Review Diff

Skill: Review Diff

Purpose

Review the current change alone (git diff: staged + unstaged + optionally untracked files) across 5 dimensions: intent / impact, regression / correctness, breaking change / compatibility, side effects / idempotency, observability. Produce a scope-only findings list that feeds the scope step of orchestrate-code-review for aggregation.

No architecture / security / language / framework-specific analysis — those belong to the matching atomic skills.

Core Objective

Primary goal: produce a findings list across the 5 dimensions for the diff scope alone (untracked files included).

Success criteria (all of them must hold):

1. ✅ Diff scope only: review the change set alone; do not open repository-level / architecture / security / language-specific checks
2. ✅ All 5 dimensions covered: intent / impact, regression / correctness, breaking change / compatibility, side effects / idempotency, observability
3. ✅ Format conformant: every finding carries location / category=scope / severity / title / description / suggestion, per specs/findings-list.md
4. ✅ Precise locations: every finding cites a concrete file:line or @@ hunk
5. ✅ Bug fix verified: a bug-fix diff must have its fix verified for correctness, with any leftover or partial problem flagged

Scope Boundaries

This skill owns:

• The current git diff (staged + unstaged)
• Untracked files in the change set (included by default, treated as a whole-file add)
• Analysis across 5 dimensions: intent / impact, regression / correctness, breaking / compatibility, side effects / idempotency, observability

This skill does not own:

• Repository-level or snapshot-level review → review-codebase
• The full orchestrated review → orchestrate-code-review
• The architecture / security / performance / testing cognitive dimensions → the matching cognitive atomic skills
• Language- / framework-specific conventions → the matching atomic skills

Handoff point: once the findings are out, they feed the scope step of orchestrate-code-review for aggregation, or go to orchestrate-repair-loop for a fix iteration.

Use Cases

• pre-commit / pre-PR gate: a quick look at what the change introduces before committing
• As the scope step of orchestrate-code-review: this one or review-codebase, never both
• Focused review: the user says "look at the change only"

Behavior

Scope resolution

• What gets analyzed: the files in the change set — the diff (staged + unstaged) plus the untracked files included by default
• Untracked file handling: the caller passes the path and the full content; treat it as a whole-file add, apply the same 5-dimension checklist, and cite file:line
• What does not get analyzed: files that are unchanged or outside the change set

The 5-dimension checklist

For each changed file, produce findings on these dimensions:

1. Intent and impact: what changed and why; the effect on callers / data / configuration / deployment
2. Regression and correctness: whether a new bug or a missed edge case was introduced; whether a bug-fix diff fixes the whole thing
3. Breaking change and compatibility: whether an API / data / configuration contract breaks; backward compatibility; versioning / deprecation
4. Side effects and idempotency: unintended side effects, data corruption, risk on repeated execution, idempotency problems
5. Observability: whether the change adds or repairs the logs, metrics and error messages needed to debug in production

Special cases

• A bug-fix diff: verify the fix is correct, and record any leftover or partial problem
• A formatting- / comment-only diff: emit one minor finding, "formatting / comments only, no behavior change"; where a comment contradicts the code, emit a finding with a suggestion

Input and Output

Input

• git diff: the staged + unstaged changes of the current branch against HEAD
• Untracked files (included by default): path + full content

Output

• Findings list: the standard format (location / category=scope / severity / title / description / suggestion)
• Every finding must carry a file:line or @@ hunk reference
• Every finding must carry an actionable suggestion (the direction of the fix + the exact location)

Restrictions

Hard boundaries

• Do not review files outside the diff
• Emit no finding that lacks a file:line reference
• Use no vague language ("might be a problem", carrying neither a type nor a direction → delete it)
• Run no security / architecture / language / framework check (stay inside the scope dimension)

Skill boundaries

Not done here (other atomic skills own it):

• Repository-level / snapshot-level review → review-codebase
• Full-dimension orchestration → orchestrate-code-review
• Security → review-security
• Architecture → review-architecture
• Language / framework → the matching atomic skills

Self-Check

• Only the change set was reviewed (the diff plus the untracked files included)
• All 5 dimensions are covered
• Every finding conforms to the format (all 6 fields)
• Every finding carries a file:line or @@ hunk reference
• Every finding carries an actionable suggestion
• The fix in a bug-fix diff was verified for correctness

Examples

Example 1: an API change

• Input: a diff that adds a query parameter and reshapes the response
• Expected: findings covering intent / impact (on callers), backward-compatibility risk, and a breaking-change suggestion (versioning or deprecation, say); citing the exact lines or @@ hunks; no security / architecture finding (those go to the matching atomic skills)

Example 2: a bug fix

• Input: a diff that fixes a null pointer and an error code
• Expected: findings confirming the fix, plus a check of whether similar null pointer / error code problems remain; the observability dimension (logs / errors); citing the changed lines; category=scope

Example 3: formatting / comments only

• Input: a diff carrying only indentation / whitespace / comment changes
• Expected: either no finding, or one minor finding, "formatting / comments only, no behavior change"; where a comment contradicts the code, emit a finding with a suggestion

Example 4: a new (untracked) file in the change set

• Input: the diff plus an untracked file (path + full content)
• Expected: the new file is reviewed as a whole-file add; the 5-dimension checklist applies; location=the path with line references; category=scope