pr-review

SkillDev tools

Pr Review is a pack that lets your AI look over pull request changes before they are merged into the main codebase. Once added, your AI can give feedback on the changes, point out issues, and suggest improvements so problems are caught before merging.

Use pr-review in Claude, ChatGPT or Ahel Desktop

Free. Sign in, add pr-review and connect your AI. About a minute.

Also: Claude Code · Cursor · Codex

Then ask your AI: use the pr-review skill

Details

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

After adding it, ask your AI to review a pull request's changes before you merge it into your main codebase.

pr-reviewStart free

What your AI can do with it

  • Review pull request changes
  • Give feedback on proposed changes
  • Check for issues before merging
  • Suggest improvements to the changes

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by aeonfun/aeon in skills/pr-review/SKILL.md and read by Ahel’s review.

${var} — Selects the branch and scopes it.

  • Default (no --survey) → per-PR deep review. ${var} empty reviews every repo in memory/watched-repos.md; ${var}=owner/repo scopes to one repo; ${var}=owner/repo#N scopes to that exact PR.
  • --survey (alias survey) → risk-tiered triage digest (the former pr-merge). In this branch the remaining tokens follow pr-merge's grammar: pass dry-run to skip notify (article + state still write), pass owner/repo to override the target repo, combine with a space (--survey dry-run owner/repo). Empty target = aeonfun/aeon.

Examples: `` (review every watched repo) · owner/repo (review one repo) · owner/repo#42 (review exactly PR 42) · --survey (triage digest of aeonfun/aeon) · --survey dry-run (refresh digest, no notify) · --survey owner/repo (triage a specific repo).

Shared preamble (every run)

Read memory/MEMORY.md for high-level context. Scan the last ~3 days of memory/logs/ for recent activity and to avoid re-reporting the same signal.

Parse ${var} → branch: split ${var} on whitespace.

  • If a --survey or survey token is present → SURVEY branch (jump to "Survey branch"). Remove that token; the remaining tokens are parsed by the survey branch (dry-run, owner/repo override, unknown → BAD_VAR).
  • Otherwise → REVIEW branch (default; continue below). The remaining ${var} is an optional owner/repo or owner/repo#N scope (empty = every watched repo).

The two branches never share mutation logic: the REVIEW branch posts PR comments/reviews via gh; the SURVEY branch writes the digest article + state file and (gated) notifies — neither performs an actual gh pr merge. Dispatch to exactly one branch per run.


REVIEW branch (default) — per-PR deep review

Read memory/MEMORY.md and memory/watched-repos.md. Read the last 2 days of memory/logs/ for context on recent reviews. Whether a commit was already reviewed is decided by GitHub, not the logs (see the skip rules): a run can post its review and then lose its log entry.

If ${var} names owner/repo#N, fetch and review only that exact open PR; do not list or comment on any other PR. If ${var} names owner/repo, review that repo's open PRs. Otherwise review every repo listed in memory/watched-repos.md.

If memory/watched-repos.md is empty or missing (and no owner/repo was passed), log PR_REVIEW_NO_REPOS and end.

What this branch optimizes for

Noise is the documented failure mode of automated PR review. Every finding emitted must be severity-tagged, line-specific, and justified with a one-sentence "why it matters". If there is nothing worth saying, say so in one line and move on.

For each repo

gh pr list -R owner/repo --state open --limit 20 \
  --json number,title,author,isDraft,labels,headRefOid,updatedAt

Skip rules

Skip a PR if any of the following hold (record the skip reason for the run summary):

