name: code-review-guidelines description: Use when reviewing code changes or pull requests. Provides the foundational rules, principles, and checklists for all code review agents. user-invocable: false

Code Review Guidelines

Reference knowledge for code review agents. Load this skill to understand review scope, filtering rules, and quality standards.

The Changed Lines Rule

This rule is non-negotiable for all review agents.

Review scope is LIMITED to lines that were ADDED or MODIFIED in the diff:

• + lines (additions) - reviewable
• Modified lines - reviewable
• Unchanged lines - NOT reviewable (context only)
• Pre-existing issues - NOT reviewable

Silent filtering: Skip pre-existing issues without mention. Do not say "I found X but it's pre-existing." Simply omit them entirely.

Verification: Before reporting any issue, confirm the line appears in the diff as an addition or modification.

Review Principles

1. Signal over noise - Report issues that matter, skip nitpicks
2. Actionable feedback - Every issue includes a concrete fix
3. Evidence-based - Cite file paths and line numbers
4. Context-aware - Check project guidelines (CLAUDE.md, README.md) first
5. Pragmatic - Consider cost/benefit of each finding

Output Standards

All review agents use consistent output:

Type labels:

• Bug - Logic errors, crashes, data issues
• Security - Vulnerabilities, auth issues
• Quality - Maintainability, patterns
• Test - Missing coverage
• Contract - API/type design issues
• Context - Historical patterns

Reference Checklists

Detailed checklists are available in references/:

• code-quality-checklist.md - Clean code, SOLID, naming, architecture
• security-checklist.md - OWASP-aligned security checks
• contracts-checklist.md - API and type design checks
• test-coverage-checklist.md - Test quality and coverage checks

Load specific checklists only when needed for that review type.

Severity Classification

Confidence Thresholds

Issues must meet minimum confidence for their impact level: