Autonomous multi-round research review loop. Repeatedly reviews using Claude Code via claude-review MCP, implements fixes, and re-reviews until positive assessment or max rounds reached. Use when user says "auto review loop", "review until it passes", or wants autonomous iterative improvement.
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Override for Codex users who want Claude Code, not a second Codex agent, to act as the reviewer. Install this package after
skills/skills-codex/*.This reviewer is a different model family from the Codex executor. Every overlay trace/audit records:
review_independence: cross-family acceptance_status: accepted
Claude overlay assurance: this route is a different model family from the Codex executor and records
review_independence: cross-familyplusacceptance_status: accepted.
Autonomously iterate: review → implement fixes → re-review, until the external reviewer gives a positive assessment or MAX_ROUNDS is reached.
review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md (cumulative log) (fall back to ./AUTO_REVIEW.md for legacy projects)review-stage/ — All review-stage outputs go here. Create the directory if it doesn't exist.claude-review — Claude reviewer invoked through the local claude-review MCP bridge. Set CLAUDE_REVIEW_MODEL if you need a specific Claude model override.claude-review — reviews route through the claude-review MCP (Claude family; cross-family for a Codex executor).true, pause after each round's review (Phase B) and present the score + weaknesses to the user. Wait for user input before proceeding to Phase C. The user can: approve the suggested fixes, provide custom modification instructions, skip specific fixes, or stop the loop early. When false (default), the loop runs fully autonomously.true, (1) read EXPERIMENT_LOG.md and findings.md instead of parsing full logs on session recovery, (2) append key findings to findings.md after each round.medium uses a normal high-rigor Claude review through mcp__claude-review__review_start / mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start; hard adds Reviewer Memory and Debate Protocol; nightmare adds direct repository-reading adversarial verification by an independent reviewer.true (default), auto-render review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md to HTML on loop termination via /render-html. Uses --no-review because the loop already performed a traced cross-family accepted Claude review. Set false to skip.💡 Override:
/auto-review-loop "topic" — compact: true, human checkpoint: true, difficulty: hard
Maintain review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md in all difficulty modes. Phase B.5 appends the reviewer's raw response and memory update regardless of REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY.
REVIEWER_MEMORY.md contents under ## Your Reviewer Memory (persistent across rounds).Memory update section in the reviewer response.Memory update into REVIEWER_MEMORY.md before writing REVIEW_STATE.json.difficulty: hard and difficulty: nightmare, additionally use the Debate Protocol after a critical review.nightmare, launch an additional fresh adversarial reviewer with direct repository/file-reading instructions. It should read NARRATIVE_REPORT.md or review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md for the author's claims, then verify those claims against code, logs, result files, and paper drafts instead of trusting executor summaries.In hard and nightmare modes, the reviewer must actively look for omissions, unsupported claims, cherry-picked evidence, metric mistakes, and weaknesses the executor may have downplayed.
For difficulty: hard and nightmare, use the Debate Protocol after a critical review:
mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start.Long-running loops may hit the context window limit, triggering automatic compaction. To survive this, persist state to review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json after each round:
{
"run_id": "run_20260713_a1b2c3d4",
"round": 2,
"threadId": "019cd392-...",
"status": "in_progress",
"last_score": 5.0,
"last_verdict": "not ready",
"pending_experiments": ["screen_name_1"],
"timestamp": "2026-03-13T21:00:00"
}run_id — Globally unique per invocation. Generated on fresh start as run_<YYYYMMDD>_<8-char-hex> (e.g., run_20260713_a1b2c3d4). Preserved across round writes. On resume, read from state file unchanged. This binds all round state and acquittal receipts to one run.Write this file at the end of every Phase E (after documenting the round). Overwrite each time — only the latest round's state matters. The run_id field MUST persist unchanged across overwrites within the same run.
On completion (positive assessment or max rounds), set "status": "completed" so future invocations don't accidentally resume a finished loop.
