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Overview

The /review command provides a local 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.

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Quick start

1

Start the review flow

In a local droid session, type:
/review
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

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Review types

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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:
  1. Select “Review against a base branch”
  2. Choose your target base branch from the list (local and remote branches shown)
  3. Droid finds the merge base and reviews the diff
Use cases:
  • Pre-commit PR reviews
  • Checking branch changes before creating a pull request
  • Validating feature branch against main/develop
Example workflow: 
> /review
# Select: Review against a base branch
# Choose: origin/main
# Droid reviews all changes that would be merged

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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
Example workflow: 
> /review
# Select: Review uncommitted changes
# Droid immediately reviews all working directory changes

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Review a commit

Examine the changes introduced by a specific commit in your repository history. How it works:
  1. Select “Review a commit”
  2. Browse commits with hash, message, author, and date
  3. Select a commit to review
Use cases:
  • Reviewing recent commits for issues
  • Understanding changes in a specific commit
  • Post-merge review of teammate’s work
Example workflow: 
> /review
# Select: Review a commit
# Browse and select: abc1234 - "Add user authentication"
# Droid reviews that specific commit's changes

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Custom review instructions

Define your own review criteria for specialized analysis. Use cases:
  • Performance analysis
  • Checking specific coding standards
  • Domain-specific validations
Example workflow: 
> /review
# Select: Custom review instructions
# Enter: "Focus on performance regressions and unnecessary re-renders"
# Droid performs a targeted review

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Review guidelines

All code reviews follow a structured rubric designed to provide actionable, high-quality feedback:

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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

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Bug detection criteria

The AI only flags issues as bugs when they meet ALL of these criteria:
  1. Meaningful impact - Affects accuracy, performance, security, or maintainability
  2. Discrete and actionable - Clear, specific issue with a clear fix
  3. Appropriate rigor - Fix doesn’t demand more rigor than the rest of the codebase
  4. Introduced in changes - Bug was added in the reviewed changes (not pre-existing)
  5. Worth fixing - Author would likely fix if made aware
  6. No unstated assumptions - Based on verifiable facts, not speculation
  7. Provably affected - Can identify specific affected code, not theoretical
  8. Not intentional - Clearly not a deliberate design choice

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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

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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)
Plus an overall assessment:
  • Whether changes are correct or incorrect
  • 1-3 sentence summary

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Tips and best practices

  • 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)
  • 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
The /review command is meant for local CLI sessions. For automated reviews in CI/CD, use:
droid exec "Review the changes in this PR for correctness and performance regressions"
See the Automated Code Review guide for automation setup.

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Examples

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Pre-PR review

# Before creating a pull request
> /review
# Select: Review against a base branch
# Choose: origin/main
# Review findings, fix issues, then create PR

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Quick WIP check

# Check work in progress
> /review
# Select: Review uncommitted changes
# Get immediate feedback on current changes

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Post-merge review

# Review a teammate's recent commit
> /review
# Select: Review a commit
# Choose the recent commit to understand changes

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Automated reviews in CI

For automated PR reviews, use the Automated Code Review workflow. It supports:
  • Automatic PR reviews triggered by pull request events or comments
  • Review depth (deep or shallow) to control thoroughness and cost
  • Custom review guidelines for repository-specific checks
Set up with: 
droid
> /install-code-review
See the Automated Code Review guide for full configuration options.

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See also