/ce-code-review

name: ce-code-review
description: "Structured code review for bugs, regressions, tests, and standards. Use before PRs or when asked for review; report-only by default, with explicit local apply available for user-directed fix workflows."
argument-hint: "[mode:agent] [apply:local] [blank to review current branch, or provide PR link]"

Code Review

Reviews code changes using dynamically selected reviewer personas. Dispatches bounded specialist subagents that return structured JSON, then merges and deduplicates findings into a single report.

Setup

Run this once at the start of this invocation, before any subagent dispatch, and follow the directives it prints — except where one conflicts with this skill's own rules on asking the user questions, whether those rules are scoped to a non-interactive mode or apply in every mode, in which case this skill's rules win and no blocking question is asked. Run the fence exactly as written, as its own command: do not pipe or filter it (no `head`, `tail`, or `grep`), do not truncate its output, and do not bundle it into a batch with other commands. Its output opens with a `=== skill context` header and ends with `CE_CONTEXT_END`; if you received one of those lines without the other, the output was truncated — rerun the fence verbatim once. That recovery is the only rerun: otherwise do not rerun it within the same invocation; a later invocation of this or any other skill runs its own. If no Node runtime is available the skill proceeds unchanged.

SKILL_DIR="<absolute path of the directory containing the SKILL.md you just read>";
NODE="$(for c in node nodejs; do command -v "$c" >/dev/null 2>&1 && "$c" -e '' >/dev/null 2>&1 && { echo "$c"; break; }; done)";
if [ -n "$NODE" ]; then
"$NODE" "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/context.mjs" || echo "context script failed; continue with the skill's normal behavior";
else
echo "no Node runtime; continue with the skill's normal behavior";
fi

When to Use

• Before creating a PR
• After completing a task during iterative implementation
• When feedback is needed on any code changes
• Can be invoked standalone
• Can run inside larger workflows; use `mode:agent` when the caller needs JSON instead of markdown tables

Artifact Root

This skill discovers plans under `<root>/plans/`, scans learnings under `<root>/solutions/`, and passes the resolved root to `review-scope.py` (`--docs-root`) and to its persona subagents. Resolve `<root>` before you first compose a `<root>/` path or the `--docs-root "<root>"` argument (per the block below), and substitute it everywhere those appear.

<!-- ce-docs-root:start --> **Resolve the CE artifact root `<root>` before composing any artifact path.**

• **Read** `docs_root` from `<repo-root>/.compound-engineering/config.local.yaml`, then `config.yaml`; first non-empty value wins (`<repo-root>` = `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`). Unset -> `<root>` is `docs`, exactly as before.
• **Validate** a set value: a repo-relative directory whose real, symlink-resolved path stays inside the repo and is neither the repo root nor under `.git/`. Otherwise stop with an error naming `docs_root` and the value -- never fall back to `docs`.
• **Use** `<root>` as the sole artifact location: create it if absent, compose each path as `<root>/<subdir>` with this skill's own subdirectory, and never also read `docs`.

<!-- ce-docs-root:end -->

Execution spine

Follow these boundaries in order; references supply the detail but never change the order:

1. Resolve the reviewed diff and intent. 2. Read `references/persona-catalog.md`, then select the risk-driven reviewer roster and discover applicable standards paths. Do not select or dispatch personas without that catalog load. 3. When adversarial is selected for a local reviewed tree, start and persist the sanctioned cross-model job **before any local persona dispatch**. Invoking this skill authorizes its configured/allowlisted peer route after the required recipient-and-code-egress disclosure; do not ask for a second confirmation or skip merely because the user did not separately repeat that authorization. An explicit user prohibition on external review still wins. A started peer replaces the local adversarial persona; only an actual scope, allowlist, availability, authentication, or start failure leaves the local fallback. 4. Before any local dispatch, read `references/dispatch-reviewers.md`; if it is not loaded, stop and load it. Then dispatch the materialized local roster as a foreground concurrent batch sized to the host's active-agent cap — spawn multiple reviewers in one message with background execution off where the harness runs same-message calls concurrently, and collect every reviewer before synthesis (one blocking wait on Claude-style harnesses; repeated non-polling collection waits on async `spawn_agent` harnesses); degrade to serial where it does not. Detaching local review into a polled background job is forbidden; the cross-model peer is the only detached work and overlaps with this batch. Shell no-ops and wakeup polling are forbidden. 5. After the reviewer returns are ready, read `references/finish-review.md`; if it is not loaded, stop and load it. Fold in the peer once, run the documented findings mechanics, run every validator the reference selects, and only then return the report. Never synthesize directly from raw reviewer artifacts. The exact Actionable Findings, Coverage, and Verdict completion fields are required. When a peer ran, Coverage must record its route plus the literal keyed fields `model_requested`, `model_actual`, `effort_requested`, `effort_actual`, `receipt_supported`, and `independence_verified` from the artifact; never shorten that tuple to a model family or vague "high reasoning" claim. In the multi-agent path, emit only this skill's report; do not also invoke a harness-native findings/reporting tool. The native review tool belongs only to the explicit Quick Review Short-Circuit. Bare and `mode:agent` rev