| name | review |
| description | Autonomous review of code repositories, articles, documents, and tools. Triggers whenever a GitHub URL, repo link, article URL, or document is shared for review — even with zero additional context. If the user pastes a GitHub repo URL with no other instructions, run this skill immediately. Also triggers on phrases like "review this", "check this out", "what do you think of this repo/article/project", "take a look at", or any shared link to a codebase or technical article. Also triggers on requests to check in on, refresh, re-review, or update an existing review after upstream changes. Covers repos, blog posts, research papers, technical writeups, and tools. Three outputs every time: chat summary, public review (pushed to public-data), and internal vault review with project relevance.
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Review Skill
Autonomous review pipeline. No clarifying questions. No "what do you want me to look at?" Just do the review.
When This Triggers
- A GitHub/GitLab/etc. repo URL is pasted (with or without any other context)
- An article, blog post, or technical document URL is shared
- A document or file is shared for review
- The user says "review this", "check this out", "take a look at", etc.
- The user asks to "check in", "refresh", "re-review", "update the review", "see what's changed", or "check for updates"
on something previously reviewed
- Any unreviewed URL appears in conversation
If a GitHub repo URL is shared with no additional context, that IS the instruction. Run the full pipeline.
The Pipeline
Step 0: Detect Content Type
Determine whether the input is a code repository or a document/article. This affects which sections appear in the review, but all three outputs are always produced.
- Code repository: GitHub/GitLab URL, local repo path, or anything with a codebase
- Document/article: Blog post, research paper, technical writeup, news article, PDF
Also determine whether this is a new review or a review check-in:
- New review: no prior public/internal review exists, or the user asks for a fresh review
- Review check-in: prior review exists and the user asks to check for updates, refresh, re-review, or update it
For check-ins, do not blindly rewrite the review. First compare the current source against the prior reviewed state and decide whether the change is material.
Step 1: Acquire the Source
For repos:
- Clone to
/tmp/<repo-name> (shallow clone: git clone --depth 1)
- If clone fails due to mount locks, try
/tmp directly
- Read: README, LICENSE, package manifests, key config files, directory structure
- Scan architecture: entry points, core modules, key patterns, dependencies, CI config
- Check GitHub API for stars, forks, last push date, open issues count
For articles/documents:
- Fetch the URL content (use WebFetch or read the provided file)
- Extract: title, author, publication date, key claims, methodology
- Note the source credibility and any obvious biases
Step 1.5: Review Check-In Delta
Use this step only for review check-ins.
Find prior artifacts:
- Public review: Zob-notes-1/public-data/reviews/.md
- Internal review: Zob-notes-1/Research/repo-reviews/.md
- Ingest log: Zob-notes-1/Research/log.md
For repos:
- Read the prior review date, version/tag/commit if present, stars/forks, and stated verdict.
- Use GitHub metadata and local git data to compare current state against the prior review:
- latest commit SHA and date
- release/tag/version changes
- changelog entries since the prior review date
- changed top-level modules or major dependencies
- README or architecture changes
- CI/test posture changes
- Prefer targeted diffs over full re-analysis when the prior review is recent:
- git log --since= --oneline
- git diff --stat ..HEAD when a prior ref is known
- changelog sections since the prior reviewed version/date
For articles/documents:
- Check publication date, updated date, canonical URL, and content hash if available.
- Compare changed sections or claims against the prior review.
Material-change threshold:
Update the review when at least one is true:
- new major/minor release or meaningful version bump
- architectural change, new subsystem, or removed subsystem
- license, hosting, install, or operational model changed
- security posture changed
- verdict/rating should change
- extracted public-data patterns/prompts/tools should be added, removed, or revised
- prior review contains stale facts that would mislead a reader
If there are no material changes:
- Post a chat summary saying the review was checked and remains current
- Do not rewrite public/internal reviews
- Append a check-in row to Research/log.md with verdict ↔️ and files written as none
If there are material changes:
- Update the existing public and internal review files in place
- Add a short Update Notes section near the top of each updated review:
- date checked
- prior reviewed date/version/ref if known
- current version/ref
- concise list of material changes
- Update public-data README rows only if rating, description, license, or filename changed
- Update extracted patterns only when the extracted pattern itself changed
- Append a check-in row to Research/log.md with files written
Step 2: Analyze
For repos — evaluate these dimensions:
- What it is: One-paragraph product description. What problem does it solve?
- Stack: Language, framework, database, infrastructure, key dependencies
- License: Type and implications (MIT/Apache = free extraction; AGPL/GPL = summarize only; none = educational use only)
- Architecture: Key patterns, interesting design decisions, code quality signals
- Features: Standout capabilities, what's novel or well-executed
- Security: Any obvious issues (scan for hardcoded secrets, CORS, auth gaps, input validation)
- Maturity: Stars, forks, commit frequency, documentation quality, test coverage
- Verdict: Classification using the rating system (see below)
For articles — evaluate these dimensions:
- What it claims: Core thesis and key arguments
- Evidence quality: Data, citations, methodology, reproducibility
- Relevance: Who should read this and why
- Gaps: What's missing, what's overstated, counterarguments
- Verdict: Worth reading, worth sharing, worth acting on?
