reviewing-changes

name	reviewing-changes
description	Use when reviewing a PR, branch, or working-tree diff, auditing ship risk (panic/unsafe/todo, dead code, untested hotspots), or drafting commit/PR/changelog text. Trigger before "gh pr diff" — pr_context/diff_context compute changed symbols offline. Do NOT use for pure test selection (tracedecay:assessing-impact).

Reviewing changes

NO REVIEW BY READING RAW DIFFS. Semantic change context comes first:
diff_context for the working tree, pr_context for ref-to-ref — both offline.

Announce: "Using tracedecay:reviewing-changes for <diff/PR>."

Diff review

1. Changed files: working tree as-is, or git diff --name-only <base>...HEAD.
2. Semantic summary — one call:
   • Working tree / file list → tracedecay_diff_context (files).
   • PR / ref-to-ref → tracedecay_pr_context (base_ref, head_ref). Both return modified symbols + dependents + affected tests from the local graph. Use gh only for review comments/CI status — never for the diff analysis itself.
3. Deepen only where needed: tracedecay_impact on a high-risk changed symbol; tracedecay_affected only if step 2's test set is insufficient.
4. Quality scan of just the changed files → tracedecay_simplify_scan.
5. Duplicate-body risk or repeated helper logic in touched code → tracedecay_redundancy scoped to the changed directory/file set. Treat definite as consolidation evidence; verify likely — especially pairs whose overlap_kind is body_vector (vector-only signal); naming_only appears only with include_naming_only: true and needs another signal.
6. Risk: tracedecay_test_risk on changed paths; tracedecay_unsafe_patterns on changed files (exclude_tests: true for production-only — unwrap/panic in tests is normal, and an unsafe { } block is an attention site, not automatically a finding).

Safety audit (ship-readiness) and dead-code cleanup

Read references/safety-audit.md for the full sweep (tracedecay_unsafe_patterns → tracedecay_todos → tracedecay_dead_code/tracedecay_unused_imports → tracedecay_test_risk → ranking) and the delete-safely protocol (zero-caller confirmation with tracedecay_callers before any deletion; conservative on pub).

Drafting commit & PR text

Deliverable	Call
Commit message	tracedecay_commit_context (staged_only) — changed symbols + recent commit style
PR description	tracedecay_pr_context → Summary / Impact / Tests
Release notes	tracedecay_changelog (from_ref, to_ref); sanity-check tracedecay_branch_diff

Drafts text only — git commit / gh pr create stay with the user.

Rules

• Review and audit are read-only. Edits → tracedecay:editing-safely; verification → tracedecay:assessing-impact.
• Large diffs: scoped read-only subagents per file group or risk category with cited findings; the parent owns severity and dedup.
• Truncated with a handle? Narrow by file/symbol first; tracedecay_retrieve only when the omitted risk detail is needed.

If tools are deferred or MCP fails

• Deferred: one ToolSearch call — select:tracedecay_diff_context,tracedecay_pr_context,tracedecay_simplify_scan,tracedecay_redundancy,tracedecay_unsafe_patterns,tracedecay_test_risk.
• MCP error: tracedecay tool pr_context --base-ref main --head-ref HEAD etc. (see tracedecay:using-the-cli). gh being unauthenticated or offline is NOT a blocker — pr_context/diff_context never touch the network.

Deliverable

Do not end without findings grouped Critical / Warning / Note, each with file

• enclosing symbol, plus the impacted areas and test set — or the drafted commit/PR/changelog text when that was the ask. An empty review must state what was scanned (tools + scope), not just "looks good". Report any tracedecay_metrics: line.