# Review Guardrails

> Manage budgets, scope, findings, consults, provisional fixes, and fixed-point rules for autonomous reviews.

- Skill: `jesse-merhi/review-guardrails` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jesse-merhi/review-guardrails`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jesse-merhi/review-guardrails/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: jesse-merhi (https://skillmd.com/u/jesse-merhi)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jesse-merhi/review-guardrails

---


# Review guardrails

Load this skill at the start of any until-clean review loop (`code-review`,
`review-until-clean`, `cold-pr-review-until-clean`). It bounds how long an
autonomous review may run, how much review fixes may grow the PR, and what
happens to findings that need the user instead of autonomy. There is no
iteration cap. The budgets are the bound.

## Required state

Record at setup, before the first review cycle:

```text
review_started = <local timestamp>
baseline_diff  = <changed files and changed lines from the branch's first
                  user-authorized baseline for this base branch, persisted or
                  inherited by `$review_findings_bin scope-start`>
scope_baseline = <request, target, intended behavior, owner boundary>
findings_db_path = <local SQLite path, normally ~/.local/state/agent-review-findings/reviews.sqlite>
decision_log_path = <optional path for long-form rationale, when available>
consult_queue  = []
consult_cap    = 5 open questions for the user
```

Resolve `review_findings_bin` once from the installed `code-review` skill path in
the available-skills catalog:

```sh
review_findings_bin="<code-review-skill-dir>/scripts/review-findings"
```

Use that absolute launcher for every findings and scope command. Never invoke a
bare `review-findings`; it is not an installed command and may select a retired
binary left on `PATH`.

Keep `review_started`, `baseline_diff`, `scope_baseline`, the current review
phase, clean streak counters, remaining lenses, and open consult-queue entries
in active loop state. Record triaged findings and verification commands in the
findings database as soon as they are accepted, rejected, deferred, made
provisional, reopened, or run. If an optional decision log exists, mirror setup
fields in its header.

## Workflow

1. Freeze the loop state and `scope_baseline`.
2. Apply the wall-clock budget and run the deterministic scope-budget CLI from
   [budgets.md](references/budgets.md) before each review cycle and after each
   accepted fix.
3. Require `finding-discipline`'s recorded risk rating for a runtime candidate,
   or its maintenance and present-cost evidence for a maintenance candidate.
   Require its reality, importance, and repair-quality gates before classifying
   a candidate as actionable. Then classify accepted findings and apply the
   autonomous fix bar in
   [scope-governor.md](references/scope-governor.md).
4. Before patching, apply the systemic-finding boundary in
   [systemic-findings.md](references/systemic-findings.md). Apply a contained
   systemic repair at the owning boundary; consult before a material systemic
   repair or any local Band-Aid. Allow new text paths, but require authorization
   for new binaries.
5. For accepted findings with an uncertain repair, use the provisional-fix or
   consult rules in [uncertain-findings.md](references/uncertain-findings.md).
   Do not use provisional code to resolve uncertainty about whether a risk
   exists.
6. Keep prior findings hidden from a fresh reviewer. After its pass completes,
   match candidates against the registry and open consult queue.
7. Match repeated queue findings and stop at the fixed point using
   [queue-matching.md](references/queue-matching.md).
8. Treat a non-zero `scope-check` as an immediate blocked-on-consult stop. Stop
   honestly when the wall-clock budget, diff-growth budget, consult cap, or
   fixed point is reached. Before showing any scope or consult question to the
   user, load `speak-fking-english` and use the user-facing request rules in
   [scope-governor.md](references/scope-governor.md).

## Completion rules

- A fully clean verdict is valid only when the clean streak requirement is met
  and the consult queue has no open entries.
- A clean-except-queue fixed point is a blocked-on-consult state, not success.
- Every patch must preserve `scope_baseline` and the diff budget. Text paths are
  informational; new binary production paths require authorization.
- Every patched finding must pass the autonomous fix bar.
- A clean verdict requires a persisted scope baseline, a final passing
  `scope-check`, and `scope-complete`; a prose estimate or reconstructed
  baseline does not count.
- Every deferred, provisional, rejected, reopened, or accepted finding must be
  recorded in the findings database or loop report.
- Do not keep re-running an unchanged tree after the fixed point.

## Context pointers

- Use [budgets.md](references/budgets.md) for the wall-clock and diff-growth
  budgets.
- Use [scope-governor.md](references/scope-governor.md) for in-scope,
  follow-up, and stop-and-consult classification and the autonomous fix bar.
- Use [systemic-findings.md](references/systemic-findings.md) when a local fix
  may duplicate policy, accumulate special cases, or leave a shared root cause.
- Use [uncertain-findings.md](references/uncertain-findings.md) for
  provisional fixes and consult-cap behavior.
- Use [queue-matching.md](references/queue-matching.md) for re-raise matching,
  clean-except-queue passes, and fixed-point termination.