Codex Review Loop

Codex Review Loop

Adversarial code review via Codex CLI, structured finding analysis, HITL-gated fix loop, optional re-verification.

Arguments

• --pr <N> — review PR number N (default: auto-detect most recent open PR)
• --base <branch> — review changes against base branch
• --uncommitted — review uncommitted local changes

Phases

1. Scope Resolution — determine review target (PR/branch/uncommitted)
2. Codex Review — launch adversarial review via Codex CLI (~20-50 min)
3. Finding Analysis — parse raw output into structured findings
4. Atomic Fix Loop — fix, verify, commit each approved finding
5. Re-review Loop — re-run review until 0 findings (max 3 iterations)
6. Final Report — summary of all findings, fixes, and verification status

Phase 1: Scope Resolution

Determine the review target and extract the base branch.

• PR mode (default): Use gh pr view / gh pr list to resolve base branch and display PR metadata (title, file count, additions/deletions).
• Branch mode (--base): Use specified base branch directly.
• Uncommitted mode (--uncommitted): Review working tree changes.

If no argument is given, auto-detect the user's most recent open PR and confirm.

Phase 2: Codex Review

Launch the adversarial review as a background process.

1. Run the review script with run_in_background=true:

   bash <skill-dir>/scripts/codex-subagent.sh --base <branch>
   

   Note: Codex CLI v0.105.0+ does not support combining --base/--commit with a custom prompt. The built-in review logic is used automatically. For --uncommitted mode (no diff target), pipe stdin for custom instructions:

   cat <prompt-file> | bash <skill-dir>/scripts/codex-subagent.sh --uncommitted
   

2. Inform the user the review is running (~20-50 min).
3. The script parses Codex output and returns the final review text. Review rollouts intentionally remain persistent. If terminal output is lost, use codex resume --include-non-interactive to locate the review, or codex resume <SESSION_ID> when its ID is known. Do not add --ephemeral to the wrapper. The wrapper also relies on the configured non-interactive approval/sandbox policy because Codex CLI 0.147.0 removed the historical --full-auto argument from exec review.

Error handling

Environment overrides

Phase 3: Finding Analysis

Parse the raw Codex output into structured findings.

References

• Schema: references/schemas/review-findings.md — field definitions, severity/category/effort enums, status lifecycle
• Convention rules: .agents/skills/project-conventions/conventions.md — project coding conventions to cross-reference

Severity escalation/downgrade guide

• Escalate to Critical: Unvalidated external input, secret exposure, injection vectors, data integrity compromise
• Escalate to High: API contract change without test update, possible NoneType error, blocking I/O in async context
• Downgrade to Medium: Correct functionality but violates conventions, duplicate logic, unnecessary complexity
• Downgrade to Low: Pure style, unused import, missing docstring

Convention-to-category mapping

• Typing violations (dict, Mapping, object, getattr) -> typing
• Anti-patterns (speculative fallbacks, duplicate state) -> convention
• Structure violations (core/modules boundary, DI bypass) -> architecture
• Testing gaps (contract change without test update) -> testing

Process

1. Parse each finding from the raw output
2. Assign severity and category using the schema definitions and guide above
3. Cross-reference with project conventions
4. Estimate fix effort
5. Deduplicate (keep the most severe instance)
6. Sort: severity desc, file path asc

HITL Gate 1: Finding Review

Present all findings to the user as a summary table (ID, severity, category, file:line, title, effort).

Ask the user to choose a fix scope:

• Fix all (recommended)
• Fix Critical/High only
• Report only (no fixes)

Phase 4: Atomic Fix Loop

For each approved finding, execute an atomic fix-verify-commit cycle.

Per finding:

1. Fix: Read target file(s), apply the fix.
2. HITL Gate 2 (conditional): For Critical/High findings that modify existing logic (not just adding new code), show the current and proposed code to the user for confirmation. Medium/Low findings are auto-fixed.
3. Verify (all must pass):
   • uvx ruff check .
   • uvx ruff format --check . (auto-fix and re-check if needed)
   • uv run ty check
   • uv run pytest (mapped test files, or full suite if no mapping found)
4. Commit: fix(review): P{i} - {title}
5. On failure: Roll back changes, mark finding as skipped, continue to next.

Phase 5: Re-review Loop

After all fixes are committed, automatically re-run the Codex review to check for regressions or new issues introduced by the fixes.

Loop behaviour

1. Re-run Codex review (--base <branch>) against the same base.
2. Parse findings (Phase 3) and present to user (HITL Gate 1).
3. If 0 findings → loop terminates, proceed to Final Report.
4. If findings exist → execute Phase 4 (fix-verify-commit), then repeat from step 1.

Safety limits

• Max iterations: 3 (initial review + 2 re-reviews). After 3 iterations, terminate the loop regardless of remaining findings and output the Final Report with unresolved items noted.
• Escalation: If the same finding recurs across 2 consecutive iterations, mark it as wont_fix and skip in subsequent iterations.

HITL override

At each re-review result, the user may choose:

• Continue — proceed with fixes (default when findings > 0)
• Stop — terminate the loop early and output Final Report

Final Report

Output a summary including:

• PR metadata (number, title, base/head)
• Loop iteration count and termination reason (clean / max iterations / user stop)
• Findings table (ID, severity, category, title, status, commit hash)
• Commit stack
• Verification status (ruff, ty, pytest)