  • isDraft: true
  • title matches ^(WIP|\[WIP\]|Draft:) (case-insensitive)
  • has label no-review, do-not-merge, wip, or blocked
  • author login contains [bot] (dependabot, renovate, etc.) or equals aeonframework
  • this account already posted a receipt-bearing review on this PR at its current headRefOid. Ask GitHub:
    ./scripts/dev-loop-review.sh reviewed owner/repo#NUMBER <headRefOid>
    
    exit 0 → skip as dup-SHA; exit 2 (the reviews could not be read) → skip as review-check-unavailable and let the next run decide; exit 1 → not yet reviewed at this commit. It counts exactly what the dev-loop gate counts, so a second review can never make the gate see two receipts. It works on either token: with GH_GLOBAL it counts that account's reviews, and on the GITHUB_TOKEN fallback (which cannot read /user) it counts github-actions[bot], the login that token reviews as.
  • a bot reviewer (coderabbitai, copilot-pull-request-reviewer, claude) posted a review in the last 30 min — skip to avoid piling on. Check via:
    gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls/NUMBER/reviews --jq '.[] | {user: .user.login, submitted_at}'
    

For each remaining PR

  1. Fetch context:

    gh pr view NUMBER -R owner/repo \
      --json title,body,headRefOid,baseRefName,files,additions,deletions
    

    If the body contains Fixes #N or Closes #N, fetch the linked issue for context:

    gh issue view N -R owner/repo --json title,body,labels
    
  2. Fetch the diff:

    gh pr diff NUMBER -R owner/repo
    
    • If additions + deletions > 3000, review only the top-5 largest-delta files from the files array (not the full diff).
    • If gh pr diff fails, fall back to per-file patches:
      gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls/NUMBER/files --jq '.[] | {path, patch}'
      
    • If the diff comes back empty (e.g. mid-rebase), skip the PR with reason empty-diff.
  3. Early-exit for trivial PRs: if the diff is docs-only (.md/.rst/docs/**), lockfile-only, or test-only, skip deep review and post the 1-line ack form in step 6.

  4. Review with severity tagging. Every finding must carry exactly one tag:

    • [CRITICAL] — correctness break, security hole, data loss, API break, regression
    • [ISSUE] — likely bug, missing edge case, wrong behavior under a realistic input
    • [NIT] — naming, style, minor cleanup (dropped by default)

    Rules:

    • Cap at 5 findings total per PR. Drop NITs first, then the lowest-impact ISSUEs.
    • Drop all NITs unless there are zero CRITICAL/ISSUE findings and a NIT is genuinely useful.
    • Every finding must name path/to/file:LINE and include a one-sentence "why it matters" — the consequence, not just "this is wrong".
    • No praise, no diff restating, no "this PR adds X" summaries.
  5. Determine a verdict:

    • approve-ready — no CRITICAL, no ISSUE
    • blocked: <one-phrase reason> — at least one CRITICAL
    • discussion-needed — ISSUE findings but no CRITICAL
  6. Post the review. Send both a consolidated summary comment and inline line-specific comments — inline for precision, summary for consumers that parse review bodies.

    For each line-specific finding:

    gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls/NUMBER/comments \
      -f body="[SEVERITY] finding text — why it matters" \
      -f path="path/to/file" \
      -f commit_id="$HEAD_SHA" \
      -F line=LINE_NUMBER \
      -f side="RIGHT"
    

    Then the consolidated summary as a review — include the verdict and a bulleted recap of every inline finding (severity + file:line + one-sentence rationale), so downstream body-parsers don't miss them:

    gh pr review NUMBER -R owner/repo --comment --body "**Verdict**: <verdict>
    

<one-line rationale if blocked or discussion-needed; omit if approve-ready>

Findings (mirrored as inline comments):

  • [CRITICAL] path/to/file:LINE — why it matters
  • [ISSUE] path/to/file:LINE — why it matters