In addition to the overwritable state file, maintain an append-only acquittal log at review-stage/ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl. Each line is a standalone JSON object recording an acquitting positive verdict:
{"run_id":"run_20260713_a1b2c3d4","round":3,"backend":"claude-review","effort":"high-rigor","verdict":"ready","score":7.5,"trace_id":"trace_20260713_run03","timestamp":"2026-07-13T14:22:00Z"}Rules (non-negotiable):
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Append-only | Never delete, never truncate, never overwrite lines. Only >>. |
| When to write | At the end of Phase E, immediately after a positive verdict (score >= 6 AND verdict ∈ {"ready", "almost"}). |
run_id binding | Every acquittal line carries the current run_id. Only entries whose run_id matches the current run are valid acquittals for stop decisions. |
| Trace linkage | trace_id MUST reference a trace artifact in .aris/traces/. |
| No overwrite | REVIEW_STATE.json is overwritten each round. ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl is NEVER overwritten — it is the permanent, cumulative record. |
review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json (fall back to ./REVIEW_STATE.json if not found — legacy path):
run_id: run_<YYYYMMDD>_<8-char-hex> (e.g., run_20260713_a1b2c3d4). This run_id persists across all round writes and binds acquittal receipts to this invocation.status is "completed": fresh start (previous loop finished normally — but its ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl entries are retained as an audit trail with their own run_id, and are NOT valid for the current run's stop gate)
run_id for this invocation.status is "in_progress" AND timestamp is older than 24 hours: fresh start (stale state from a killed/abandoned run — delete the file and start over)
run_id for this invocation.status is "in_progress" AND timestamp is within 24 hours: resume
run_id, round, threadId, last_score, pending_experimentsrun_id is absent from the state file (pre-run_id era), generate a new run_id and log: "No run_id in legacy state file; assigned run_<...> for this resume."review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md to restore full context of prior rounds (fall back to ./AUTO_REVIEW.md)pending_experiments is non-empty, check if they have completed (e.g., check screen sessions)COMPACT = true and compact files exist, prefer findings.md + EXPERIMENT_LOG.md over full raw logs.review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md with header and timestampRoute by REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY:
Send comprehensive context to the external reviewer:
mcp__claude-review__review_start:
prompt: |
[Round N/MAX_ROUNDS of autonomous review loop]
Review the work directly from its artifacts — executor notes are not
evidence, so read the files yourself rather than trusting my framing:
- Claims / paper draft: <path>
- Methods / code under review: <path(s)>
- Raw results (verbatim files, not a summary): <path(s)>
- Changed since last round: <changed-file paths> — read the diff, not my description
Please act as a senior ML reviewer (NeurIPS/ICML level). Start from the
assumption that the work is broken somewhere — your job is to find where.
Be adversarial. Trust nothing the author tells you — verify everything
yourself.
1. Score this work 1-10 for a top venue
2. List remaining critical weaknesses (ranked by severity)
3. For each weakness, specify the MINIMUM fix (experiment, analysis, or reframing)
4. State clearly: is this READY for submission? Yes/No/Almost
Be brutally honest. If, after genuinely trying to break it, the work holds
up and is ready, say so clearly.
=== SCOPE LIMITS (these bound what you PROPOSE, never what you look for) ===
Report anything that is actually wrong here — including a rare-looking case, if
this repo actually produces it. Then keep the fix in scope:
1. This is a RESEARCH-WORKFLOW tool, not a security paper. Verification is
welcome; over-defense is not. Assume a cooperating operator on their own
machine — a malicious local user is NOT in the threat model.
2. Do NOT propose SHA / hash / content-fingerprint / digest-binding schemes.
Reporting a real defect in hashing code that already exists is fine.
3. NO defensive scaffolding: no feature flags, migration frameworks, compat
layers, or wrappers added for cases that do not occur in practice.
4. NO corner-case obsession: exotic encodings, symlink races, RTL text and
millisecond races are out of scope unless you can show the case arises here.
5. Where a rubric or checklist is genuinely needed, do not over-mechanize
judgement. A clear sentence a human reads beats a scored table nobody
maintains.
