🔍 SWE PR Reviewer

Use this skill to review existing MRs/PRs or respond to review feedback.

Do NOT use for:

• Creating new MRs (use swe-reviewer)
• Implementing code (use swe-implementer)

Quick Start

1. Fetch MR details - Get PR/MR info from GitHub/GitLab
2. Analyze changes - Review files for quality + bugs + security
3. Draft comments - For each issue: specific, actionable, reasoned
4. MITM - Get USER approval before posting
5. Post review - Submit with status: Approve / Changes Requested / Comment
6. Respond to feedback (if requested) - Address comments, push changes, re-review

Analysis Checklist (Per File)

• ✅ Architectural - Aligns with design? Separation of concerns?
• ✅ Code Quality - SOLID? Error handling? Type safety? No code smells?
• ✅ Bugs - Edge cases? Null checks? Race conditions? Leaks?
• ✅ Security - Input validation? SQL injection? XSS? Secrets exposed?
• ✅ Performance - Efficient algorithms? Unnecessary loops? Indexing?
• ✅ Tests - Comprehensive? Edge cases? Maintainable?
• ✅ Docs - Complex logic documented?

Comment Guidelines

Good comment:

• Specific: Points to exact code/line
• Actionable: Clear what needs to change
• Reasoned: Explains WHY
• Solution-oriented: Offers alternative or fix explanation
• Professional: Respectful tone

Bad: "This is bad" ❌
Good: "This validation logic would benefit from extraction (lines 45-67) to make it independently testable. See: [example]" ✅

Review Statuses

Approve: Code is good, ready to merge

Changes Requested: Critical issues must be fixed first
→ Author makes changes + pushes new commits
→ Return for re-review

Comment: Feedback/questions, but not blocking

Responding to Feedback

When author makes changes:

1. Fetch updated MR
2. Review only the NEW changes
3. Verify issues were addressed
4. Re-submit review

Tools

• GitHub/GitLab MCP: Get PR/MR details, post comments
• backend-coder - Code standards
• vcs-issue-management - Read linked issues

Use Case 1: Reviewing an Existing MR

Goal: Provide comprehensive, constructive code review.

Steps:

1. Fetch MR details

   • Use GitHub/GitLab MCP tools to get MR information:
     • MR title and description
     • Changed files
     • Diff/changes
     • Existing comments
     • Status (open, approved, changes requested)

2. Read related context

   • Read the linked issue
   • Review architectural analysis (if available)

Use Case: Review Existing MR

1. Fetch MR - Get details from GitHub/GitLab MCP
2. Analyze - Check each changed file against analysis checklist
3. Draft comments - For each issue, be specific + actionable + reasoned
4. MITM - Show USER the comments, get approval
5. Post - Reply to all, submit with status (Approve / Changes Requested / Comment)

Use Case: Respond to Review Feedback

1. Fetch comments - Get all review threads
2. Draft responses - For each: acknowledge, clarify/fix, confirm
3. MITM - Show USER the responses, get approval
4. Post responses - Reply to each thread
5. Make changes (if needed) - Call swe-implementer, make fixes, push, update MR

Review Statuses

• Approve: Code is good, ready to merge
• Changes Requested: Blocking issues must be fixed first
• Comment: Feedback only, not blocking
  • auth.controller.ts: 💡 Suggestion - extract validation
  • auth.test.ts: ❓ Question - missing edge case tests?

4. Draft 4 comments (1 blocking, 1 suggestion, 1 question, 1 praise)
5. Present to USER → Approved
6. Post review comments
7. Submit review: "Request Changes" due to blocking issue
8. Author responds and fixes issue
9. Re-review → Fixed ✅
10. Approve MR

Example Response Flow

Responding to review on MR #456

1. Fetch review comments - 3 comments received
2. Analyze:
   • Comment 1: Blocking - missing salt in hashing → Need to fix
   • Comment 2: Suggestion - extract validation → Good idea
   • Comment 3: Question - edge case tests → Need to clarify
3. Draft responses:
   • Comment 1: "Good catch! Adding salt. Will use bcrypt.genSalt(10)."
   • Comment 2: "Great suggestion! I'll extract to UserValidator."
   • Comment 3: "Added in lines 45-60, testing null email and weak passwords."
4. Present to USER → Approved
5. Post responses
6. Make code changes:
   • Fix password hashing with salt
   • Extract validation logic
7. Commit and push
8. Update responses with commit hash
9. Mark conversations as resolved

Specialized Skills Used

• backend-coder - Code quality standards for review
• vcs-issue-management - Reading linked issues
• GitHub/GitLab MCP - Fetching MR details, posting comments, submitting reviews