If there are no CRITICAL/ISSUE findings, skip inline comments and post the
approve-ready line followed by its receipt:
```text
**Verdict**: approve-ready — no blockers.
<!-- aeon-review:{"schema":1,"target":"owner/repo#N","sha":"<full-headRefOid>","verdict":"approve-ready","critical":0,"issues":0} -->

Use exactly one receipt in every completed review, including trivial-PR early-exits. The target and full headRefOid must match the PR fetched in step 1, and the counts must equal the [CRITICAL] and [ISSUE] bullets in the consolidated body. This is routing input for a later chain step. Do not emit it only when the PR itself was skipped (draft, bot, or duplicate SHA), and keep the human-readable blocked reason outside the receipt.

For trivial-PR early-exits (step 3), post the category line — Docs-only change — no blockers. / Dependency-bump — no review needed. / Test-only change — no production code touched. — followed by the same approve-ready receipt from above. A trivial PR is reviewed, not skipped; omitting its receipt makes the dev-loop fail closed because it cannot distinguish an approval from an incomplete review.

Fallback: if inline-comment creation fails (missing permissions, commit_id mismatch), consolidate all findings into the review body, preserving the severity tags and file:line refs. Do not silently drop findings.

Notify and log (REVIEW branch)

The captured final output must include the same **Verdict** line and exact <!-- aeon-review:{...} --> receipt posted to GitHub for every reviewed PR. Do not replace them with a generic "review posted" summary. The chain consumes the receipt, and the notification gate uses the verdict line as its signal.

Send one combined message per run via ./notify:

*PR Review — ${today}*
Reviewed N, skipped K (drafts: x, bots: y, dup-SHA: z, bot-reviewed-recently: w).
- owner/repo#123: [verdict] — N critical, M issues

Telegram summary. When the run was scoped to a single repo (${var}=owner/repo), send a Telegram summary of the review with ./notify -f review.md so the operator sees the verdict at a glance. Skip it on an all-repos run.

If every PR was skipped, do not notify — just log.

Log to memory/logs/${today}.md under the shared ### pr-review heading with a mode discriminator:

### pr-review
- **Mode**: review (per-PR deep review)
- owner/repo#123 (SHA abc1234): [verdict] — N critical, M issues
- Skipped: owner/repo#124 (draft), owner/repo#125 (bot-reviewed-recently)

If no open PRs across all repos, log PR_REVIEW_OK and end.


SURVEY branch (--survey) — risk-tiered triage digest

(This is the former pr-merge skill, folded in verbatim. It surveys the queue and buckets by blast radius; it does not merge anything — auto-merge owns the actual-merge action behind its own author-allowlist + size-cap + branch-protection policy. This branch is the decision-support layer that lives before auto-merge, sized for the much larger pool of PRs auto-merge's safety policy intentionally skips.)

Today is ${today}. The open-PR queue on aeonfun/aeon has crossed the threshold where a human reviewer working alone falls behind: yesterday (June 1) eighteen PRs were merged in a single 37-minute Monday catch-up window, but on every prior weekend day they stacked up untouched. As community skill packs become the primary contribution model and external contributors keep landing skill PRs every other day, the queue's steady-state size will keep climbing — skill-scan evaluates one inbound skill PR at a time, but no skill answers the operator's actual morning question: "of the N open PRs right now, which N1 can I merge in one click and which N2 need real review?"

This branch is that answer. It surveys every open PR on a target repo, categorises each by the files it touches, runs scripts/skill-scan.sh against every changed SKILL.md (the same scanner install-skill runs before installing a skill), and emits one structured Telegram digest with four risk buckets sorted by PR age. The operator can fire-and-forget the FAST_TRACK bucket, glance at SKILL_PASS, and budget real attention for INFRA_REVIEW + SKILL_WARN_OR_BLOCK + CORE_REVIEW.

