| name | sandman-code-review |
| description | Review changes along separate Standards and Spec axes. Use in self-review context for an implementor's own diff, or in pull-request review context when authoritative pull-request context and a review worktree are supplied. |
Code Review
Use one of the explicit contexts below. Keep Standards and Spec findings separate: a change can meet the requested behavior but violate a documented standard, or follow standards while failing the requested behavior.
Self-review context
Use this context when an implementor reviews its own changes.
This context supports parent-delegated and standalone self-review. In a standalone self-review, without a parent delegator, the skill is the packet owner. It must use an explicitly supplied fixed point when one is provided; otherwise use origin/main when available, then the current branch's upstream, then HEAD~1. If no historical baseline exists, use HEAD as the committed baseline. Use git status --short to enumerate untracked paths without scanning the repository for additional context.
Standalone self-review takes task/specification path or content supplied by the invocation or from .sandman/task.md. If no authoritative specification is available, the Spec output records no spec available while Standards continues. It derives the changed paths from the captured packet and uses explicitly selected standards sources relevant to those paths. It must not scan the repository, infer missing sources, or broaden the packet.
1. Receive the bounded review packet
The parent workflow supplies one bounded review packet before delegating self-review. In standalone mode, this skill captures the same packet itself. The packet owner must capture the packet once, then pass the same packet to both reviewers. The common packet must include:
- The fixed-point identity and the commit list as text context.
- The committed branch diff from
git diff <fixed-point>...HEAD.
- The complete uncommitted tracked changes: the unstaged tracked diff from
git diff and the staged tracked diff from git diff --cached.
- All untracked paths and their contents, as listed by the parent.
Reviewers must treat this packet as immutable: they must not recompute, widen, or replace its diffs or context. If any required packet component is missing or malformed, record the blocked self-review in .sandman/task.md with the missing component and stop without reconstructing the packet by discovering more files or context.
2. Delegate separate review axes
Launch two separate review agents and keep their findings separate. Give the Standards reviewer the common packet, the changed-path list, and only the standards sources that the parent workflow explicitly selected as relevant to those paths; in standalone mode, the skill makes that explicit selection from the invocation's authoritative sources. Give the Spec reviewer the common packet and the authoritative task/specification context supplied by the parent or standalone invocation. Neither reviewer infers, fetches, or substitutes the other axis's context.
Each reviewer reports findings only for its assigned axis, with source citations from the supplied material. The Standards output covers documented-standard violations; the Spec output covers missing, partial, incorrect, and out-of-scope behavior against the supplied specification.
3. Keep reviewer prompts bounded
Every self-review prompt must say that the reviewer may evaluate only the supplied packet and explicitly supplied standards or task/specification material. Do not run grep, rg, or find, browse the whole repository, or perform whole-repository searches. The prompt must not invite repository exploration or tell the reviewer to discover a work item, specification, or standards source.
When a review agent fails or a blocked review ends with no decision, continue with the other axis where possible and record the exact failure in .sandman/task.md and the run log, along with the next executable action, before ending the review. The parent run_idle_timeout remains the only execution watchdog; do not add a separate local cutoff or retry policy.
4. Review and report
Review the diff separately for:
- Standards: violations of documented repository conventions, citing the source and rule.
- Spec: missing, partial, incorrect, or out-of-scope behavior, citing the requirement.
Report under ## Standards and ## Spec headings. State the finding count for each axis and the worst finding.
Pull-request review context
Use this context only when the invocation supplies pull-request title, body, acceptance criteria, review focus, prior-review state, and the destination for the decision artifact. Those inputs are authoritative. Work only in the current review worktree.
When pull-request context is supplied, use only the pull-request review context. The daemon reviewer is read-only and does not construct or delegate a self-review packet; it evaluates the supplied change and writes the decision artifact for the surrounding workflow.
Do not trigger, poll, fetch, post to, merge, commit to, push to, or remediate the pull request. Do not ask for additional context. The surrounding workflow owns pull-request orchestration and posting; this context only evaluates the supplied change and writes the decision artifact.
Reviewer posture
Reviews are acceptance-criteria-first, then documented-standards-only, then correctness and safety. Stay inside the supplied scope. Blocking and Important findings must cite an acceptance criterion, a documented repository standard, or a correctness or safety defect in the supplied change. Suggestions that are not required by those sources are Nits and must not prevent approval.
The supplied prior-review context is authoritative. Do not fetch pull-request history to reconstruct it. When prior-review state exists, report each prior finding as resolved, partially addressed, or still outstanding. When it does not exist, omit the ## Previous review progress section entirely.
1. Review the supplied change
Read the current worktree diff end to end. Evaluate every changed file against:
- the supplied acceptance criteria and review focus;
- documented repository standards and domain vocabulary;
- correctness, required tests, security, and safety risks; and
- applicable local quality rules.
Keep the review inside the supplied scope. Do not raise Blocking or Important findings for work that was not requested unless it is a correctness or safety defect.
Apply local quality rules from .sandman/reviews/quality-rules.md when present. Apply only rules whose construct tags match the changed code, use their stated severity, and never make a quality finding Blocking. When the file is absent, record Quality rules unavailable in this repository; no built-in quality-rule evaluation was applied.
2. Preserve the two axes
Record both assessments independently:
- Standards: documented convention or architectural-decision violations, with the source and rule.
- Spec: acceptance-criteria gaps, partial behavior, scope creep, or incorrect requested behavior.
Correctness and safety findings are reported in addition to the two axes. Each finding cites a file and line range, the concrete concern, and the smallest useful fix.
3. Write the reviewer decision
The invoking pull-request review prompt defines the decision output contract — the required sections, the quality-check rendering, the verdict rule, and the conditional ## Previous review progress slot. Follow that contract. Write the full Markdown decision to the supplied decision.md path using an atomic temp-file-and-rename write. The surrounding workflow reads and posts that file; do not post it yourself.
