# Devops Bench Review > Use when the user asks for a CODE review of devops-bench changes — e.g. "review this PR", "review my changes", "review the working tree", "is this harness/deployer/metric change sound". Reviews a PR (number/URL) or the current working tree and returns ranked findings with severity, file:line evidence, and a concrete fix. Review-only: static analysis plus unit tests/ruff; it NEVER runs benchmark evals or provisions infra. For a NEW or CHANGED benchmark task (task.yaml + its stack), use the sibling task-review skill instead. - Skill: `kubernetes-sigs/devops-bench-review` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kubernetes-sigs/devops-bench-review` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kubernetes-sigs/devops-bench-review/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: DevOps & Infra - Author: kubernetes-sigs (https://skillmd.com/u/kubernetes-sigs) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kubernetes-sigs/devops-bench-review --- # devops-bench code review Review a **GitHub PR** or the **current working tree** as *code*, then return ranked findings a maintainer would act on. Each finding is **severity (blocker / major / minor / nit) + `file:line` evidence + a concrete, actionable fix**, scoped to the change. Do not nitpick; do not invent findings to fill a quota. If nothing survives, say so. `devops_bench/` is the canonical pipeline. The top-level `deployers/`, `skills/`, and `scripts/` directories are placeholder scaffolding holding only a `README.md` each — the live code is under `devops_bench/`. For the layering, registries, and lifecycle, read [architecture](../../../docs/components/architecture.md) and [glossary](../../../docs/components/glossary.md) rather than reconstructing them. **Defer task-specific concerns** — schema/metadata, spec parsing, outcome rubrics, and the per-task parallel-safety of cloud resource names — to the [task-review](../task-review/SKILL.md) skill. This skill reviews code. ## Scope & guardrails — review only Analyze and report. Do **not** execute the benchmark, and never provision infra. - **May run** (only to validate the code under review): unit/integration tests for the changed code (`uv run pytest`), `uv run ruff check .`, and `uv run ruff format --check .`. Report violations; do not reformat files as part of the review. - **Must NOT run:** `python -m devops_bench`, the matrix scripts, any agent/judge invocation, or `tofu`/`gcloud`/`kind`/`kubectl` apply/destroy. If judging a change seems to *require* running it, report what static analysis shows and state that an actual eval is out of scope. If a lens needs a capability (sub-agent for an independent verifier pass, etc.), express the need generically and consult [harness-capabilities](../../references/harness-capabilities.md); degrade to doing it inline. Those two lists are also the shape of a permission profile, if you want your tool to enforce the boundary rather than rely on the skill honouring it: allow repository reads plus the test and lint commands, deny file writes and the whole infra toolchain, and keep `rm`, `sudo`, `git push` and `git commit` denied outright. Exact syntax differs per tool and the right allowlist depends on where you run, so treat that as the shape rather than a config to copy. ## Apply the CodeRabbit guidelines — read them live Read `.coderabbit.yaml` at the repository root and apply its review guidelines as part of this review: - `reviews.instructions` — repo-wide review rules; apply them to everything in scope. - `reviews.path_instructions` — a list of entries; apply each entry's `instructions` to the files in scope matching its `path` glob. - `reviews.path_filters` — exclusions (e.g. `!uv.lock`, `!vendor/**`); skip the files CodeRabbit excludes. Treat these as mandatory lenses of equal standing with this skill's own. If `.coderabbit.yaml` or those keys are missing, fall back to this skill's lenses and say so in the review output. ## Gather the diff - **A PR** (number/URL): `gh pr view --json title,body,baseRefName,headRefOid,changedFiles` and `gh pr diff `. Read enclosing code from this checkout when it is already on the PR branch; otherwise `gh pr checkout `, or read one file at the PR head with `git show :` after a `git fetch` — the object is not local until you fetch it. - **Working tree:** `git diff @{upstream}...HEAD` (or `main...HEAD`) **plus** `git diff HEAD` for uncommitted work — review is often pre-commit. Treat the union as scope. The diff is the scope. For each touched function, also read the enclosing function: a bug on an unchanged line of a touched