code-ultrareview

name	code-ultrareview
description	Eight-axis judgment code review for the current diff — Correctness, Simplification, Tests, Documentation, Style, Intent, Design/API, Performance (+ Coherence on metadata changes). Five-phase pipeline scope → deterministic tool battery (npx/uvx-preferred, zero-install for the JS + Python majority) → 8 parallel LLM axis reviewers → Haiku validators on sub-80 findings (verbatim rubric, ≥80 threshold) → synthesis with no-silent-drop + Conventional Comments JSONL. Every report closes with "What I did NOT check" (security → /security-review, runtime perf, flaky detection). Opt-in flags `--verify-build`, `--mutation-test`, `--reconcile`, `--apply-safe`. Public-skill posture — zero auto-install, graceful skip on missing native tools. Invoke before a commit or PR — "review my changes", "deep review", "did I miss anything", "check before I commit", "audit this PR", "drift / gaps / blind spots".
when_to_use	User-invoked before commit or PR; runs the full 8-axis fan-out — no tiers. Defers security to /security-review (link in every report); defers runtime performance and benchmarks (explicit non-goal). Distinct from Anthropic's remote /ultrareview command.
argument-hint	[-b <ref>] [--repo-kind <kind>] [--reconcile <input>] [--verify-build] [--mutation-test] [--apply-safe] [--include-prose] [--axes <list>] [--preflight] [-s] [-S]
license	MIT
compatibility	Optimized for Claude Code; degrades gracefully on any agent implementing the Agent Skills standard.
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Task, WebFetch
disable-model-invocation	true
metadata	{"author":"coroboros","sources":["github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official/tree/main/plugins/code-review","github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official/tree/main/plugins/code-simplifier","code.claude.com/docs/en/code-review","code.claude.com/docs/en/ultrareview","github.com/mattpocock/skills/tree/main/skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture"]}

Code ultrareview

Critical — Adversarial verification

These rules govern how this skill trusts its own output — apply them whenever it verifies a claim, a defect, a source, or a decision before acting on it.

• Refute by default. Treat each non-trivial finding as unproven until a fresh-context check fails to refute it — the context that produced a claim cannot reliably clear it.
• No silent drop. Every finding flips the conclusion, is refuted in writing, or is filed as a risk or open question. A finding that vanishes without a verdict is a defect.
• Don't re-litigate settled facts. Spend adversarial effort on load-bearing or contested claims; let established facts pass. Over-refutation manufactures false doubt — it does not add rigor.
• Stay selective and cost-aware. Scale verification to the stakes; reversible, low-impact work gets a light touch, not a full adversarial sweep.
• Concede only to a strong rebuttal. A weak counter folds into the finding or gets filed; it does not overturn it.

Important — Engineering discipline

These rules govern how this skill changes code — apply them whenever it writes, edits, or proposes a fix.

• Minimal scope. Only what's directly requested or clearly necessary — no extra files, no abstraction for one use, no configurability nobody asked for, no error handling for states that can't happen. Validate at system boundaries; trust internal code.
• General solution, not the test cases. Implement the real logic for all valid inputs; never hard-code to inputs or bolt on workaround scripts to make a test pass. Tests verify the solution; they don't define it. A test is wrong? Say so — don't bend correct code to a broken test.
• Investigate before claiming. Never speculate about code you haven't opened; read the referenced file before answering. Ground every claim in what you actually read, not a plausible guess.

Critical — Label hygiene

Internal planning labels are author coordinates, not reader coordinates. Strip them from every shipped artifact this skill emits — code, comments, commit subjects/bodies, PR titles/descriptions, release notes, doc paragraphs, non-trivial comments.

• Workstream and task labels — WS-N, Phase-A, Step-3, issue or ticket numbers, plan phase names from the source spec, issue body, or planning artifact. Translate to the domain noun (Runs the battery script (WS-2) → Runs the battery script).
• Process language — "the rebuild", "the prior <file>", "carried verbatim from", "the cleanup pass", "the audit", "spec AC" standalone. Replace with the concrete fact (carries the routing from the prior aggregation → routes via the merge keys in the synthesis module).
• Plan-internal references — "as the brief says", "per the workstream", "from the forge artifact". Drop the reference; state the fact directly.

Carve-outs — literal WS-N is legitimate where the skill IS the format authority (forge templates, apex rule documentation). Reviewer-facing dev docs (e.g. MIGRATION.md under tests/<skill>/) may reference deleted artifacts by their author-time names.

