Requesting Code Review

All subagent dispatches use disk-mediated dispatch. See shared/dispatch-convention.md for the full protocol.

Dispatch a code review subagent (general-purpose) to catch issues before they cascade.

Core principle: Review early, review often.

When to Request Review

Mandatory:

• After each task in subagent-driven development
• After completing major feature
• Before merge to main

Optional but valuable:

• When stuck (fresh perspective)
• Before refactoring (baseline check)
• After fixing complex bug

How to Request

1. Get git SHAs:

BASE_SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD~1)  # or origin/main
HEAD_SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD)

2. Dispatch code-reviewer subagent:

Use Task tool with subagent_type="general-purpose". Fill in the template at code-reviewer.md in this directory and pass it as the subagent prompt.

Placeholders:

• {WHAT_WAS_IMPLEMENTED} - What you just built
• {PLAN_OR_REQUIREMENTS} - What it should do
• {BASE_SHA} - Starting commit
• {HEAD_SHA} - Ending commit
• {DESCRIPTION} - Brief summary

3. Act on feedback and iterate:

• Fix Critical issues immediately
• Fix Important issues before proceeding
• Note Minor issues for later
• Push back if reviewer is wrong (with reasoning)
• Record the issue count (Critical + Important only — Minor doesn't count)

4. Re-review after fixes (iterative loop):

After fixing Critical/Important issues, dispatch a NEW fresh code-reviewer subagent (not the same one — fresh eyes, no anchoring). Compare issue count to prior round:

• Strictly fewer Critical+Important issues: Progress — fix and re-review again.
• Same or more Critical+Important issues: Stagnation — escalate to user with findings from both rounds.
• No Critical/Important issues: Clean — proceed.
• Architectural concerns: Immediate escalation regardless of round.

Fresh reviewer every round. Never pass prior findings to the next reviewer.

External Model Review (Optional)

After dispatching the host code-reviewer subagent, optionally call the external_review MCP tool for an independent second opinion from external models. The preferred pattern is: dispatch the host reviewer as a background Agent first, call external_review, then collect host results — this gives effective parallelism where background agents are available.

Invocation:

Call external_review with:

• prompt: contents of skills/shared/external-review-prompt.md
• context: the same diff and requirements context given to the host reviewer
• skill: "code_review" (top-level argument for per-skill toggle enforcement)
• metadata: {"skill": "code_review", "round": N} (traceability; where N is the current review round)

Per-skill toggle: The server checks the skill argument against skills.code_review in the external review config. If false, the server returns unavailable.

Graceful degradation:

• external_review tool not available (MCP server not running): skip silently.
• Response status is "unavailable" (no config or disabled): skip silently.
• Response status is "partial" (some models failed): show available reviews, note which models failed.

Output format: After the host review output, append each external review in its own section:

## External Review — {provider} ({model_id})
{review content}

Contract INV-1: External review dispatch must never block or delay the host review. If external review times out or fails, the host review stands alone.

Example

[Just completed Task 2: Add verification function]

You: Let me request code review before proceeding.

BASE_SHA=$(git log --oneline | grep "Task 1" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}')
HEAD_SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD)

[Dispatch fresh code-reviewer subagent — Round 1]
  Issues: 2 Important (missing progress indicators, no error handling for empty input)
  Minor: 1 (magic number)

You: [Fix both Important issues]

[Dispatch NEW fresh code-reviewer subagent — Round 2]
  Issues: 1 Important (error handling catches wrong exception type)

Round 2 (1 issue) < Round 1 (2 issues) → progress, continue

You: [Fix the exception type]

[Dispatch NEW fresh code-reviewer subagent — Round 3]
  Issues: 0 Critical/Important
  Minor: 1 (could use named constant)

Clean — proceed to Task 3.

Test Alignment

When code-review is used standalone (not from build, debugging, or finish — those pipelines handle test-coverage automatically), the caller should consider dispatching crucible:test-coverage after code review completes if behavioral changes were made.

This is especially valuable when:

• The review identified behavioral changes that might affect existing tests
• The diff modifies functions/methods that have dedicated test files
• The review noted "tests should be updated" without specifying which ones

Integration with Workflows

Build Pipeline:

• Review after EACH task
• Test-coverage audit after review (handled by build pipeline)
• Catch issues before they compound
• Fix before moving to next task

Standalone Plan Execution:

• Review after each batch (3 tasks)
• Get feedback, apply, continue

Ad-Hoc Development:

• Review before merge
• Review when stuck
• Consider crucible:test-coverage after review if behavioral changes were made

Red Flags

Never:

• Skip review because "it's simple"
• Ignore Critical issues
• Proceed with unfixed Important issues
• Argue with valid technical feedback
• Skip re-review after fixes ("the fixes look fine")
• Reuse the same reviewer subagent across rounds
• Pass prior findings to the next reviewer

If reviewer wrong:

• Push back with technical reasoning
• Show code/tests that prove it works
• Request clarification

See template at: code-review/code-reviewer.md