| name | java-interop-reviewer |
| description | Review dotnet/java-interop PRs against established rules. Trigger on "review this PR", a GitHub PR URL, or code review requests. Checks C#, JNI interop, nullable, async, security, error handling, formatting, performance, native code, and generator codegen. |
Java.Interop PR Reviewer
Review PRs against guidelines distilled from past reviews by senior maintainers of dotnet/java-interop.
Review Mindset
Be polite but skeptical. Prioritize bugs, performance regressions, safety issues, and pattern violations over style nitpicks. 3 important comments > 15 nitpicks.
Flag severity clearly in every comment:
- ❌ error — Must fix before merge. Bugs, security issues, JNI reference leaks, broken codegen.
- ⚠️ warning — Should fix. Performance issues, missing validation, inconsistency with patterns.
- 💡 suggestion — Consider changing. Style, readability, optional improvements.
Every review should produce at least one inline comment. Even clean PRs have opportunities for improvement — code consolidation, missing edge-case tests, perf micro-optimizations, or documentation gaps. Use 💡 suggestions for these. A review with zero comments appears superficial and misses the chance to share knowledge. Only omit inline comments if the PR is truly trivial (e.g., a 1-line typo fix or dependency bump).
Workflow
1. Identify the PR
If triggered from an agentic workflow (slash command on a PR), use the PR from the event context. Otherwise, extract owner, repo, pr_number from a URL or reference provided by the user.
Formats: https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/pull/{number}, {owner}/{repo}#{number}, or bare number (defaults to dotnet/java-interop).
2. Gather context (before reading PR description)
gh pr diff {number} --repo {owner}/{repo}
gh pr view {number} --repo {owner}/{repo} --json files
For each changed file, read the full source file (not just the diff) to understand surrounding invariants, call patterns, and data flow. If the change modifies a public/internal API or utility, search for callers. Check whether sibling types need the same fix.
Form an independent assessment of what the change does and what problems it has before reading the PR description.
3. Incorporate PR narrative and reconcile
gh pr view {number} --repo {owner}/{repo} --json title,body
Now read the PR description and linked issues. Treat them as claims to verify, not facts to accept. Where your independent reading disagrees with the PR description, investigate further. If the PR claims a performance improvement, require evidence (benchmarks, profiling data). If it claims a bug fix, verify the bug exists and the fix addresses root cause — not symptoms.
4. Check CI status
gh pr checks {number} --repo {owner}/{repo}
Review the CI results. Never post ✅ LGTM if any required CI check is failing or if the code doesn't build. If CI is failing:
- Investigate the failure.
- If the failure is caused by the PR's code changes, flag it as ❌ error.
- If the failure is a known infrastructure issue or pre-existing flake unrelated to the PR, note it in the summary but still use ⚠️ Needs Changes — the PR isn't mergeable until CI is green.
5. Load review rules
Based on the file types identified in step 2, read the appropriate rule files from this skill's references/ directory.
Always load:
references/repo-conventions.md — Formatting, style, and patterns specific to this repository.references/ai-pitfalls.md — Common AI-generated code mistakes.
Conditionally load based on changed file types:
references/csharp-rules.md — When any .cs files changed. Covers nullable, async, error handling, performance, and code organization.references/interop-rules.md — When the diff contains JNI interop code (e.g., JniObjectReference, JniPeerMembers, [Register], DllImport, [MarshalAs], [StructLayout], JNIEnv), or when both C# and native files changed.references/native-rules.md — When .c, .cc, .cpp, .h, or .hpp files changed (e.g., files under src/java-interop/).references/msbuild-rules.md — When .targets, .props, .projitems, or .csproj files changed.references/testing-rules.md — When test files changed (e.g., files under tests/, *-Tests/, or test project directories).references/security-rules.md — When any code files changed (C#, C/C++, or MSBuild).
6. Analyze the diff
For each changed file, check against the review rules. Record issues as:
{ "path": "src/Example.cs", "line": 42, "side": "RIGHT", "body": "..." }
What to look for (in priority order):
- Bugs & correctness — race conditions, null dereferences, off-by-one, logic errors, JNI reference leaks
- Safety — thread safety, resource leaks, security vulnerabilities
- Performance — O(n²) patterns, unnecessary allocations, startup time regressions
- Trimmer/NativeAOT compatibility — reflection without annotations,
Type.GetType() misuse
- Missing tests — untested error paths, edge cases, missing regression tests for bug fixes
- Code duplication — near-identical methods that should be consolidated
- Consistency — patterns mixed within the same PR, API return types inconsistent with repo conventions
- Documentation — misleading comments, undocumented behavioral decisions
Constraints:
- Only comment on added/modified lines in the diff — the API rejects out-of-range lines.
line = line number in the NEW file (right side). Double-check against the diff.- One issue per comment.
- Don't pile on. If the same issue appears many times, flag it once with a note listing all affected files.
- Don't flag what CI catches. Skip compiler errors, formatting the linter will catch, etc.
- Avoid false positives. Verify the concern actually applies given the full context. If unsure, phrase it as a question rather than a firm claim.
7. Post the review
Post your findings directly:
- Inline comments on specific lines of the diff with the severity, category, and explanation.
- Review summary with the overall verdict (✅ LGTM, ⚠️ Needs Changes, or ❌ Reject), issue counts by severity, and positive callouts.
If no issues found and CI is green, submit with at most one or two 💡 suggestions and a positive summary. Truly trivial PRs (dependency bumps, 1-line typo fixes) may have no inline comments.
Copilot-authored PRs: If the PR author is Copilot (the GitHub Copilot coding agent) and the verdict is ⚠️ Needs Changes or ❌ Reject, prefix the review summary with @copilot so the comment automatically triggers Copilot to address the feedback. Do NOT add the prefix for ✅ LGTM verdicts.
Comment format
🤖 {severity} **{Category}** — {What's wrong and what to do instead.}
_{Rule: Brief name}_
Where {severity} is ❌, ⚠️, or 💡.
Categories: Nullable · Async pattern · Error handling · Resource management · Security · Formatting · Performance · Code organization · Naming · JNI interop · JNI references · Generator codegen · Native C/C++ · Testing · YAGNI · API design · Trimmer/AOT · Documentation
