/approve-review

Approve Review

Open a human-approval window for review-surface actions (PR reviews, comments, merges, CI edits). The window stays open until you remove the flag file with rm ./.review-approved or restart the session.

Usage

/approve-review "Approving LGTM on PR #42 after visual inspection"
/approve-review                     # no reason, still opens the window

What this does

1. Creates a ./.review-approved flag file in the project root.
2. If the user provided a reason, writes it into the file and into a timestamped entry under ./review-receipts/approvals/.
3. Prints a confirmation with the timestamp and, if provided, the reason.
4. Reminds the user to close the window with rm ./.review-approved as soon as the approved action completes.

Implementation

Run this in the Bash tool. Capture the full user argument as $ARGUMENTS (the marketplace slash-command convention) so a reason with spaces is preserved verbatim.

REASON="$ARGUMENTS"
TS="$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
FLAG="./.review-approved"

# JSON-escape the reason so quotes, backslashes, newlines do not break
# the approval-record JSON below.
REASON_ESCAPED="$(printf '%s' "$REASON" | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.dumps(sys.stdin.read()))')"

# Write the flag file (human-readable key=value, not JSON).
{
  echo "approved_at=$TS"
  if [ -n "$REASON" ]; then
    echo "reason=$REASON"
  fi
} > "$FLAG"

# Record the approval. This is a plain JSON log file, NOT a signed
# receipt. The README explicitly notes that approval records are not
# signed by protect-mcp; only the PostToolUse tool-call receipts flow
# through the signer.
mkdir -p ./review-receipts/approvals
cat > "./review-receipts/approvals/$TS.json" <<JSON
{
  "approved_at": "$TS",
  "reason": $REASON_ESCAPED,
  "flag_file": "$FLAG"
}
JSON

# Confirmation to the user
echo "Approval window opened at $TS"
if [ -n "$REASON" ]; then
  echo "Reason: $REASON"
fi
echo ""
echo "Close the window with: rm $FLAG"
echo "The next tool call will be permitted without policy evaluation."

What to show the user

Approval window opened at 2026-04-17T12:34:56Z
Reason: Approving LGTM on PR #42 after visual inspection

Close the window with: rm ./.review-approved
The next tool call will be permitted without policy evaluation.

Remember: every attempt in the approval window still produces a signed
receipt. Auditors can see exactly what you approved and when.

Important notes

• This does NOT grant blanket approval. It opens a short window during which the Cedar policy's review-surface rules are bypassed. Everything else still runs through the policy.
• Every action in the window is still receipted. The chain records that the action happened under an approval window, including the reason you provided.
• The window stays open until closed. If you forget to rm ./.review-approved, the agent could make additional review actions without prompting. Close the window immediately after the approved action.
• The flag file is session-scoped. A new Claude Code session in the same project directory starts clean if the file was removed at the end of the previous session.

References

• Plugin README: ../README.md
• Policy authoring: ../agents/review-policy-author.md
• Close the window: rm ./.review-approved
• See recent denials: /list-pending