Read memory/MEMORY.md for context. Read the last 8 days of memory/logs/ for prior-run context (skip if dispatched). Read soul/SOUL.md + soul/STYLE.md if populated to match voice in the notification.

Why a separate branch from pr-triage / install-skill / auto-merge

SkillScopeAction
pr-triagePer external PR, first-touchWelcomes + labels + leaves a verdict comment
install-skillOne skill being installed from another repoRuns scripts/skill-scan.sh first; a HIGH finding blocks the install
auto-mergeAll bot-authored PRs that pass a strict safety policyMerges if CLEAN
pr-review --surveyAll open PRs across the watched-repos queueOne operator-facing digest sorted by risk + age — no per-PR comment, no merge action

The four compose. pr-triage runs once per PR open; install-skill scans each skill before it lands; auto-merge runs against the bot subset; this survey branch is the morning brief over everything else — the open backlog the operator still has to think about. Building a fifth verdict layer into any of the existing three would either bloat their per-PR cost or skip the operator-overview question entirely.

Inputs

SourcePurposeAuth
gh api repos/{repo}/pulls?state=open&per_page=100 --paginateOpen PR list with author, draft state, base ref, age, mergeable state, head SHA, statusCheckRollup summary, labelsGH_TOKEN
gh api repos/{repo}/pulls/{N}/files?per_page=100 --paginatePer-PR list of changed file paths + status (added/modified/removed) — the only signal we trust for bucketingGH_TOKEN
gh api repos/{repo}/contents/{path}?ref={head_sha}Each changed SKILL.md body — fed to scan.sh for PASS/WARN/BLOCK verdictGH_TOKEN
scripts/skill-scan.sh (local)Scanner reused verbatim (no fork, no shadow copy) — same source install-skill runsLocal script
memory/watched-repos.md (local)Read only the ## Trusted Authors section — those authors' PRs surface in a separate TRUSTED_AUTHOR row that bypasses the FAST_TRACK / CORE_REVIEW bucketsLocal file

No new secrets. GitHub access via gh CLI (GH_TOKEN) per CLAUDE.md.

Writes:

  • output/articles/pr-merge-${today}.md — full digest with one row per open PR, sortable by bucket + age (every non-error run, including QUIET)
  • memory/topics/pr-merge-state.json — prior-run snapshot (per-PR bucket + first_seen date + last_head_sha, used to suppress re-notification on the same head SHA)
  • memory/logs/${today}.md — one log block per run
  • Notification via ./notify — only when ≥1 new PR appeared in a non-FAST_TRACK bucket since the last run, or a SKILL_BLOCK / CORE_REVIEW PR is present and operator has not been notified about it on this head SHA yet, or it's the first (baseline) run (see step 8)

Steps

0. Bootstrap

mkdir -p memory/topics output/articles
[ -f memory/topics/pr-merge-state.json ] || cat > memory/topics/pr-merge-state.json <<'EOF'
{"last_run":null,"last_status":null,"last_repo":null,"prs":{}}
EOF

If jq empty fails on the state file (corrupt JSON from an aborted write), back it up to .bak, reset to the empty template, and tag the run STATE_CORRUPT. Continue — a fresh state file means re-notifying every currently-open PR as "new" on this one run, which is the safer post-corruption outcome than silently skipping a SKILL_BLOCK PR the operator hadn't seen yet.

prs is a map keyed by <owner>/<repo>#<number>: {bucket, scan_verdict, head_sha, first_seen, last_notified_head_sha, age_days, author, draft}. Cap to 200 most-recent entries (LRU by first_seen) so a long-lived state file can't grow unbounded.

1. Parse var (survey grammar)

The --survey/survey token has already been consumed by the shared preamble. Parse the remaining tokens:

  • Tokens: dry-run, anything matching ^[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+/[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+$ (treated as REPO_OVERRIDE), anything else.
  • If any unknown token is present → log PR_MERGE_QUEUE_BAD_VAR: ${var} and exit (no writes, no notify).
  • DRY_RUN=yes if the dry-run token is present, else no (execute).
