YAML file profiles

Use a repository-owned YAML profile when the user wants a CLI or Action review to route different lenses to different parts of a change. The profile must be selected explicitly.

For the CLI:

$ tessl code review --profile ./.tessl-code-review.yml

For the Action:

with:
  tessl-token: ${{ secrets.TESSL_TOKEN }}
  profile: ./.tessl-code-review.yml
  mode: advisory

Tessl does not discover profile files or make one the default. The file path must end in .yml or .yaml.

Schema

The file must be a block-style YAML mapping. JSON, JSON-shaped flow YAML, unknown fields, and multiple YAML documents are rejected.

schemaVersion: 1
effort: low
ignore:
  - '**/*.generated.ts'
  - vendor/**
lenses:
  - ref: ./review-lenses/backend/SKILL.md
    globs:
      - apps/backend/**
  - ref: tessl/code-review@0.1.0#review-security-and-privacy
    effort: high
    globs:
      - infra/**
  - ref: ./review-lenses/general/SKILL.md

schemaVersion is required and must be 1. lenses is an ordered, non-empty list. Every lens needs a ref, which can be a registry reference or an explicit local path. Local refs are relative to the profile, must use path syntax such as ./review-lenses/backend/SKILL.md, and must resolve inside the repository. Duplicate refs and aliases that resolve to the same local lens are rejected.

globs is optional. A lens without it applies to the whole change. When present, it must be a non-empty list with at least one positive pattern. Each profile may declare up to 100 lenses, each lens may declare up to 32 globs, and the profile may be up to 1 MB.

ignore is optional and bounds which paths any lens reviews, so generated code, lockfiles, snapshots, and vendored directories are named once instead of negated inside every lens. Each pattern is positive and excludes what it matches, so a leading ! is rejected, as is a bare ** that would leave every lens with nothing to review. It applies to every lens, including one that declares no globs, a lens's own globs still narrow it further, and ignore overrides anything a lens selected. At most 64 patterns are allowed. Because a file is selected when either rename endpoint matches, a file renamed into an ignored path is still reviewed and that path appears in the rename patch, and ignore bounds which paths a lens reviews rather than keeping their contents out of a model's context.

effort is optional and sets how hard a lens thinks: low, medium, or high. The profile may set it for every lens, and any lens may set its own to think harder or less hard than the rest. A lens without one uses the profile's effort; with neither, the model applies its own default. The --effort flag applies to every lens and takes precedence over both. Higher settings take longer.

Routing behavior

Globs are case-sensitive, repository-relative POSIX patterns and include dotfiles. Absolute paths, ./, .., backslashes, and drive letters are not valid patterns. Patterns are evaluated in order:

• A matching positive pattern includes a path.
• A matching pattern prefixed with ! excludes it.
• A later positive pattern can include it again.

A renamed file selects a lens when either its old or new path matches. Each lens receives only its selected files in its prompt and diff tools. It cannot inspect files routed only to another lens through those tools.

Only lenses with matching work count toward the limit of eight lenses. If no lens matches, the command exits successfully with a skipped result and reason: no-matching-lenses. No model runs and no approval is implied.

Passing --skill replaces the profile's complete lens list, including its glob routing and its ignore patterns. It does not add to the file profile.

Treat the profile and its local lenses as executable review policy. Review their changes with the same care as source code.