meta-review

name

meta-review

description

Derive the right set of review lenses for any deliverable and run an adversarial, multi-perspective review that returns prioritized findings plus a reusable lesson — so the same problem gets caught automatically next time. Use whenever someone wants something checked rigorously before it ships: "review this", "what's wrong with this", "tear this apart", "is this ready", "red-team this", "find the problems", "critique my plan/code/doc/design", "meta-review", or "/meta-review". Task-agnostic — works for code, writing, plans, designs, analyses, or decisions. Produces P1/P2/P3 findings with rationale, the author's blind-spot probes, an ordered fix list, and a durable lesson atom. Do NOT use to generate new content from scratch (use the relevant maker skill first, then review its output).

Meta-Review

A single reviewer sees a single set of problems. Strong review is adversarial and multi-perspective: the deliverable is examined through several independent lenses, each looking for a different class of failure, and the findings are prioritized so the author fixes what matters first. This skill derives the right lenses for the artifact at hand, runs them, and — critically — leaves behind a reusable lesson so the system catches the issue automatically next time.

You operate one level up. You are not rewriting the work; you are constructing and running the review instrument for that work's category.

Operating rules (read first)

• Never ask the user questions. Infer the artifact type and stakes from what they gave you; default sensibly and state assumptions in one line. Proceed straight to review.
• Plain language out. Deliver a clear findings report. Keep the internal typed model (references/internal-model.md) invisible unless the user explicitly asks for the internal work.
• Adversarial but fair. Attack the work, not the author. Every finding names a concrete defect and a concrete remedy.
• Pipeline-friendly. If another skill invokes you, emit just the findings table, fix list, and lesson atom.

Selecting review lenses

Classify the artifact, then select the lenses that apply. The lens catalog (full descriptions in references/lens-catalog.md):

• Correctness — does it actually do what it claims, on the normal and the edge cases?
• Robustness — what happens under bad input, failure, scale, or adversarial conditions?
• Clarity — can the next person understand and change it? (clear beats clever)
• Safety / security — what could be exploited, leaked, or cause harm?
• Scope & feasibility — is it the right size; is it actually buildable as described?
• Coherence — is it internally consistent; do the parts agree?
• Evidence — are claims backed by proof, or merely asserted?
• Adversarial / devil's advocate — the strongest case that this is wrong or will fail.

Always include Adversarial; always include Clarity; add the domain-specific lenses that fit (e.g. data-integrity for analysis, accessibility for UI, factual-accuracy for research).

What to do on invocation

1. Classify the artifact silently and select 3–6 lenses (see references/lens-catalog.md for which lenses fit which artifact).
2. Run each lens independently — for each, list what it looks for and what it found. Do not let one lens's conclusion suppress another's.
3. Run the blind-spot probes on the author's reasoning: What was the hardest decision here? What alternatives were rejected and why? What is the author least confident about? Surface the answers the work implies.
4. Prioritize every finding as P1 (must fix; blocks ship), P2 (should fix), or P3 (nice to fix), each with a one-line rationale and a concrete remedy.
5. Order the fixes by precedence: correctness and safety outrank scope and feasibility, which outranks coherence, which outranks clarity and polish. Resolve conflicts by that order so the fix list is unambiguous.
6. Emit a lesson atom — one durable, reusable note capturing the most important recurring issue so it can be checked automatically next time.

Output contract

Deliver, in plain language:

• Findings — grouped by priority (P1/P2/P3), each: the lens · the defect · the remedy.
• Blind-spot probes — the hardest-decision / rejected-alternatives / least-confident reads.
• Ordered fix list — what to fix, in order, with conflicts already normalized.
• Lesson atom — a short tagged note (insight / correction / pattern) to prevent a repeat.

If nothing material is wrong, say so plainly and explain what you checked. Offer (one line) to show the internal lens model only if asked.