Eight-axis judgment code review. Five-phase pipeline scope → tool battery → 8 parallel axis reviewers → Haiku validators → synthesis. Always runs at full strength — every axis, full battery, no sampling. Distinct from Anthropic's remote /ultrareview — same goal, in-session on the user's subscription.

Important — Writing rules

These rules govern every prose artifact this skill emits — READMEs, CHANGELOGs, commit messages, PR bodies, release notes, doc paragraphs, non-trivial comments. Apply them at draft time, verify before output.

• Match the surrounding style — punctuation, capitalization, backtick conventions, em-dash vs parens, bullet style.
• Every sentence changes the reader's understanding. Cut it otherwise.
• Front-load the verb — "Creates", not "This helps you create".
• Concrete over abstract. Lists for ≥3 enumerable items.
• Assert positively. Reserve negation for real constraints (NEVER commit secrets).
• No marketing words: powerful, robust, seamlessly, leverage, unlock, comprehensive, delightful.
• No AI tells: delve, tapestry, intricate, pivotal, testament, underscore, crucial, garner, showcase, additionally, moreover, furthermore, indeed.
• After drafting English prose, invoke /humanize-en if installed.

Objective

Run the 8 axes — Correctness, Simplification, Tests, Documentation, Style, Intent, Design/API, Performance — as 8 parallel LLM subagents fed by deterministic tool findings from scripts/run_battery.sh. Coherence joins as a 9th axis when metadata files change. Sub-80 axis findings get re-scored by Haiku validators against the verbatim rubric in references/anthropic-verbatim.md. Findings synthesize into one report with deterministic dedup, inter-axis precedence, A2 no-silent-drop, and a verdict (Ship / Fix-then-ship / Needs work). The report ends with "What I did NOT check" so the coverage limits are explicit.

Parameters

Flag	Behavior
-s	Save the report + JSONL to ~/.agents/output/{project}/code-ultrareview/code-ultrareview-{slug}.{md,jsonl}
-S	Force no-save (overrides any ambient save mode)
-b <ref>	Override the review base (skip auto-detection via scripts/resolve_base.sh)
--repo-kind <kind>	Override the scope classifier. Values: skills, app, library, docs, monorepo, python, rust, go, unknown. Persistent per-repo override at .code-ultrareview.yaml (repo_kind: <kind>); the flag wins on conflict. Invalid value exits 2
--reconcile <input>	Activate the Intent-axis derivation sub-mode. <input> may be @auto, @pr, an explicit path or directory, gh:pr:<N>, gh:issue:<owner>/<repo>#<N>, or a GitHub issue URL. Findings classify as GAP / SCOPE-ADD / DECISION-OVERRIDE / CONSISTENT
--verify-build	Run build verification on sub-80 axis findings BEFORE Haiku validators (Phase 3.5). Builds + runs the test command detected by scripts/build_detect.py; confirmed findings get promoted (+30 confidence) and skip the validator phase
--mutation-test	Run Stryker (JS/TS), Pitest (JVM), or mutmut (Python) on changed files only. Surviving mutants route to the Tests axis as 🟠 Medium
--apply-safe	Opt-in writers: auto-apply low-risk fixes (manifest version sync, structured-field description sync with full-agreement guard, one failing test per confirmed bug). Diff preview + per-file confirmation before any write
--include-prose	Coherence axis compares README freeform paragraphs as well (default: structured fields only)
--axes <list>	Comma-separated subset of axes to run (e.g. correctness,tests). Default: all 8 + Coherence when triggered
--preflight	Runs scripts/preflight_tools.sh --scope <scope.json> — lists detected tools per repo_kind + prints install commands for missing ones. Informational only, no install

Lowercase enables, uppercase disables. No -f — this skill is a producer, not a consumer.

