Requesting Code Review

Requesting Code Review

Dispatch a code reviewer subagent to catch issues before they cascade. The reviewer gets precisely crafted context for evaluation — never your session's history. This keeps the reviewer focused on the work product, not your thought process, and preserves your own context for continued work.

Core principle: Review early, review often.

When to Request Review

Mandatory:

• When the user explicitly requests code review
• Before generating the review log

Optional but valuable:

• When stuck (fresh perspective)
• When a revision touches several modules
• After fixing complex bug

How to Request

1. Prepare SVN review inputs:

• Revision list with author, time, and message
• Retrieved svn diff -c <revision> output
• Requirements or review scope

2. Dispatch code reviewer subagent:

Use Task tool with general-purpose type, fill template at code-reviewer.md

If the current Codex environment has no Task/subagent tool, use code-reviewer.md as a self-review checklist for a second pass before finalizing the review log.

Placeholders:

• {DESCRIPTION} - Brief summary of what you built
• {PLAN_OR_REQUIREMENTS} - What it should do
• {REVISION_LIST} - SVN revisions to review
• {SVN_DIFFS} - Diff output retrieved with svn diff -c <revision>

3. Act on feedback:

• Fix Critical issues immediately
• Fix Important issues before proceeding
• Note Minor issues for later
• Push back if reviewer is wrong (with reasoning)

Example

[Just retrieved SVN logs and diffs]

You: Let me request code review before proceeding.

[Dispatch code reviewer subagent]
  DESCRIPTION: Reviewed SVN revisions for the current time window
  PLAN_OR_REQUIREMENTS: User requested ZHERP SVN code review
  REVISION_LIST: r50814, r50819
  SVN_DIFFS: svn diff -c output for each revision

[Subagent returns]:
  Strengths: Clean architecture, real tests
  Issues:
    Important: Missing progress indicators
    Minor: Magic number (100) for reporting interval
  Assessment: Ready to proceed

You: [Fix progress indicators]
[Generate review log]

Integration with Workflows

SVN Review Workflow:

• Review after logs and diffs are retrieved
• Catch issues before the review log is finalized
• Apply valid feedback to the final review log

Red Flags

Never:

• Skip review after the user explicitly requested it
• Ignore Critical issues
• Proceed with unfixed Important issues
• Argue with valid technical feedback

If reviewer wrong:

• Push back with technical reasoning
• Show code/tests that prove it works
• Request clarification

See template at: requesting-code-review/code-reviewer.md