| name | crit-cli |
| description | Use when an agent needs to author or reply to crit inline comments programmatically (including multi-agent workflows commenting on shared code/plans/docs/proposals), publish or unpublish a crit review with crit share, sync a crit review to or from a GitHub PR, or read/interpret a crit review JSON file. Covers crit comment, crit share, crit unpublish, crit pull, crit push, review file format, and resolution workflow. Not for invoking an interactive review loop — that's the `crit` skill. |
| user-invocable | false |
Crit CLI Reference
If the user invokes Crit by name (for example, "use Crit" or /crit), use the /crit skill instead — it covers the full review loop. This skill covers CLI operations like crit comment, crit pull/push, and crit share.
Comments have three scopes:
- Line comments (
scope: "line") — tied to specific lines, stored in files.<path>.comments
- File comments (
scope: "file") — about a file overall, stored in files.<path>.comments with start_line: 0
- Review comments (
scope: "review") — general feedback, stored in the top-level review_comments array
The review file path is shown by crit status.
Reading comments
Prefer finish stdout when available: after a review round, unresolved comments are in the comments array of crit's JSON stdout (same schema as crit comments --json); prompt has brief instructions only.
When you need to read comments separately:
crit comments
crit comments --json
crit comments --all
crit comments --plan <slug>
crit comments [path]
Review-level comments are listed first — easy to miss in raw review.json. Uses the same review resolution as crit comment (--output, --plan, daemon session).
Review file format
{
"review_comments": [
{
"id": "r_f1e2d3",
"body": "Overall the architecture looks good",
"scope": "review",
"author": "User Name",
"resolved": false,
"replies": [
{ "id": "rp_b4a5c6", "body": "Thanks, addressed the minor issues", "author": "Hermes" }
]
}
],
"files": {
"path/to/file.go": {
"comments": [
{
"id": "c_a1b2c3",
"start_line": 5,
"end_line": 10,
"body": "Comment text",
"quote": "the specific words selected",
"anchor": "The sessions table needs a complete rewrite...",
"author": "User Name",
"resolved": false,
"replies": [
{ "id": "rp_c7d8e9", "body": "Fixed by extracting to helper", "author": "Hermes" }
]
}
]
}
}
}
Field rules:
resolved: false or missing — both mean unresolved. Only true means resolved.quote (optional): the specific text the reviewer selected — narrows scope within the line range. Focus changes on the quoted text rather than the entire range.anchor (line comments): full text of the commented lines when placed. When edits shift line numbers, locate content by anchor rather than trusting start_line/end_line.drifted: true: original content was removed or heavily rewritten — line numbers are approximate at best.- Unresolved comments may have
replies — read them before acting.
Authoring comments
crit comment --author 'Hermes' '<body>'
crit comment --author 'Hermes' <path> '<body>'
crit comment --author 'Hermes' <path>:<line> '<body>'
crit comment --author 'Hermes' <path>:<start>-<end> '<body>'
crit comment --reply-to <id> --author 'Hermes' '<body>'
Hard rules:
- Always pass
--author 'Hermes' so comments are attributed correctly.
- Always single-quote the body — double quotes break on backticks and shell metachars.
- Line numbers reference the file on disk (1-indexed), not diff line numbers.
- Reply bodies support markdown — use code fences and inline code where helpful.
- Only pass
--resolve when the user explicitly asks. Never resolve proactively. Same rule applies to the resolve field in --json mode.
Bulk commenting (3+ comments)
Use --json for atomicity (single write, no partial state) and speed (one process). The JSON can come from stdin or --file <path>:
echo '[
{"body": "overall feedback", "scope": "review"},
{"path": "session.go", "body": "restructure", "scope": "file"},
{"file": "src/auth.go", "line": 42, "body": "Missing null check"},
{"file": "src/auth.go", "line": "50-55", "body": "Extract to helper"},
{"reply_to": "c_a1b2c3", "body": "Fixed — added null check"},
{"reply_to": "r_f1e2d3", "body": "Done"}
]' | crit comment --json --author 'Hermes'
For multi-paragraph bodies, prefer --file. A literal newline inside a "body" string breaks JSON parsing, and shell-quoted heredocs make this easy to introduce by accident. Write the JSON to a temp file (use your file-edit tool), then:
crit comment --json --file /tmp/crit-bulk.json --author 'Hermes'
--file - is an explicit "read stdin" if you ever need it.
Per-entry schema:
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|
file / path | string | line/file comments | Relative path. path alone (no line) → file-level. |
line | int/string | line comments | 42 or "45-47" |
end_line | int | optional | Defaults to line |
body | string | always | |
author | string | optional | Per-entry override; falls back to --author |
scope | string | optional | "review" / "file" — usually inferred |
reply_to | string | replies | Comment ID (c_… or r_…) |
resolve | bool | optional | Only when user explicitly asks |
Scope inference (when scope omitted): has reply_to → reply; no file/path and no line → review-level; path but no line → file-level; file/path + line → line.
Multi-file disambiguation
Comment IDs are unique per session, but the same ID can collide across files. If crit comment errors with "comment found in multiple files", disambiguate with --path:
crit comment --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --path src/auth.go --author 'Hermes' 'Fixed the null check'
In --json mode, set the file field on the entry. Review-level IDs (r_…) are globally unique and never need this.
Plan-mode comments
Plan reviews (via crit plan or the ExitPlanMode hook) store the review file in ~/.crit/plans/<slug>/. Always pass --plan <slug> — without it, crit comment looks in the project root and won't find the comments. The slug is shown in the review feedback prompt.
crit comment --plan my-plan-2026-03-23 --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --author 'Hermes' 'Updated the plan'
GitHub PR Integration
crit pull [pr-number]
crit push [--dry-run] [--event <type>] [-m <msg>] [pr]
Requires gh CLI installed and authenticated. PR number is auto-detected from the current branch.
--event values: comment (default), approve, request-changes. -m adds a review-level body message.
Sharing
crit share <file> [file...]
crit share --qr <file>
crit share --org <slug> <file>
crit share --org <slug> --visibility unlisted <file>
crit unpublish [file...]
- Always relay the output — copy the URL (and QR if used) into your response. Don't make the user dig through tool output.
--qr is terminal-only — skip in mobile apps, web chat UIs, or anywhere Unicode block characters won't render correctly.--org <slug> shares under an organization. Visibility defaults to organization (members only). Override with --visibility (organization, unlisted, public).- If a review file exists, comments for the shared files are included automatically.
- Unpublish uses the persisted delete token in the review file — no extra args needed.