/code-ultrareview                              # full 8-axis review, print report
/code-ultrareview -s                           # save the report + JSONL for /apex -f
/code-ultrareview -b origin/main               # review HEAD against an explicit base
/code-ultrareview --verify-build               # promote sub-80 findings via real build verification
/code-ultrareview --reconcile @auto            # add Intent derivation sub-mode with auto-detect
/code-ultrareview --apply-safe                 # full review + gated low-risk fixes
/code-ultrareview --preflight                  # list tools the battery would run, no review
/code-ultrareview --axes correctness,tests     # subset of axes

The five phases

Phase 1 — Scope

Runs scripts/scope.py. Deterministic, no LLM. Outputs scope.json:

• Diff resolution — clean tree → scripts/resolve_base.sh ladder; dirty tree → git diff HEAD + every untracked file inlined as added lines. Recipe for producing the diff.patch fed to Phase 3's prepare --diff (two-dot against the resolved base; untracked files via git diff --no-index /dev/null <file>): references/orchestration.md § Produce the diff.
• Repo-kind classification — 8 kinds (skills / app / library / docs / monorepo / python / rust / go) + unknown. Override via --repo-kind or .code-ultrareview.yaml.
• CLAUDE.md chain — root CLAUDE.md + nested CLAUDE.md in changed directories + .claude/rules/*.md + ~/.claude/rules/*.md. Ordered root-to-deepest. Read by axis reviewers and validators.
• Coherence activation — any of package.json, .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, marketplace.json, SKILL.md, root README.md, tsconfig.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, go.mod in the diff → scope.json["activates_coherence"] = true.
• Languages detection — from changed-file extensions; drives Phase 2 dispatch.

The output also feeds the report header lines Repo: <kind>, Base: <ref>, Files: <N>.

Phase 2 — Tool battery

Runs scripts/run_battery.sh. Deterministic CLIs feed tool-findings.jsonl tagged by axis with confidence: 100. Tools dispatch per scope.json["languages"]: npx-wrapped (knip / jscpd / markdownlint-cli2 / @microsoft/api-extractor) and uvx-wrapped (lizard / vulture / semgrep / vale) tools wrap zero-install; native binaries (oasdiff / atlas / Go deadcode gocyclo dupl / cargo-machete) fall back to PATH. Bundled references/perf-rules/ carries the universal N+1 and sync-I/O semgrep rules. Per-tool axis routing lives in scripts/battery_ingest.py. Full Tool → Axis → Install table in README.md.

Graceful skip. Missing tools emit WARN: <tool> not found — install: <command> to stderr and append to scope.json["tools_skipped"]; the skill continues. The battery NEVER auto-installs — no brew, cargo, go, pip, or npm install runs.

Phase 2 extension — --mutation-test. scripts/run_mutation.sh dispatches Stryker (JS/TS), mutmut (Python), or pitest-maven (JVM) scoped to changed files only. Surviving mutants route to the Tests axis as 🟠 Medium with confidence: 100 (skips Phase 4 validators). Runtime can exceed 10 minutes per language; default 600 s timeout overridable via MUTATION_TIMEOUT. Graceful skip on missing tool or config. Details: references/ultra-execution.md.

Phase 3 — Axis review

The orchestrator prepares 8 per-axis bundles (+ Coherence when active) via scripts/axis_dispatch.py prepare, then launches every bundle as a parallel Explore Task (or your harness's equivalent) in one message. Each subagent reads its axis brief, the rubric in references/anthropic-verbatim.md, the diff, and its filtered tool findings. Each emits canonical-schema JSONL on stdout. Subagents cannot spawn other subagents — the main thread launches both axis reviewers AND validators. No subagent primitive in the harness? Run the axes sequentially and adversarially self-refute each finding in a fresh pass against the verbatim rubric before reporting — same phases, same contracts, no fan-out.

The 8 always-on axes: Correctness · Simplification · Tests · Documentation · Style · Intent · Design/API · Performance. Each maps to references/axes/<name>.md for scope + repo-kind branches. Coherence is the conditional 9th — added when scope.json["activates_coherence"] is true; when inactive, the header surfaces Coherence axis: inactive so the absence is visible. Full axis map, inter-axis precedence, and orchestration details (prepare CLI, bundle schema, no-silent-failure contract): references/axes-overview.md + references/orchestration.md.

Phase 4 — Validation

The orchestrator prepares per-finding validator bundles via scripts/run_validators.py prepare, then launches one Haiku Task per finding in the same message — batched ≤10 parallel. Each validator receives the finding + diff context + the deepest matching CLAUDE.md snippet + the verbatim rubric, re-scores 0-100, and re-checks the cited CLAUDE.md rule actually exists in claude_md_chain (demotes with CLAUDE.md rule not found at <path> if not).

