How reviews work

A review runs in a few steps. You can watch each one live, and pause or cancel it.

Checkout

Recoder clones the repository into its work directory and checks out the pull request's head commit.

Understand

Recoder reads the repository's instructions, such as AGENTS.md and CONTRIBUTING.md, and your guidelines. If you asked it to review only part of the change, it leaves out the rest here.

Run checks

Recoder installs the dependencies, then runs the type check, lint and tests from the package.json scripts of each JavaScript package the change touches. Every reviewer and verifier sees the results.

Review

The change is cut into review units: groups of related files, packed by folder up to a size limit. The same diff always gives the same units. Each unit gets one reviewer that reads its files and the code around them, runs commands, and writes small repro tests to prove what it reports.

A reviewer can hand a deep question to a subagent. Subagents run after every reviewer has finished, up to a limit per review that you set in Settings: Off, Up to 2 or Up to 4. The default is 2. Requests past the limit are skipped and named in the summary.

If a reviewer fails, its unit is retried once. A unit that failed for being too big is split in two.

Findings that point outside the change, or cite evidence that was never gathered, are dropped as reviewers report them.

Verify

Every finding goes to a fresh agent that tries to reproduce it by running code. A finding a run disproves is dropped. The rest are marked Verified, with the command that proved it, or Unverified, with the reason.

Consolidate

The Review model merges duplicates in one pass. If that call fails, the findings are kept as reported.

Sandbox

Commands run in bubblewrap on Linux and in the built-in sandbox-exec sandbox on macOS. Only the checkout is writable, your home and Recoder's data directory are hidden, and there is no network. The dependency install is the one step with network access, and it runs with install scripts off. Edits to tracked files are undone after every command. On native Windows, or without a sandbox, reviews only read the code, and every finding is marked Unverified. Run the server under WSL to run code on Windows. Set RECODER_EXEC=off to turn running code off.

After the review

• Discuss a finding. The reviewer sees the finding and the code around it.
• Apply a suggested fix. Recoder commits it and pushes it to the pull request's branch.
• Leave notes on lines of the diff and re-review. Recoder answers each note and can add new findings.
• Dismiss findings you don't need.