Exception: code that runs remote commands, starts a network service, or installs
an MCP server runs on the user's machine with their credentials — trust-boundary
findings there are in scope and the default is strict.
Say plainly when something is correct. Do not manufacture findings.After this start call, immediately save the returned jobId and poll mcp__claude-review__review_status with a bounded waitSeconds until done=true. Treat the completed status payload's response as the reviewer output, and save the completed threadId for any follow-up round.
If this is round 2+, use mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start with the saved completed threadId, then poll mcp__claude-review__review_status with the returned jobId until done=true to maintain continuity.
Use the same mcp__claude-review__review_start / mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start route as medium, but prepend the full review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md contents under ## Your Reviewer Memory (persistent across rounds) and require a Memory update section in the reviewer response.
Use everything in hard mode, then ask an additional fresh adversarial reviewer to verify claims against repository files, logs, result files, and paper drafts instead of trusting executor summaries. Preserve the fresh review as a separate raw response and trace. That reviewer is fresh, so it does not inherit the scope limits from the medium/hard prompt — repeat the block from review-scope-limits.md in its prompt. This is the mode with the widest repository access and the one most likely to propose defensive scaffolding.
CRITICAL: Save the FULL raw response from the external reviewer verbatim (store in a variable for Phase E). Do NOT discard or summarize — the raw text is the primary record.
Then extract structured fields:
After parsing the assessment, update review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md. Copilot backend depends on this file for round-to-round continuity (every round is a fresh process), so the update runs regardless of REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY:
Pass this file back to the reviewer in the next round so it can track its own suspicions.
# Reviewer Memory
## Round 1 — Score: X/10
- **Suspicion**: [what the reviewer flagged]
- **Unresolved**: [concerns not yet addressed]
- **Patterns**: [recurring issues the reviewer noticed]
## Round 2 — Score: X/10
- **Previous suspicions addressed?**: [yes/no for each, with reviewer judgment]
- **New suspicions**: [...]
- **Unresolved**: [carried forward + new]Rules:
Memory update section, copy it verbatim..response.md files in .aris/traces/ first and
find the exact criterion that flipped (see shared-references/review-tracing.md
§ Debugging With Traces). The memory file is a summary; the trace is evidence.STOP CONDITION: If score >= 6 AND verdict ∈ {"ready", "almost"} (exact match — "not ready" does NOT qualify), decide to stop and continue through Phase E. Do not write a receipt here; Phase E is the single append site.
This evaluation runs AFTER Phase B.5 so the terminal-round memory is always appended to REVIEWER_MEMORY.md before exit.
Skip entirely if REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY = medium.
After parsing the review, Codex writes a structured rebuttal for up to three high-impact weaknesses:
### Rebuttal to Weakness #1: [title]
- **Accept / Partially Accept / Reject**
- **Argument**: [why this criticism is valid, invalid, already addressed, or out of scope]
- **Evidence**: [specific code, result file, log, prior-round fix, or paper section]Send the rebuttal to the same reviewer via mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start:
mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start:
threadId: [saved reviewer id]
prompt: |
Please rule on the author's rebuttal below.
For each contested weakness, decide: accepted / partially accepted / rejected.
If rejected, state the minimum evidence or change required.
[paste rebuttal + evidence]After this start call, immediately save the returned jobId and poll mcp__claude-review__review_status with a bounded waitSeconds until done=true. Treat the completed status payload's response as the reviewer output, and save the completed threadId for any follow-up round.
Record a ### Debate Transcript (hard + nightmare only) section in review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md. Only mark a weakness resolved if the reviewer accepts the rebuttal.
In the round log, preserve the rebuttal, reviewer ruling, accepted objections, rejected objections, and any required follow-up evidence.
Skip this step entirely if HUMAN_CHECKPOINT = false.
When HUMAN_CHECKPOINT = true, present the review results and wait for user input:
📋 Round N/MAX_ROUNDS review complete.
