Review Gate

Overview

Hard compliance gate that BLOCKS PR creation until review requirements are satisfied.

Core principle: No PR without proof of review. No exceptions.

This is enforced by hooks. Even if you attempt to skip this skill, the PreToolUse hook on gh pr create will block the action.

Gate Requirements

ALL must be satisfied to create a PR:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                           REVIEW GATE                                     │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  [ ] Review artifact posted to issue (<!-- REVIEW:START --> format)      │
│  [ ] Review status is COMPLETE (not BLOCKED or IN_PROGRESS)              │
│  [ ] Unaddressed findings = 0                                            │
│  [ ] All deferred findings have tracking issues (linked in artifact)     │
│  [ ] Security review complete (if security-sensitive code changed)       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ALL SATISFIED → PR CREATION ALLOWED                                     │
│  ANY MISSING → PR CREATION BLOCKED                                       │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Verification Process

Step 1: Check Review Artifact Exists

# Query issue comments for review artifact
ISSUE_NUMBER=123
REPO=$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner --jq '.nameWithOwner')
REVIEW_EXISTS=$(gh api "/repos/$REPO/issues/$ISSUE_NUMBER/comments" \
  --jq '[.[] | select(.body | contains("<!-- REVIEW:START -->"))] | length')

if [ "$REVIEW_EXISTS" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "BLOCKED: No review artifact found"
fi

Step 2: Parse Review Status

Extract from the latest review artifact:

# Get latest review comment
REVIEW_BODY=$(gh api "/repos/$REPO/issues/$ISSUE_NUMBER/comments" \
  --jq '[.[] | select(.body | contains("<!-- REVIEW:START -->"))] | last | .body')

# Check status
if echo "$REVIEW_BODY" | grep -q "Review Status.*COMPLETE"; then
  echo "Review status: COMPLETE"
elif echo "$REVIEW_BODY" | grep -q "Review Status.*BLOCKED"; then
  echo "BLOCKED: Review status is BLOCKED_ON_DEPENDENCIES"
fi

Step 3: Verify No Unaddressed Findings

# Extract unaddressed count
UNADDRESSED=$(echo "$REVIEW_BODY" | grep -oP 'Unaddressed[:\s|]+\K\d+' | head -1)

if [ "$UNADDRESSED" != "0" ]; then
  echo "BLOCKED: $UNADDRESSED unaddressed findings"
fi

Step 4: Verify Deferred Findings Have Tracking Issues

For each deferred finding, verify a tracking issue exists and is linked:

# Each deferred finding must have format: | Finding | ... | #NNN | ...
DEFERRED_WITHOUT_ISSUE=$(echo "$REVIEW_BODY" | grep -i "DEFERRED" | grep -cv "#[0-9]" || echo "0")

if [ "$DEFERRED_WITHOUT_ISSUE" -gt 0 ]; then
  echo "BLOCKED: $DEFERRED_WITHOUT_ISSUE deferred findings without tracking issues"
fi

Step 5: Security Review (Conditional)

If files matching security-sensitive patterns were changed:

# Check if security-sensitive files changed
SECURITY_FILES=$(git diff --name-only HEAD~1 | grep -E '(auth|security|middleware|api|password|token|secret)')

if [ -n "$SECURITY_FILES" ]; then
  # Verify security review section exists in artifact
  if ! echo "$REVIEW_BODY" | grep -q "Security-Sensitive.*YES"; then
    echo "BLOCKED: Security-sensitive files changed but no security review"
  fi
fi

Review Artifact Format

The review artifact MUST follow this exact format for machine parsing:

<!-- REVIEW:START -->
## Code Review Complete

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Worker | `[WORKER_ID]` |
| Issue | #[ISSUE_NUMBER] |
| Scope | [MINOR|MAJOR] |
| Security-Sensitive | [YES|NO] |
| Reviewed | [ISO_TIMESTAMP] |

### Criteria Results

| # | Criterion | Status | Findings |
|---|-----------|--------|----------|
| 1 | Blindspots | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |
| 2 | Clarity | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |
| 3 | Maintainability | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |
| 4 | Security | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED|N/A] | [N] |
| 5 | Performance | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |
| 6 | Documentation | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |
| 7 | Style | [✅ PASS|✅ FIXED|⚠️ DEFERRED] | [N] |

### Findings Fixed in This PR

| # | Severity | Finding | Resolution |
|---|----------|---------|------------|
| 1 | [SEVERITY] | [DESCRIPTION] | [HOW_FIXED] |

### Findings Deferred (With Tracking Issues)

| # | Severity | Finding | Tracking Issue | Justification |
|---|----------|---------|----------------|---------------|
| 1 | [SEVERITY] | [DESCRIPTION] | #[ISSUE] | [WHY] |

### Summary

| Category | Count |
|----------|-------|
| Fixed in PR | [N] |
| Deferred (with tracking) | [N] |
| Unaddressed | 0 |

**Review Status:** [✅ COMPLETE|⏸️ BLOCKED_ON_DEPENDENCIES]
<!-- REVIEW:END -->

Blocked Scenarios

Missing Review Artifact

REVIEW GATE BLOCKED

Reason: No review artifact found in issue #123

Required Action:
1. Perform comprehensive-review
2. Post review artifact to issue #123 using standard format
3. Address all findings or create tracking issues
4. Retry PR creation

Hint: Use the code-reviewer subagent to perform review.

Unaddressed Findings

REVIEW GATE BLOCKED

Reason: 3 unaddressed findings in review artifact

Required Action:
1. Fix the unaddressed findings, OR
2. Create tracking issues and update artifact with links
3. Ensure "Unaddressed: 0" in artifact summary
4. Retry PR creation

Missing Security Review

REVIEW GATE BLOCKED

Reason: Security-sensitive files changed without security review

Files detected:
- src/auth/login.ts
- src/middleware/authenticate.ts

Required Action:
1. Invoke security-reviewer subagent
2. Update review artifact with "Security-Sensitive: YES"
3. Document security review findings
4. Retry PR creation

Checklist

Before attempting PR creation:

• comprehensive-review skill completed
• Review artifact posted to issue (exact format)
• All findings either FIXED or DEFERRED
• All DEFERRED findings have tracking issues created
• Tracking issue numbers in artifact
• Security review if security-sensitive files changed
• "Unaddressed: 0" in summary
• "Review Status: COMPLETE"

Integration

This skill is enforced by:

• PreToolUse hook on Bash (filters gh pr create)

This skill is called after:

• comprehensive-review
• apply-all-findings
• security-review (if applicable)

This skill precedes:

• pr-creation