/code-review-local - Local Code Review Command

Overview

The /code-review-local slash command invokes the bitwarden-code-reviewer agent to perform comprehensive code reviews of GitHub pull requests or local git changes, writing the review findings to local files instead of posting them to GitHub. This enables offline review workflows, preview capabilities before posting, pre-commit validation, and integration with custom review processes.

Usage

/code-review-local [PR#] | [PR URL]

Arguments

• [PR#] (optional): Pull request number (e.g., 123)
• [PR URL] (optional): Full GitHub PR URL (e.g., https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/pull/123)
• No arguments: The command will ask interactively whether to review a PR or local changes

Examples

Review GitHub Pull Requests

# Review by PR number
/code-review-local 123

# Review by full URL
/code-review-local https://github.com/bitwarden/mobile/pull/4567

Review Local Changes

# Interactive mode - choose to review local changes when prompted
/code-review-local
# When asked for PR number, indicate you want to review local changes instead

# The agent will analyze:
# - Uncommitted changes (git diff)
# - Committed changes on current branch vs base branch

Output Files

The command generates two markdown files in your current working directory:

1. review-summary.md

Contains the overall summary comment (via Skill(posting-review-summary)).

Format for PRs with issues:

**Overall Assessment:** REQUEST CHANGES

[1-2 neutral sentences describing what was reviewed]

<details>
<summary>Code Review Details</summary>

- ❌ **CRITICAL**: [One-line description]
  - `filename.ts:42`
- ⚠️ **IMPORTANT**: [One-line description]
  - `filename.ts:87`

</details>

See inline comments for details.

Format for clean PRs:

**Overall Assessment:** APPROVE

[One neutral sentence describing what was reviewed]

2. review-inline-comments.md

Contains all inline review comments with file and line references that would be posted with gh pr review --comment.

Format:

## [file-path]:[line-number]

[Emoji] **[SEVERITY]**: [One-line description]

<details>
<summary>Details and fix</summary>

[Full details, code examples, rationale]

</details>

---

Note: If no inline comments are needed (clean PR), this file will be empty.

Review Severity Categories

The agent uses Bitwarden's standard emoji classification system:

• ❌ Critical: Security vulnerabilities, data loss risks, breaking changes
• ⚠️ Important: Bugs, incorrect logic, maintainability concerns
• ♻️ Debt: Code quality improvements, technical debt
• 🎨 Suggested: Measurable improvements with concrete metrics
• ❓ Question: Clarifications, suggestions for discussion

What the Command Does

For Pull Request Reviews:

1. Fetches PR data from GitHub using gh pr view and related commands
2. Reads existing comments to avoid duplicates
3. Assesses PR metadata and context

For Local Changes Reviews:

1. Analyzes git changes using git status, git diff, and git log
2. Evaluates uncommitted and committed changes on current branch
3. Compares against base branch to understand full change scope

Common Review Steps:

1. Applies standard review protocol following Bitwarden engineering standards
2. Evaluates code against security, correctness, and maintainability standards
3. Generates structured review findings with proper formatting
4. Writes output to local files (never posts to GitHub)

Use Cases

Preview Before Posting

Review the generated files before manually posting to GitHub:

/code-review-local 123
# Review the generated files
cat review-summary.md
cat review-inline-comments.md
# Manually post if satisfied
gh pr comment 123 --body-file review-summary.md
gh pr review 123 --comment --body "$(cat review-inline-comments.md)"

Offline Review Workflow

Perform code reviews without immediate GitHub access:

# Review while offline or in restricted environment
/code-review-local 456
# Later, post the reviews when ready

Custom Review Integration

Integrate with custom tooling or approval processes:

# Generate review
/code-review-local 789
# Process with custom scripts
python process_review.py review-summary.md review-inline-comments.md

Pre-Commit Validation

Review your local changes before committing or creating a PR:

# Review uncommitted changes before commit
/code-review-local
# Choose "local changes" when prompted
# Review findings in the generated files
# Fix any issues identified
# Commit when clean

Training and Learning

Use the output to understand code review best practices:

# Generate review to learn from the agent's analysis
/code-review-local 101
# Study the findings and reasoning

Technical Details

• Model: Uses claude-sonnet-4-5 model for balanced performance and quality
• Agent: Invokes bitwarden-code-reviewer specialized agent
• GitHub Access: Read-only via gh CLI (requires authentication)
• No Posting: Deliberately does not post to GitHub-output is file-only

Requirements

• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated
• Access to the target repository
• bitwarden-code-review plugin installed

Related Documentation

• Bitwarden Code Review Plugin README
• Bitwarden Code Reviewer Agent

Troubleshooting

"PR not found" error

• Verify the PR number or URL is correct
• Ensure you have access to the repository
• Check that gh CLI is authenticated: gh auth status

Empty review files

• Verify the PR has actual changes to review
• Check that the PR is not already merged/closed

"Permission denied" errors

• Verify repository access permissions
• Re-authenticate with gh auth login
• Check that the repository allows code review access