Overview
The/review command provides an interactive workflow for analyzing code changes with AI-powered insights. It offers multiple review modes to fit different development scenarios—from reviewing uncommitted changes to analyzing full branches or specific commits.
When you run /review, droid guides you through selecting a review type, configuring parameters, and then performs a comprehensive analysis of your code changes based on industry-standard review guidelines.
Quick start
1
Start the review flow
In an interactive droid session, type:
2
Select a review type
Choose from four review presets:
- Review against a base branch - PR-style review comparing your branch to a base branch
- Review uncommitted changes - Analyze working directory changes (staged, unstaged, and untracked)
- Review a commit - Examine a specific commit from history
- Custom review instructions - Define your own review criteria
3
Configure parameters
Depending on your selection:
- For base branch reviews: Select the target branch (e.g.,
main,develop) - For commit reviews: Choose a commit from the interactive list
- For custom reviews: Enter your review instructions
4
Review the findings
Droid analyzes the code changes and provides:
- Prioritized findings with severity levels [P0-P3]
- Specific file locations and line numbers
- Suggested fixes with code suggestions
- Overall assessment of the changes
Review types
Review against a base branch
Compare your current branch against a base branch (like a pull request review). This is ideal for pre-PR reviews or checking what changes would be merged. How it works:- Select “Review against a base branch”
- Choose your target base branch from the list (local and remote branches shown)
- Droid finds the merge base and reviews the diff
- Pre-commit PR reviews
- Checking branch changes before creating a pull request
- Validating feature branch against main/develop
Review uncommitted changes
Analyze all current working directory changes—staged files, unstaged modifications, and untracked files. Use cases:- Quick sanity check before committing
- Reviewing work in progress
- Finding issues early in development
Review a commit
Examine the changes introduced by a specific commit in your repository history. How it works:- Select “Review a commit”
- Browse commits with hash, message, author, and date
- Select a commit to review
- Reviewing recent commits for issues
- Understanding changes in a specific commit
- Post-merge review of teammate’s work
Custom review instructions
Define your own review criteria for specialized analysis. Use cases:- Security-focused reviews
- Performance analysis
- Checking specific coding standards
- Domain-specific validations
Review guidelines
All code reviews follow a structured rubric designed to provide actionable, high-quality feedback:Severity levels
Reviews categorize findings using priority levels:- [P0] - Critical issues blocking release or operations
- [P1] - Urgent issues that should be addressed in the next cycle
- [P2] - Normal priority issues to fix eventually
- [P3] - Low priority nice-to-have improvements
Bug detection criteria
The AI only flags issues as bugs when they meet ALL of these criteria:- Meaningful impact - Affects accuracy, performance, security, or maintainability
- Discrete and actionable - Clear, specific issue with a clear fix
- Appropriate rigor - Fix doesn’t demand more rigor than the rest of the codebase
- Introduced in changes - Bug was added in the reviewed changes (not pre-existing)
- Worth fixing - Author would likely fix if made aware
- No unstated assumptions - Based on verifiable facts, not speculation
- Provably affected - Can identify specific affected code, not theoretical
- Not intentional - Clearly not a deliberate design choice
Comment style
Review comments follow these principles:- Clear reasoning - Explains why something is an issue
- Appropriate severity - Communicates impact accurately
- Brief - Maximum 1 paragraph per finding
- Minimal code - Code chunks limited to 3 lines in markdown
- Scenario-specific - Describes affected environments/conditions
- Matter-of-fact tone - Avoids accusatory language
- Immediately graspable - Easy for the author to understand
- No excessive flattery - Focuses on actionable feedback
Output format
Each finding includes:- Clear title (≤80 characters, imperative mood)
- Explanation of why this is a problem
- File path and line numbers where applicable
- Priority level [P0-P3]
- Suggested fix (when concrete replacement code is available)
- Whether changes are correct or incorrect
- 1-3 sentence summary
Tips and best practices
When to use each review type
When to use each review type
- Uncommitted changes: During active development, before staging commits
- Base branch review: Before creating PRs, to catch issues early
- Commit review: After merging, to understand historical changes or review teammate’s commits
- Custom instructions: When you need focused analysis (security, performance, specific patterns)
Making the most of reviews
Making the most of reviews
- Run reviews frequently during development, not just before commits
- Use custom instructions for domain-specific concerns your team cares about
- Treat P0/P1 findings seriously—they represent real issues worth addressing
- Review the overall assessment for context on whether changes are sound
Navigating the review UI
Navigating the review UI
Integration with workflows
Integration with workflows
The See the Code Review guide for automation examples.
/review command is interactive and meant for CLI sessions. For automated reviews in CI/CD, use:Examples
Pre-PR review
Quick WIP check
Security-focused review
Post-merge review
See also
- CLI Reference - Complete command reference including
/review - Code Review automation guide - Automate reviews with
droid exec - Common use cases - Other workflows and patterns
- How to talk to a droid - Getting better results from AI reviews