function is in scope (the change re-exposes or fails to fix it). ## Lenses Apply the lenses that fit the change. Most code wants Correctness, Testability, and Conventions; library/registry surfaces add API hygiene and Domain modeling. Changes under `.agents/` add Agent-facing docs. ### Correctness Logic and edge cases: inverted/off-by-one conditions, null/empty/missing-key paths, falsy-zero checks, missing `await`, swallowed exceptions, wrong-variable copy-paste, `set -euo pipefail` gaps in bash. **No hallucinated APIs** — every called function, attribute, registry key, env var, and CLI flag must exist (Grep the symbol; check the registry decorator). For each deleted/replaced line, name the invariant it enforced and confirm it is re-established elsewhere — a dropped guard or error path is a finding. For each changed function, check callers/callees: does a new precondition, changed return shape, or new exception break a call site? ### Testability New or changed logic should have tests that **would actually fail on breakage** — not tautological (asserting the mock returned what the mock was told to return, re-deriving the expected value with the code under test, or `assert x == x`). Check edge coverage (empty, error, boundary), not just the happy path. Flag new non-trivial logic with **no test** as a finding, and name the test that should exist. Note when code is hard to test because a dependency is hard-wired rather than injected. ### Maintainability Complexity and over-engineering: speculative config/flags/abstraction for a future that isn't here, parameters no caller passes, premature generalization. Respect the layering — `core/ → {models, providers, deployers, agents, chaos, verification, metrics} → evalharness/`. An inward import (e.g. `core/` importing `evalharness/`, or one sibling reaching into another's internals) is a finding; name the seam it should cross instead. Prefer the smallest change that solves the actual problem. ### API hygiene / design Public surfaces should be clear and stable: an extension axis is added by **registering a class via the matching decorator** (`AGENTS`, `MODELS`, `PROVIDERS`, `FAULTS`, `TRIGGERS`, `VERIFIERS`, `METRICS`) — flag a change that edits the engine to special-case a new variant instead of registering it. No leaky abstractions (callers depending on internals, or a return type that exposes implementation). Watch `__all__` / signature changes that break the public contract without reason. ### Domain modeling Types should model the domain. The repo already has the right vocabulary — `Task`, `AgentResult`, `ClusterInfo`, `RunContext`, `RunEnv`, `MetricScore`, `VerificationSpec`. Flag **primitive obsession** where one of these (or a small new dataclass) belongs: a bare `dict`/`tuple`/positional-string passed across a seam that a typed object would make self-describing and validate-once. Flag stringly-typed state that should be an enum, and parallel lists that should be one list of records. ### Conventions - **Tooling:** `uv` for everything (`uv run …`, `uv add …` — not bare `pip`/`python`). - **Lint:** ruff with `E, F, I, UP, B, SIM`, line length 100. Run `uv run ruff check .`. - **Docstrings:** Google style — purpose; `Args` / `Returns` / `Attributes`; `Raises`; concise, no implementation narration. - **Comments — over-commenting is a finding.** Self-documenting code needs no running commentary. Flag any comment that **narrates what the code does** (`# loop over the items`, `# increment counter`, a docstring-restating-the-body). Keep a comment only when it explains a genuinely **non-obvious edge case or intent** the code can't show (a `409`-on-re-run workaround, a length-limit rationale). When you flag one, say whether the fix is "delete it" or "rewrite it to explain the *why*". ### Vendor neutrality — beyond the config The terminology and env-var rules come from `.coderabbit.yaml` (step above). The checks below are the ones the config does not state — **run them on every change touching `devops_bench/` or `docs/`.** For the cloud-provider vs model-provider split (only the cloud axis is policed), see [glossary.md](../../../docs/components/glossary.md). - **Error and log messages.** The most-missed surface, because the code is neutral and only the string is not: `"could not reach the GKE cluster"` raised from `core/` should read `"could not reach the cluster"`. Check log strings as well as raised errors. - **Defaults and fallbacks.** A neutral parameter that quietly defaults to one provider (`location="us-central1"`, `provider="gcp"`) hard-codes a vendor through the back door. The established pattern is deduction that *raises* rather than falls back — see [infra.md](../../../docs/components/infra.md). - **Names on public surfaces.