Step 3: Write Three Outputs
Every review produces exactly three outputs. No exceptions.
Output 1: Chat Summary
Short, direct, returned in the conversation. Format:
**[Name]** — [one-line description]
Stack: [key technologies]
License: [type]
Verdict: [emoji + classification + 1-2 sentences why]
Key points:
- [2-4 bullets of what matters most]
For articles, replace Stack/License with Source/Author/Date.
Output 2: Public Review
Written to Zob-notes-1/public-data/reviews/<name>.md
This is PUBLIC. No internal project references, no PII, no secrets. Include attribution.
Critical: Public/Internal Separation
The public review must be completely context-free — it reads as if written by someone with no affiliation to any specific organization or project. Before writing public-review.md, mentally scrub ALL of the following:
- Organization names: Bluesun-Networks, RueClaw, etc.
- Project names: Marcos care agent, VOS, GeoGuard, MarineChat, agent event bus, etc.
- Infrastructure references: homelab, fleet, specific server names, IP addresses
- Personal names: Jon, Rue, any family/team members
If a feature is relevant to one of our projects, describe it generically in the public review ("useful for healthcare coordination apps", "good fit for self-hosted deployments") and save the specific project mapping for the internal review only.
This separation matters because public-data is a published repo. Internal context leaking into it is a data hygiene failure.
Read references/public-review-template.md for the exact format.
After writing:
- Update the reviews table in
Zob-notes-1/public-data/README.md
- Stage, commit with message:
review: <repo-or-article-name>
- Push to origin
Git operations for public-data:
- The repo is at
Zob-notes-1/public-data/ (it's a git repo nested in the vault)
- Remote:
git@github.com-rue:ruenakatomi-clawdbot/public-data.git
- Branch:
main
- If git push fails (SSH key not loaded), note it in chat and move on. Don't block the review.
Output 3: Internal Vault Review
Written to Zob-notes-1/Research/repo-reviews/<name>.md
This is the detailed internal review with project relevance. Read references/internal-review-template.md for the exact format.
The internal review includes everything the public review has PLUS:
- Relevance Assessment section: How does this relate to our active projects? (marcos care agent, homelab infrastructure, agent event bus, VOS, Bluesun-Networks repos, fleet management, vault tools, etc.)
- Patterns Worth Borrowing section: Specific code patterns, architecture decisions, or approaches we should adopt
- Comparison with similar tools we've already reviewed (reference existing reviews in Research/repo-reviews/)
After writing, update the research index at Homelab/lobsters/rue/workspace/research.md with a new row in the table.
Step 4: Extract Valuable Content
If the reviewed source contains reusable content worth extracting (prompts, patterns, agent configs, tools, scripts), extract them to the appropriate public-data directory with attribution:
public-data/prompts/ — System prompts, prompt templates
public-data/patterns/ — Architectural patterns, design approaches
public-data/agents/ — Agent definitions, orchestration configs
public-data/tools/ — Useful scripts and utilities
Only extract if genuinely valuable. Don't extract for the sake of extracting.
Rating System
Use these verdict classifications:
| Emoji | Rating | Meaning |
|---|
| ✅ | Deploy candidate | Worth deploying or forking for active use |
| ⚠️ | Interesting | Useful ideas but partial overlap or limitations |
| 📚 | Study | Learn from the patterns, don't deploy directly |
| 🔧 | Harvest | Specific components worth extracting |
| ❌ | Pass | Not worth further investment |
| ↔️ | Current | Check-in found no material change since the prior review |
For articles, adapt: ✅ = act on this, ⚠️ = interesting but verify, 📚 = good reference, ❌ = skip.
Writing Style
Follow the BATHROOM_MIRROR rules — no significance inflation, no filler, no hedge-everything-to-death.
Direct. Technical. Opinionated. If something is bad, say so. If something is good, say what specifically is good and why.
Specificity > enthusiasm. Facts > inflation. Silence > filler.
Compare against things we've already reviewed when relevant. Cross-reference existing reviews in Research/repo-reviews/.
File Naming
- Repo reviews: use the repo name, lowercased, hyphenated.
probo.md, ciso-assistant-community.md, agent-orchestrator.md
- Article reviews: use a descriptive slug.
openai-reasoning-paper.md, aws-graviton4-benchmarks.md
- If the name would collide with an existing file, append a disambiguator.
Error Handling
- If clone fails: try alternative clone methods, or review from GitHub's web API
- If git push to public-data fails: write the files, note the push failure in chat, move on
- Never block the entire review because one output failed. Produce what you can.
Source unreachable (404, timeout, blocked):
When the source URL cannot be fetched or cloned after reasonable attempts:
- Produce only the chat summary explaining the failure, what you tried, and any related resources found via search
- Do NOT write public-review.md, internal-review.md, or index rows — there's nothing substantive to review
- If search turns up the content elsewhere (mirror, archive, different URL), use that and proceed normally