CodeRabbit CLI

AI code reviews locally. Rate limit: 1 review/hour. Use sparingly.

When to Use (Be Selective)

USE CodeRabbit for:

• User explicitly requests it
• Security-sensitive code (auth, crypto, input validation, secrets)
• Concurrency/async (race conditions, deadlocks, shared state)
• Memory management (leaks, resource cleanup)
• Complex business logic with non-obvious edge cases
• Database migrations or schema changes
• Public API contract changes

SKIP CodeRabbit for:

• Simple refactors, renames, moves
• Documentation or comment changes
• Test additions (unless testing complex logic)
• Config/env changes
• Obvious bug fixes
• Formatting/style cleanup

When uncertain, ask user: "This looks like it could benefit from a CodeRabbit review (1/hour limit). Want me to run one?"

Setup (First Use)

# Check if installed
command -v cr &>/dev/null || {
  echo "Installing CodeRabbit CLI..."
  curl -fsSL https://cli.coderabbit.ai/install.sh | sh
  source ~/.zshrc  # or ~/.bashrc
}

# Check auth status, login if needed
cr auth status || cr auth login

If CLI missing, prompt user: "CodeRabbit CLI not installed. Install it now?" Then run install + auth.

Execution (Always Background)

ALWAYS run in background with monitoring:

# Start review in background, capture output
cr review --prompt-only --type uncommitted > /tmp/cr-review.txt 2>&1 &
CR_PID=$!

# Monitor completion (reviews take 7-30 min)
while kill -0 $CR_PID 2>/dev/null; do sleep 30; done

# Read results
cat /tmp/cr-review.txt

Flags:

• --prompt-only — Always use. AI-optimized, token-efficient output
• --type uncommitted — Faster, reviews only unstaged/staged changes
• --type committed — Only committed changes vs base
• --base <branch> — Compare against specific branch (default: main)

Workflow

1. Run background review (command above)
2. Continue other work while waiting
3. Parse findings when complete — prioritize: critical > major > minor (ignore nits)
4. Fix critical/major only — don't chase diminishing returns
5. NO verification re-run unless user requests (preserve rate limit)

Troubleshooting

• No findings: Check git status, verify --base branch
• Stalled: Reviews can take 30+ min for large diffs — be patient
• Auth issues: Re-run cr auth login