Score: X/10 — [verdict]
Top weaknesses:
1. [weakness 1]
2. [weakness 2]
3. [weakness 3]
Suggested fixes:
1. [fix 1]
2. [fix 2]
3. [fix 3]
Options:
- Reply "go" or "continue" → implement all suggested fixes
- Reply with custom instructions → implement your modifications instead
- Reply "skip 2" → skip fix #2, implement the rest
- Reply "stop" → end the loop, document current stateWait for the user's response. Parse their input:
After parsing the score, check if ~/.codex/feishu.json exists and mode is not "off":
review_scored notification: "Round N: X/10 — [verdict]" with top 3 weaknessesFor each action item (highest priority first):
Prioritization rules:
If experiments were launched:
/training-check to verify training was healthy (no NaN, no divergence, no plateau). If W&B is not available, skip silently.Append to review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md:
## Round N (timestamp)
### Assessment (Summary)
- Score: X/10
- Verdict: [ready/almost/not ready]
- Key criticisms: [bullet list]
### Reviewer Raw Response
<details>
<summary>Click to expand full reviewer response</summary>
[Paste the COMPLETE raw response from the external reviewer here — verbatim, unedited.
This is the authoritative record. Do NOT truncate or paraphrase.]
</details>
### Actions Taken
- [what was implemented/changed]
### Results
- [experiment outcomes, if any]
### Status
- [continuing to round N+1 / stopping]Write review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json with current run_id, round, completed threadId, score, verdict, and any pending experiments. The run_id field MUST persist unchanged from initialization; do NOT regenerate it per round.
If score >= 6 AND verdict ∈ {"ready", "almost"}: append an acquittal line to review-stage/ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl:
{"run_id":"<current-run_id>","round":<N>,"backend":"claude-review","effort":"high-rigor","verdict":"<ready|almost>","score":<score>,"trace_id":"<skill>/<YYYY-MM-DD>_run<NN>","timestamp":"<ISO8601>"}Use >> (append), never >. The trace_id must be the actual trace directory relative to .aris/traces/ (for example auto-review-loop/2026-07-13_run01), not a fabricated trace_... identifier.
Append to findings.md (when COMPACT = true): one-line entry per key finding this round.
- [Round N] [positive/negative/unexpected]: [one-sentence finding] (metric: X.XX → Y.YY)Increment round counter → back to Phase A.
After every mcp__claude-review__review_start, mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start, oracle-pro, or nightmare adversarial verification call, save a trace following ../shared-references/review-tracing.md. Include prompt summary, reviewer route, saved threadId, raw response path, score/verdict, accepted fixes, rejected rebuttals, and the Reviewer Memory update if present.
When loop ends (positive assessment or max rounds):
review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json with "status": "completed"review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.mdreview-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md under a ## Method Description section — a concise 1-2 paragraph summary of the final method, architecture, and data flow. This serves as direct input for /paper-illustration./result-to-claim to convert experiment results from review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md into structured paper claims. Output: CLAIMS_FROM_RESULTS.md. If /result-to-claim is not installed, skip this step (no CLAIMS_FROM_RESULTS.md is produced; /paper-plan extracts claims from the narrative as before) — but NEVER fabricate the file or its verdict. If it ran but its output starts with verdict: REVIEW_UNAVAILABLE, keep that file AS-IS (do not overwrite or paraphrase it) and record in AUTO_REVIEW.md that claims are UNADJUDICATED — downstream paper stages must not treat them as validated.pipeline_done with final score progression tableRENDER_HTML = true, default): invoke /render-html on the cumulative review log:
/render-html "review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md" --no-review --state review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json--state explicitly when REVIEW_STATE.json exists (the helper does not auto-discover the sidecar). HTML lands at review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.html with embedded source SHA256. Non-blocking: if /render-html fails, log the error and continue — the HTML is a convenience, not a termination prerequisite.Follow these shared protocols for all output files:
- Output Versioning Protocol — write timestamped file first, then copy to fixed name
- Output Manifest Protocol — log every output to MANIFEST.md
- Output Language Protocol — respect the project's language setting
Large file handling: If the Write tool fails due to file size, immediately retry using Bash (cat << 'EOF' > file) to write in chunks. Do NOT ask the user for permission — just do it silently.
