# Managing Reviewboard

> Use when working with Reviewboard — review Board code review management including review requests, diff management, review groups, and repository configuration. Use when managing Review Board review workflows, configuring review groups, and automating review request assignment.

- Skill: `cloudthinker-ai/managing-reviewboard` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cloudthinker-ai/managing-reviewboard`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cloudthinker-ai/managing-reviewboard/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: cloudthinker-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/cloudthinker-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cloudthinker-ai/managing-reviewboard

---


# Managing Review Board

## Overview

Manage Review Board review workflows, including review request creation, diff management, reviewer group configuration, and review completion policies.

## Key Capabilities

- Create and manage review requests with multi-revision diffs
- Configure review groups and default reviewer assignment
- Manage repository integrations and diff processing
- Set up review completion requirements
- Configure extensions for custom workflow automation
- Track review request status and turnaround metrics

## Workflow

### 1 — Review Group Configuration

```
REVIEW GROUPS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ] Groups:
    Name                | Members          | Default for Repository
    ────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────
    backend-review      | @backend-devs    | backend-service
    frontend-review     | @frontend-devs   | web-app
    security-review     | @security-team   | (all repositories)
    platform-review     | @platform-team   | infrastructure
[ ] Mailing list per group: YES / NO
[ ] Visible to: everyone / members only
[ ] Invite-only: YES / NO
```

### 2 — Default Reviewers

```
DEFAULT REVIEWERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ] Repository-level defaults:
    Repository: backend-service
    Default people: @tech-lead
    Default groups: backend-review
[ ] File pattern defaults:
    Pattern: /security/**
    Reviewer: security-review group
    Pattern: /api/**
    Reviewer: @api-owner
```

### 3 — Review Completion Policy

```
REVIEW COMPLETION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ] Ship It required from: ___ reviewers
[ ] All reviewers must respond: YES / NO
[ ] Ship It from group member counts for group: YES / NO
[ ] Allow submitter to close without Ship It: YES / NO
[ ] Require all open issues to be resolved: YES / NO
```

## Common Operations

### List Pending Reviews
Query open review requests awaiting action, filter by group or assignee.

### Diff Comparison
Compare diff revisions within a review request to track changes between iterations.

### Review Metrics
Track Ship It rates, review turnaround time, and reviewer participation.

## Troubleshooting

| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|-------|-------|-----|
| Default reviewer not added | Pattern mismatch | Verify file path patterns in default reviewer config |
| Diff upload fails | Repository not configured | Add repository with correct SCM tool and path |
| Email notifications missing | SMTP not configured | Check Review Board email settings |
| Review request stuck | Missing Ship It | Contact assigned reviewers or reassign |

## Output Format

Present results as a structured report:
```
Managing Reviewboard Report
═══════════════════════════
Resources discovered: [count]

Resource       Status    Key Metric    Issues
──────────────────────────────────────────────
[name]         [ok/warn] [value]       [findings]

Summary: [total] resources | [ok] healthy | [warn] warnings | [crit] critical
Action Items: [list of prioritized findings]
```

Target ≤50 lines of output. Use tables for multi-resource comparisons.

## Anti-Hallucination Rules

1. **NEVER assume resource names** — always discover via CLI/API in Phase 1 before referencing in Phase 2.
2. **NEVER fabricate metric names or dimensions** — verify against the service documentation or `--help` output.
3. **NEVER mix CLI commands between service versions** — confirm which version/API you are targeting.
4. **ALWAYS use the discovery → verify → analyze chain** — every resource referenced must have been discovered first.
5. **ALWAYS handle empty results gracefully** — an empty response is valid data, not an error to retry.

## Counter-Rationalizations

| Shortcut | Counter | Why |
|----------|---------|-----|
| "I'll skip discovery and check known resources" | Always run Phase 1 discovery first | Resource names change, new resources appear — assumed names cause errors |
| "The user only asked for a quick check" | Follow the full discovery → analysis flow | Quick checks miss critical issues; structured analysis catches silent failures |
| "Default configuration is probably fine" | Audit configuration explicitly | Defaults often leave logging, security, and optimization features disabled |
| "Metrics aren't needed for this" | Always check relevant metrics when available | API/CLI responses show current state; metrics reveal trends and intermittent issues |
| "I don't have access to that" | Try the command and report the actual error | Assumed permission failures prevent useful investigation; actual errors are informative |