| name | review-pr |
| description | Gather a PR or branch diff for review — decision tree for local working tree vs GitHub PR vs a fresh /tmp checkout, dumped to a file so nothing is lost to terminal truncation. Use when the user asks to review a PR, summarize a diff, or audit changes; hands off to `code-review` for the actual review and `stacked-diff-review` for the write-up. |
Gather a Diff for Review
Three skills, one job. This skill gathers the diff. code-review is the review process — what to look for, how to verify a finding, when to auto-apply. stacked-diff-review is the output format. Load all three for a non-trivial PR.
1. Decide where the diff comes from
Prefer the local working tree whenever possible. A fresh checkout under /tmp is a last resort — only reach for it when the current directory genuinely cannot serve the review (wrong repo, or you need a clean tree and the user has unrelated uncommitted changes).
Decision order:
- No PR reference, in a git repo — review the local branch. Detect an open PR via
gh pr view --json number,url for context, but read the diff from the working tree: git diff <base>...HEAD (<base> = PR base or origin/HEAD), plus git diff and git diff --cached for any uncommitted changes. Mention uncommitted changes explicitly in the report.
- PR reference provided, and we are inside the matching repo — verify by comparing
gh repo view --json nameWithOwner to the PR's repo. If they match:
- If the PR's head branch is currently checked out (
git branch --show-current matches gh pr view <n> --json headRefName), review the local tree as in (1).
- Otherwise, read the diff via
gh pr diff <number> and PR metadata via gh pr view <number> — no checkout, no /tmp.
- PR reference provided, and we are NOT in the matching repo (or not in a git repo at all) — only then fall back to a fresh checkout under
/tmp (gh pr checkout into a temp clone). State this up front so the user knows why you're leaving the current directory.
Never cd /tmp or clone anywhere when steps (1) or (2) apply. If unsure which case applies, run the detection commands above before fetching anything.
2. Dump the full diff to a file
gh pr diff <number> > /tmp/diff_output.diff
git diff main...HEAD > /tmp/diff_output.diff
git diff <base>...<head> > /tmp/diff_output.diff
Never trust truncated terminal output. Read with the read tool using offset/limit for large diffs.
3. Hand off
Once the diff is gathered and saved, run it through code-review (lenses, verification, severity, optional apply), then write it up per stacked-diff-review.
✅ Checklist
📚 See also