  • TARGET_REPO=${REPO_OVERRIDE:-aeonfun/aeon}.

2. Pull the open-PR list

gh api "repos/${TARGET_REPO}/pulls?state=open&per_page=100" --paginate \
  --jq '[.[] | {number, title, user_login: .user.login, draft, base_ref: .base.ref, head_sha: .head.sha, created_at, updated_at, mergeable_state, labels: [.labels[].name]}]' \
  > /tmp/pr-merge-prs.json

If gh api fails (non-zero exit) → log PR_MERGE_QUEUE_API_FAIL: pulls list, write a one-line notification (pr-review --survey: GitHub API failed listing open PRs for ${TARGET_REPO}), exit API_FAIL. The pulls endpoint is the floor — if it can't be read, every downstream step is meaningless.

Empty list → write the article + state with all buckets at zero, log PR_MERGE_QUEUE_EMPTY, skip notify (an empty queue is not news), exit EMPTY.

Bot/trusted-author short-circuit: build TRUSTED_LOGINS from the ## Trusted Authors section of memory/watched-repos.md (one login per - bullet). Always include the bot logins dependabot[bot], renovate[bot], github-actions[bot], plus aeonframework and aeonfun. PRs whose user_login is in this set get categorised TRUSTED_AUTHOR and bypass the file-bucket logic in step 4 (auto-merge handles them; surfacing them in the operator's risk view would only add noise).

3. Per-PR files fetch

For each PR (skip drafts and skip TRUSTED_AUTHOR PRs in this step — drafts are signals the contributor isn't done; trusted-author PRs route through auto-merge):

gh api "repos/${TARGET_REPO}/pulls/${PR_NUMBER}/files?per_page=100" --paginate \
  --jq '[.[] | {filename, status}]' \
  > "/tmp/pr-merge-files-${PR_NUMBER}.json"

If the files endpoint fails for a single PR → tag the PR bucket=UNKNOWN, scan_verdict=files_api_fail, skip its scan but keep it in the digest as an UNKNOWN row at the bottom (silently dropping a PR from a triage digest is the failure mode this skill exists to prevent). Continue to the next PR.

4. Bucket by touched files

Apply this rubric in order (first match wins). The rubric is conservative — when in doubt, escalate, never the other way.

BucketMatch conditionRationale
CORE_REVIEWAny changed path matches bin/install-skill-pack, scripts/lib/skill-install.sh, bin/add-skill, bin/add-mcp, aeon, scripts/notify.sh, scripts/notify-jsonrender.sh, aeon.yml, bin/generate-skills-json, scripts/check-capabilities-parity.sh, .github/workflows/aeon.yml, .github/workflows/chain-runner.yml, chain-runner.yml, CLAUDE.mdThe runtime executor + the things every skill depends on. A bug here ships to every fork.
INFRA_REVIEWAny changed path matches .github/workflows/*.yml (excluding aeon.yml already in CORE_REVIEW), .github/actions/*, Dockerfile*, package.json at repo root, package-lock.json at repo root, apps/dashboard/package.json, mcp-server/package.jsonBuild + CI + dependency surface. Not the executor itself but adjacent enough that the operator should look.
SKILL_WARN_OR_BLOCKTouches any skills/*/SKILL.md AND scripts/skill-scan.sh returned WARN or BLOCK on at least one of them (step 5)A skill PR with a HIGH (BLOCK) or MEDIUM (WARN) security finding — surface explicitly.
SKILL_PASSTouches any skills/*/SKILL.md AND every scanned SKILL.md returned PASSA clean skill PR. The category most likely to be safely merged once a human has read the description.
FAST_TRACKAll changed paths match *.md, *.txt, LICENSE*, docs/**, README*, _data/**, _layouts/**, _posts/**, _config.yml, output/.chains/**Docs/asset/data-only PR. No code path. Operator can merge on the title + a glance.
UNKNOWNFiles endpoint failed, OR no rule matched (shouldn't happen — UNKNOWN is the catch-all so a future contributor's PR with a brand-new path doesn't silently vanish from the digest)Surface and ask the operator to look. Never silently bucket as FAST_TRACK.

Note: CORE_REVIEW takes precedence over INFRA_REVIEW takes precedence over SKILL_*. A PR that touches both aeon.yml AND a skills/*/SKILL.md is CORE_REVIEW, not SKILL_PASS — the executor-config change is the higher-blast-radius signal and the digest should reflect that. The "first match wins" ordering in the rubric encodes this.

