CodeRabbit

AI-powered code review for pull requests and local changes.

Quick Navigation

Task	Reference
Install & run CLI	cli-usage.md
Configure .coderabbit.yaml	configuration.md
Supported tools (40+ linters)	tools.md
Git platform setup	platforms.md
PR commands (@coderabbitai)	pr-commands.md
Claude/Cursor/Codex workflow	agent-integration.md
Triage findings	triage.md
Fix single issue	fix.md
Reporting & metrics	end-to-end-workflow.md
End-to-end workflow	end-to-end-workflow.md
Windows/WSL setup	windows-wsl.md

Prerequisites Check (MUST RUN BEFORE REVIEW)

Before running CodeRabbit CLI, verify ALL of the following:

# 1. CLI installed?
which coderabbit || echo "MISSING: install with: curl -fsSL https://cli.coderabbit.ai/install.sh | sh"

# 2. Authenticated?
coderabbit auth status 2>&1 | grep -q "Logged in" || echo "MISSING: run coderabbit auth login"

# 3. Git repo has at least one commit? (CRITICAL — CLI crashes with GitError on empty repos)
git rev-parse HEAD >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "MISSING: repo has no commits — make at least one commit first"

# 4. Base branch exists? (CLI defaults to 'main')
git rev-parse main >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "WARNING: 'main' branch not found — use --base <branch>"

If any check fails, fix it before running the review. Do NOT proceed with a broken state.

Authentication failure rule: If authentication check fails (step 2), the agent MUST:

1. Stop immediately — do not attempt to run the review
2. Notify the user that CodeRabbit CLI is not authenticated
3. Show the user the exact command to authenticate: coderabbit auth login
4. Wait for the user to complete authentication before retrying
5. Do NOT attempt to run coderabbit auth login on behalf of the user — it requires interactive browser redirect

Quick Start

Run Review

# AI agent workflow (most common) — note: 'review' subcommand is optional
coderabbit review --prompt-only --type uncommitted --no-color

# If base branch is not 'main' (e.g., master, develop):
coderabbit review --prompt-only --type uncommitted --base master --no-color

# Plain text output (human-readable)
coderabbit review --plain --type uncommitted --no-color

Local Capture Script

Persist output to a file for later analysis:

# IMPORTANT: use absolute path to the skill's script directory
python3 ~/.claude/skills/coderabbit/scripts/run_coderabbit.py --output coderabbit-report.txt

Options:

• --output to choose a different file name (saved to .code-review/ in repo root)
• --timeout to adjust the timeout in seconds (default: 1800)
• --base to specify base branch (default: auto-detect from git)

PR Commands

@coderabbitai review          # Incremental review
@coderabbitai full review     # Complete review
@coderabbitai pause           # Stop auto-reviews
@coderabbitai resume          # Resume auto-reviews
@coderabbitai resolve         # Mark comments resolved

Severity Matrix

Severity	Action	Examples
CRITICAL	Fix immediately	Security, data loss, tenant isolation
HIGH	Should fix	Reliability, performance, architecture violations
MEDIUM	Judgment call	Maintainability, type safety (quick wins)
LOW	Skip	Style/formatting, subjective nits

AI Agent Workflow Pattern

Implement [feature] and then run CodeRabbit CLI in a background terminal.
Wait for it to complete, then read the report. Fix CRITICAL/HIGH issues. Ignore nits.

Step-by-step:

1. Run prerequisites check (see above) — fix any issues before proceeding
2. Detect base branch: git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null or fall back to main/master
3. Run CLI in background: coderabbit review --prompt-only --type uncommitted --base <branch> --no-color
4. Reviews take 7-30+ minutes — run in background (run_in_background=true)
5. Read output when process completes
6. Fix CRITICAL/HIGH findings, skip LOW
7. Limit to 2-3 review iterations maximum

Troubleshooting

[error] stopping cli with no details

Run with DEBUG=* to see the actual error:

DEBUG=* coderabbit review --prompt-only --type uncommitted 2>&1 | grep -E "(ERROR|error|GitError)"

Check the log file:

ls -t ~/.coderabbit/logs/ | head -1 | xargs -I{} cat ~/.coderabbit/logs/{}

Common errors

Error	Cause	Fix
GitError (no details)	No commits in repo	Make at least one commit
Failed to get commit SHA for branch main	Base branch doesn't exist	Use --base master or --base <your-branch>
Raw mode is not supported	Interactive mode in non-TTY	Always use --prompt-only or --plain
[error] stopping cli after auth	Token expired	Re-run coderabbit auth login
CLI hangs / no output	Large changeset	Use --type uncommitted to limit scope

Check auth status

coderabbit auth status

Linked Repositories (2026-02-18)

CodeRabbit can analyze linked repositories during PR review to catch cross-repo breakages (API/type/dependency drift).

• Configure linked repositories in Knowledge Base settings.
• As of 2026-03-11, Pro plans can link up to 2 repositories for Multi-Repo Analysis.
• Use this when changes in one repo affect contracts in another.
• Treat cross-repo findings as HIGH/CRITICAL when they indicate runtime incompatibility.

Dashboard and Reporting (2026-03-12)

• Dashboard metrics are now split between Git platform reviews and IDE/CLI reviews.
• Reporting surfaces now include Git-platform pages like Knowledge Base, Pre-merge Checks, and Reporting, plus IDE/CLI pages like Summary, Organization Trends, and Data Metrics.
• Team filters are available across dashboards; use them when review volume or findings need to be separated by team rather than repository alone.

Custom Finishing Touch Recipes (Early Access) (2026-02-23)

Define reusable, named "finishing touch" recipes that apply agentic code changes to your PR.

See configuration.md for a minimal example.

Minimal Configuration

# .coderabbit.yaml
language: en-US
reviews:
  profile: chill
  high_level_summary: true
  tools:
    gitleaks:
      enabled: true
    ruff:
      enabled: true

Critical Prohibitions

• Do not introduce fallbacks, mocks, or stubs in production code
• Do not broaden scope beyond what CodeRabbit flagged
• Do not "fix" style nits handled by formatters/linters
• Do not ignore CRITICAL findings; escalate if unclear
• Stop and resolve CLI errors (auth/network) before fixing code
• Do not run CLI on a repo with no commits — it will silently crash

Links

• Documentation
• Changelog
• GitHub
• Schema

Templates

• coderabbit.minimal.yaml — Minimal configuration
• coderabbit.full.yaml — Full example with all options
• agent-prompts.md — Ready-to-use AI agent prompts