Confidence threshold = 80 (scripts/synthesis_core.py:CONFIDENCE_THRESHOLD). Tool-battery findings (confidence 100) skip the validator phase — they are deterministic. Validators stay read-only — no Write / Edit / Bash, no nested subagent spawn.

Typical runtime. 5-15 sub-80 findings → one batch → ~30-60s. 25+ findings spread over 2-3 batches stay under ~2 min. Latency is dominated by Haiku launch overhead, not inference.

A2 contract. No sub-80 finding silently dropped. Each one is promoted to ≥80, demoted with reason, or surfaced in ### ⚠️ Unverified with the validator's reason text.

Validator prepare CLI, bundle schema, ingest pass details: references/orchestration.md.

Phase 3.5 — --verify-build. Build verification runs BEFORE validators via scripts/run_build_verify.py (composing scripts/build_detect.py + synthesis_core.iterate_unverified — +30 confidence, cap 95, floor 80). Sub-80 findings on correctness / tests / design-api / performance get promoted past the validator phase when the build fails. Other axes pass through unchanged. Details: references/orchestration.md.

Phase 5 — Synthesis

Runs scripts/synthesize.py on top of scripts/synthesis_core.py primitives:

1. Dedup by (location, finding-text).
2. Inter-axis precedence — when 2+ axes flag the same file:line with the same finding wording, highest severity wins; ties resolve via Correctness > Design/API > Simplification > Tests > Documentation > Style > Intent > Performance > Coherence (scripts/synthesis_core.py:AXIS_PRIORITY). Distinct findings at coincident lines (a Correctness null-deref and a Tests missing-assert on the same line) survive as separate entries.
3. A2 routing — sub-80 stays in Unverified with the validator's reason.
4. Verdict — Ship / Fix-then-ship / Needs work (scripts/synthesis_core.py:compute_verdict).
5. Report emission — markdown to terminal + ~/.agents/output/{project}/code-ultrareview/code-ultrareview-{slug}.md. JSONL alongside with Conventional Comments labels (issue / suggestion / nitpick / question).

The closing "What I did NOT check" section is mandatory and always present, even when nothing was skipped — it lists security (defers to /security-review), runtime performance / benchmarks (explicit non-goal), flaky test detection (explicit non-goal), and any tools from scope.json["tools_skipped"].

Final report layout

templates/code-ultrareview.md is the canonical wire format — every ## section renders verbatim in template order with its emoji prefix; no rename, merge, reorder, or improvise. Terminal echo is mandatory — the full canonical report prints to the chat-terminal on every invocation; -s is purely additive (writes the same bytes to ~/.agents/output/{project}/code-ultrareview/code-ultrareview-{slug}.md, byte-for-byte identical to terminal output). Severity marker mapping (🔴 High blocks ship · 🟠 Medium fix-soon · 🟢 Low nit · ⚠️ Unverified sub-80) lives in scripts/synthesize.py:SEVERITY_MARKERS.

Trust model

The skill ingests third-party content — CLAUDE.md files, PR bodies, planning artifacts (--reconcile), GitHub issue bodies — which can carry indirect prompt-injection. Axis reviewers and validators are read-only (no Write / Edit / Bash mutation). User review of the report is the trust boundary before any --apply-safe write; --apply-safe itself gates writes behind diff preview + per-file confirmation.

Rules

• Only new findings. Issues the diff introduces. Pre-existing findings carry the Pre-existing tier for context, never flip the verdict.
• No silent drop (A2). Sub-80 findings surface in ### ⚠️ Unverified with rationale Sub-80 confidence ({score}) — verify locally before action.
• Fail loud. A phase that cannot run (unresolvable base, missing tool with no skip path, dependency failure) appears in the header or as a finding. Never silent.
• Cite precisely. Every finding carries file:line; CLAUDE.md findings quote the violated rule verbatim; permalinks use https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/blob/<full-sha>/<path>#L<n>-L<m> (full SHA via git rev-parse HEAD).
• Full report in chat every time. The complete report prints to the terminal on every invocation. -s writes the same bytes to disk; it never gates or summarises chat output.
• NEVER auto-install tools. Missing tools surface install commands in the report and scope.json["tools_skipped"]. The user installs them.
• NEVER modify code without --apply-safe. Default is read-only review. --apply-safe writers are surgical and per-file confirmed.