5. Per-skill security scan (only for PRs that touched at least one skills/*/SKILL.md)

For each SKILL.md path changed in such a PR:

gh api "repos/${TARGET_REPO}/contents/${PATH}?ref=${HEAD_SHA}" \
  --jq '.content' | base64 -d > "/tmp/pr-merge-scan-${PR_NUMBER}-$(echo ${PATH} | tr '/' '_').md"
bash scripts/skill-scan.sh "/tmp/pr-merge-scan-${PR_NUMBER}-$(echo ${PATH} | tr '/' '_').md" > "/tmp/pr-merge-scan-${PR_NUMBER}.out" 2>&1

The scan output's first HIGH/MEDIUM/PASS verdict line is taken as the per-file verdict. PR-level verdict is the worst across all scanned files: any HIGH → BLOCK; otherwise any MEDIUM → WARN; otherwise PASS.

If scan.sh itself errors (missing, non-executable, non-zero exit without a verdict line) → tag the PR scan_verdict=scan_error, bucket UNKNOWN, do not infer PASS from silence. The scanner is the same path install-skill relies on; a broken scanner is a fleet-wide problem the operator must know about.

A PR can touch skills/*/SKILL.md AND skills/*/scan.sh AND aeon.yml at the same time. The bucket precedence in step 4 routes it to CORE_REVIEW regardless of the scan verdict — but still run the scan and record the verdict in the state file. A CORE_REVIEW PR with a BLOCK scan verdict deserves a second escalation line in the notification.

6. Age, label, and metadata

For each PR:

  • age_days = floor((now - created_at) / 86400)
  • updated_age_days = floor((now - updated_at) / 86400) (used as a tie-breaker when sorting — a PR last updated 8 days ago beats one updated yesterday for review urgency)
  • has_changes_requested = mergeable_state == "blocked" AND any label in {changes-requested, needs-revision}
  • labels = the labels array from the PR list response

Within each bucket, sort by age_days DESC, then updated_age_days DESC, then number ASC. The oldest unreviewed PR in each bucket is the operator's highest-leverage merge click.

7. Write the article

Overwrite output/articles/pr-merge-${today}.md:

# PR Merge Queue — ${TARGET_REPO} — ${today}

*Open PRs surveyed: N · Drafts skipped: D · Trusted-author PRs (auto-merge handles): T*

## FAST_TRACK ({fast_track_count})

Docs / asset / data-only. Safe to merge on title + a glance.

| # | Title | Author | Age | Labels |
|---|-------|--------|-----|--------|
| ... |

## SKILL_PASS ({skill_pass_count})

Skill PR; security scan PASS on every changed `SKILL.md`.

| # | Title | Author | Age | Scan |
|---|-------|--------|-----|------|

## INFRA_REVIEW ({infra_review_count})

Build / CI / dependency-surface change. Requires operator eyes.

| # | Title | Author | Age | Files touched |
|---|-------|--------|-----|---------------|

## SKILL_WARN_OR_BLOCK ({skill_warn_count})

Skill PR with security scan WARN or BLOCK. **Do not merge without resolving the finding.**

| # | Title | Author | Age | Scan | Verdict |
|---|-------|--------|-----|------|---------|

## CORE_REVIEW ({core_review_count})

Touches the runtime executor or `aeon.yml`. **Highest blast radius — review carefully.**

| # | Title | Author | Age | Files touched | Scan (if any) |
|---|-------|--------|-----|---------------|---------------|

## UNKNOWN ({unknown_count})

Files endpoint failed OR matched no rule. Operator: glance and re-run.

| # | Title | Author | Age | Reason |
|---|-------|--------|-----|--------|

## TRUSTED_AUTHOR ({trusted_count})

Routed to `auto-merge`. Listed here for visibility only.

| # | Title | Author | Age |
|---|-------|--------|-----|

---
*Generated by `pr-review --survey`. Bucket precedence: CORE_REVIEW > INFRA_REVIEW > SKILL_WARN_OR_BLOCK > SKILL_PASS > FAST_TRACK > UNKNOWN. Run again with `--survey dry-run` to refresh without sending a notification.*

PR rows: | #N | [title] | @author | Nd | [labels-or-files-or-scan-cell] | — every column ≤80 chars, truncate with … if needed so the markdown table stays narrow enough to render in the dashboard.

Shortened here. Read the whole file on GitHub.

Signals

GitHub stars
760
Forks
270
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
pr-review
Source
github.com/aeonfun/aeon