; an effort-only override no longer selects an older model. Honor explicit user engine/model choices. The helper does not automatically fall back between engines.

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>_*.

If your account cannot access Sol or Luna, pin an available model. To require GPT-6 Astra without a model fallback, select it explicitly:

"$AUTOREVIEW" --mode local --model gpt-6-astra --thinking high

GPT-6 Sol and Luna support none, low, medium, high, xhigh, and max; neither supports minimal. Astra also excludes none. AutoReview defaults to high and does not fall back from an explicit Luna or Astra selection. Codex's ultra mode uses automatic delegation and is outside this helper's supported effort levels. Use max for its deepest supported review. For EU data residency, use --codex-speed default; GPT-6 fast mode is unavailable there. See the GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna model docs and Codex reasoning modes.

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.

--engine kimi remains recognized but is refused for reviews and --dry-run before any Kimi process, configuration read or authentication setup. The supported Kimi Code prompt mode accepts review content only as a command-line argument; the helper has no supported private prompt input channel for it. This intentionally retires the previous Kimi execution path rather than exposing the bundle in process arguments. Existing --kimi-bin arguments remain accepted for the same clear refusal; the helper never silently selects another engine. A custom agent file is not an equivalent replacement because it changes the input into a templated system prompt.

Image review

Branch mode with Codex supports added, single-frame PNG, JPEG and WebP files. Install Pillow in the Python environment running the helper (python -m pip install Pillow). Use a vision-capable Codex model and a CLI supporting codex exec --image. No new bypass flag is required. Full decoding rejects corrupt and animated files. Images must have at most 16,777,216 pixels and no dimension above 16,384 pixels; decoder bomb warnings fail closed before pixel loading. Added image paths are limited to 20 MiB of encoded bytes each and 100 MiB total, checked against Git object sizes before capture. Exceeding a limit fails the entire review.

The helper captures exact bytes from the pinned HEAD, stages only those images in its isolated workspace, and attaches them through Codex's native image input. Every pass receives the path, media type, byte count and SHA-256 manifest alongside the image attachments and text diff. Image findings use the original path and line 1. Text-only review does not require Pillow.

Other binaries, modified/deleted images, local/commit image changes and image review with other engines remain unsupported and fail closed. Missing Pillow or provider image limits fail the review rather than silently dropping assets. Sensitive-path, source-mutation, authentication and sandbox controls remain enabled.

For partial clones, materialize required Git objects before review. The isolated Git reader intentionally disables lazy network fetching; do not weaken that boundary.

Runtime boundaries

The helper owns reviewer isolation, sanitized authentication, process cleanup, Git scope, and structured result validation. Keep those controls enabled. Before repository detection or target selection, Git must pass --version within 10 seconds. Failure exits 2 with an incomplete diagnostic and the resolved executable (or the unresolved selection); it never means scoped-clean. Set AUTOREVIEW_GIT to a trusted external Git executable to override every helper-owned Git invocation. On macOS with a broken selected Xcode, use DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer for the invocation. Only an absolute, external DEVELOPER_DIR is additionally retained in Git's sanitized environment; neither override is forwarded to the isolated reviewer environment.

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.

Text review files have no size/count cap and are never truncated; image inputs use the explicit safety limits above. Large diffs and datasets are partitioned automatically. Change partitions retain complete datasets when they fit with sufficient change space. This preference may use more passes or prompt bytes than evidence batching; the explicit pass budget still applies. Terminal fallbacks preserve a feasible complete-evidence plan when batch framing cannot fit. Intact instructions, source-context files and required mixed source context must fit the per-pass prompt budget. A failed pass does not produce a partial clean verdict. Otherwise, the planner compares a bounded set of evidence allocations and keeps the existing plan unless total prompt bytes improve without more passes, or equal bytes need fewer passes. Every change is still reviewed against every evidence batch.

Each pass is an independent assignment, not a continuing conversation. Its private completion field must confirm a finished assessment; deferring to another pass leaves the overall review incomplete.

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. Both dry runs and execution print planned pass count and total prompt bytes. Use --max-review-passes N (or AUTOREVIEW_MAX_REVIEW_PASSES) to reject the whole plan before any reviewer starts when it exceeds an explicit campaign budget. There is no default pass ceiling. --engine-timeout-seconds remains an optional deadline per process attempt. Pass counts, prompt bytes, and deadlines are not token hard caps; they do not bound model reasoning or tool use.

Diagnostics and results

Follow the diagnostic and result guidance for local stage observation, output paths, exit codes, status, and usage.