** A field, class, or CLI flag named for one provider fixes the vocabulary for every future provider. The surface is already neutral — `--project` / `--cluster` in `cli.py`, `project_id`, `cluster_name` — so what to catch is a *new* name that reintroduces a vendor, not the ones already there. - **Docs and docstring examples.** An example is user-facing text. Where a provider-specific example is genuinely clearest, label it as one rather than letting it read as the only way. - **Env-var reads.** Grep the diff for `get_env(` and `os.environ`. Treat `GCP_PROJECT_ID`, `GOOGLE_CLOUD_*`, and `GKE_*` as the cloud families. The module the read lives in — not the surrounding prose — decides. Provider resolution belongs behind the `PROVIDERS` registry. - **Two task trees.** The config's `tasks//` carve-out is the on-disk task tree at the repo root, which is a different thing from the `devops_bench/tasks/` schema package — the latter is a generic layer. Write the pattern, not the instance: the carve-out is `tasks//`, so `tasks/aws/` is as exempt as `tasks/gcp/` the day someone adds it. Over-flagging is its own failure mode — it trains authors to ignore the lens. ### Security Secrets and inputs: no committed credentials, keys, or tokens (Grep the diff for obvious patterns); secrets read from env/secret-store, not hardcoded; user/agent/ task-supplied strings that reach a shell are passed argv-style, never interpolated into a shell string — validation does not make interpolation safe, so an allowlist is an extra check rather than a substitute, and `shell=True` with untrusted input is always a finding; no path traversal from un-sanitized names. Flag a secret echoed into logs. ### Agent-facing docs (skills, AGENTS.md, references) Apply when the diff touches `.agents/**` or any `AGENTS.md`. These files are instructions an agent executes — review them as interfaces, not prose: - **Audience.** Every sentence tells the executing agent what to do, how to do it, or the context needed to do it. Flag design rationale, maintainer or author asides, and a document narrating its own structure or history. - **Frontmatter is a pointer, paid on every load.** The description carries invocation triggers, a one-line identity, and handoffs to sibling skills. Flag body content restated there — rule lists, key names, counts that can desync from the body. `name:` matches the directory. - **Single source of truth.** Flag restated config, code, or command output the agent could read live or reach by pointer. A copy is justified only when the lookup is expensive or the convention is unwritten — the gotcha, the why. - **Right-sized loading.** Material every run needs is inline; material only some paths need sits behind a link. Flag sprawl: a long flat section thins attention across the excess. - **Checkable completion.** Steps end on a bound the agent can test ("every touched function's callers checked"). Flag vague bounds ("ensure quality") — they invite stopping early. - **Positive instructions.** State the target behavior. Keep a prohibition only as a hard guardrail, paired with what to do instead. - **No-ops.** Flag instructions the agent already follows by default ("be careful", "be thorough") — they spend load and change nothing. - **Co-location.** One concept's definition, rules, and caveats live under one heading. Flag a meaning fragmented across sections. ## Verify, then present Dedup candidates pointing at the same mechanism. For each survivor, run an independent verifier pass on non-obvious ones (a sub-agent if available, else re-check yourself) and try to **refute** it by finding the guard/test/type that already covers it. To corroborate, you **may** run `uv run pytest` and `uv run ruff check .` — **pre-existing failures on untouched code are not the author's** (note them as context, not findings). Drop anything refuted. Present a readable review (not raw JSON): 1. **Overview** — 1–2 sentences on what the change does. 2. **Findings**, most-severe first, each as `severity — file:line — summary` then a one-line failure/why and the concrete fix, and **how to verify** (the test to add/run, the ruff rule, the call site to check). 3. **Cleared** — a short list of what you checked and found sound, so the author knows the coverage. 4. **Systemic note** (when applicable) — if several findings share a root cause, recommend the seam-level fix once instead of per-site patches. Scale effort to the ask. Never run the benchmark to produce a finding.