Always ask the Claude reviewer for strict, high-rigor feedback.
Save the completed threadId from the first mcp__claude-review__review_status result, then use mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start plus mcp__claude-review__review_status for subsequent rounds
Be honest — include negative results and failed experiments
Do NOT hide weaknesses to game a positive score
Implement fixes BEFORE re-reviewing (don't just promise to fix)
If an experiment takes > 30 minutes, launch it and continue with other fixes while waiting
Document EVERYTHING — the review log should be self-contained
Update project notes after each round, not just at the end
mcp__claude-review__review_reply_start:
threadId: [saved from round 1]
# inherits the agent's model/effort — do not re-send
prompt: |
[Round N update]
Since your last review these files changed — read them yourself; do not
take my word for what changed or whether it worked:
- Changed files: <paths>
- Raw diff: <path, or the `git diff` range>
- Updated raw results: <result-file paths> (verbatim files, not a pasted table)
Please re-score and re-assess. Are the remaining concerns addressed?
Same format: Score, Verdict, Remaining Weaknesses, Minimum Fixes.
=== SCOPE LIMITS (these bound what you PROPOSE, never what you look for) ===
Report anything that is actually wrong here — including a rare-looking case, if
this repo actually produces it. Then keep the fix in scope:
1. This is a RESEARCH-WORKFLOW tool, not a security paper. Verification is
welcome; over-defense is not. Assume a cooperating operator on their own
machine — a malicious local user is NOT in the threat model.
2. Do NOT propose SHA / hash / content-fingerprint / digest-binding schemes.
Reporting a real defect in hashing code that already exists is fine.
3. NO defensive scaffolding: no feature flags, migration frameworks, compat
layers, or wrappers added for cases that do not occur in practice.
4. NO corner-case obsession: exotic encodings, symlink races, RTL text and
millisecond races are out of scope unless you can show the case arises here.
5. Where a rubric or checklist is genuinely needed, do not over-mechanize
judgement. A clear sentence a human reads beats a scored table nobody
maintains.
Exception: code that runs remote commands, starts a network service, or installs
an MCP server runs on the user's machine with their credentials — trust-boundary
findings there are in scope and the default is strict.
Say plainly when something is correct. Do not manufacture findings.After this start call, immediately save the returned jobId and poll mcp__claude-review__review_status with a bounded waitSeconds until done=true. Treat the completed status payload's response as the reviewer output, and save the completed threadId for any follow-up round.
The following test cases validate the run_id + append-only acquittal receipt mechanism.
Setup: Delete review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json and review-stage/ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl. Run review.
Action: Codex round 1 returns score=7, verdict="ready".
Expected: Phase E writes acquittal line to ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl with current run_id. Loop stops.
Setup: Run 1 (run_id=run_20260713_aaaaaaaa) completes with status: "completed" and writes acquittal: {"run_id":"run_20260713_aaaaaaaa","backend":"claude-review","verdict":"ready","score":7} to ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl. Then a fresh-start invocation generates run_id=run_20260713_bbbbbbbb.
Action: Run 2 round 1 returns score=5, verdict="not ready". Continue to round 2, score=8, verdict="ready".
Expected: Run 2's acquittal line has run_id=run_20260713_bbbbbbbb. The old acquittal with run_id=run_20260713_aaaaaaaa is an audit artifact only. The stop gate for run 2 uses the current-run acquittal.
Setup: Create a REVIEW_STATE.json with status: "in_progress", a fresh timestamp, but NO run_id field. Resume.
Expected: Initialization detects missing run_id and generates one. Log: "No run_id in legacy state file; assigned run_<...> for this resume."
Setup: Run 1 reaches a positive verdict, appends one receipt, and stops. Start Run 2 with a new run_id; it also reaches a positive verdict and appends one receipt.
Action: After the loop, inspect ACQUITTAL_LOG.jsonl.
Expected: File contains exactly 2 lines with different run IDs. Run 1's line remains unchanged after Run 2 appends; a stopped loop cannot continue to a later positive round.
f4f20f9
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