Deferrals

The closing "What I did NOT check" section always names these — explicit user-facing calibration of coverage:

• Security → /security-review or Anthropic's claude-code-security-review. Security is a distinct concern with its own deeper review pattern.
• Runtime performance / benchmarks → not covered. The Performance axis catches static patterns (N+1, sync I/O) but not runtime profiling.
• Flaky test detection → not covered. The Tests axis catches structural smells, not flake.
• Tools from scope.json["tools_skipped"] → listed explicitly so the user sees what they sacrificed by not installing the native binaries.

Graceful degradation

• No CLAUDE.md / no .claude/rules — Style axis runs without baseline; the report says Style axis: skipped — no rules baseline found.
• No npx / no uvx — every wrappable tool skips; only PATH binaries run.
• Missing native binary (oasdiff, atlas, cargo-machete, Go tools) — emits to stderr + scope.json["tools_skipped"]. The relevant axis loses its tool input but still runs LLM judgment.
• Unresolvable base — fail loud with the resolver's hint line. Do not guess.
• Unknown repo_kind — axes run with their unknown branch (no specialization).
• Coherence inactive — when no metadata files change, the 9th axis simply does not launch. The report header says Coherence axis: inactive so the absence is visible.

Composition

Bridge to the fix pass after the report ships:

• /apex -f ~/.agents/output/{project}/code-ultrareview/code-ultrareview-{slug}.md — structured fix pass (requires -s; pass the absolute path the report prints).
• /oneshot "<finding>" — single-finding quick fix (takes a description, not a file).

Opt-in flag composition

The four opt-in flags layer orthogonally on the always-on pipeline: mutation tests join Phase 2 tool findings; --verify-build adds Phase 3.5; --reconcile enriches the Intent axis in Phase 3; --apply-safe writers run post-synthesis with diff preview + per-file confirmation. Without a flag, its feature is off. Full composition matrix and per-flag details: references/ultra-execution.md.

What this skill is NOT

• Not a security audit. Defers to /security-review. The closing section makes this explicit on every report.
• Not a linter or formatter. The deterministic tool battery (npx/uvx-wrapped CLIs) handles linting and dead-code detection. The skill layers LLM judgment on top of those signals.
• Not Anthropic's remote /ultrareview. Distinct surface — this skill runs in-session on the user's subscription; /ultrareview runs in a remote sandbox and bills per run.
• Not a fix tool. Report-only by default. --apply-safe covers three surgical writers; everything else routes to /apex or /oneshot.

References

• Reviewer primitives — references/anthropic-verbatim.md (rubric + HIGH SIGNAL + false-positive taxonomy), references/axes-overview.md (8 axes + Coherence + inter-axis precedence), references/axes/<name>.md (per-axis briefs), references/orchestration.md (Phase 3 + 4 + 3.5 prepare CLIs and bundle schemas).
• Opt-in flags — references/ultra-execution.md covers --verify-build, --mutation-test, --reconcile, --apply-safe in full.
• Scripts — scope.py (Phase 1), run_battery.sh + battery_ingest.py (Phase 2), axis_dispatch.py (Phase 3), run_validators.py (Phase 4), synthesize.py + synthesis_core.py + findings_to_jsonl.py (Phase 5). Opt-in: run_build_verify.py, run_mutation.sh, derivation/run.py, preflight_tools.sh (--preflight), apply_safe/{version_sync,description_sync,failing_test_writer}.py.

Gotchas

1. Sub-80 findings can be dropped instead of surfaced in ### ⚠️ Unverified. The A2 contract (scripts/synthesis_core.py:apply_a2) is no-silent-drop. The model sometimes treats a sub-80 score as a rejection signal and omits the finding entirely. Fix: scan the ### ⚠️ Unverified section explicitly on every report; compare finding count to axis output to catch drops.
2. First-run npx / uvx downloads add latency. Cold start adds ~5s per tool the first time the battery touches it; subsequent runs are fast (cached at ~/.npm/_npx / ~/.cache/uv). The README install table documents this so users don't fear repeated downloads.
3. Coherence activates silently on metadata changes. A single package.json touch triggers the 9th subagent automatically. Watch for the Coherence axis: active line in the report header — it tells you the axis ran without you asking.
4. --reconcile @auto skips silently on malformed planning artifacts. A forge or apex file with broken YAML frontmatter (unclosed ---, tab indentation, unquoted colons) is dropped from the auto-detect list. Verify with head -20 ~/.agents/output/{project}/forge/forge-*.md before relying on @auto.