request-pr-review

name	request-pr-review
description	Request human review on PR.
user-invocable	true
allowed-tools	["Bash(gh api *)","Bash(gh pr *)"]

request-pr-review

After AI review produces a clean verdict or upon a review deadlock, request a human reviewer.

When to run

• After completing code pushes for the round AND after the AI review produces a clean/approved verdict (or upon a review deadlock), per copilot-review-before-human.md.
• When the user asks you to "request review" on an existing PR.

Command

EDIT_PR (abstract operation token; resolve to your model's tool via tool-mappings.md):

gh api -X POST repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<num>/requested_reviewers \
  -f "reviewers[]=<reviewer>"

You can get <owner>/<repo> from gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner and <num> from the PR URL returned by gh pr create. <reviewer> is the repository's configured human reviewer or CODEOWNERS entry for the repository.

Edge cases

• PR author is the requested reviewer. GitHub returns HTTP 422 with "Review cannot be requested from pull request author". Surface this explicitly to the user — don't silently swallow the error.

• Prefer this REST POST over gh pr edit --add-reviewer. The CLI form exits 0 with no error when the reviewer is the PR author and attaches nobody, so the 422 above is invisible on that path (measured on Morrison-Lab/wai#93, 2026-08-22). When the target <reviewer> is the author (<reviewer> matches .author.login), skip the request entirely --- human review cannot be requested from the author. Report that the PR awaits that person's own review.

• Other reviewers already requested. The endpoint adds to the existing list rather than replacing it, so this is safe to run alongside pre-configured CODEOWNERS or workflow-added reviewers.

Scope

Applies by default to all GitHub repos. If the user tells you a specific repo shouldn't auto-request human review, honor that override per-repo via a project-level memory.

Exception: Lacaedemon/sparta

Never request a human reviewer on a PR in sparta.

The exception is repo-scoped, not rule-wide. Requesting a human reviewer on other repos applies after AI review passes or on deadlock. Within sparta the exception covers every path that would reach a request: the post-AI-review request above, and the deadlock escalation below.

A skill inherits this exception only where it actually routes through here. st does, citing this skill by name and nothing else. ard, ardi, and merge-it carried the command guard inline.

The general rule is that a raw command inherits nothing; only a reference to this skill does. So when adding a repo exception here, grep for the raw command as well as for this skill's name:

git grep -nE 'add-reviewer|requested_reviewers' -- skills/

Both literal forms are matched: the gh pr edit <N> --add-reviewer <reviewer> command, and the workflow gh api ... requested_reviewers -f "reviewers[]=<reviewer>" form. Then judge each hit rather than editing all of them.

A review deadlock on a sparta PR escalates to the user in chat, not to a review request. Escalation is re-routed, not retired: its purpose was always that a human decides, and that is unchanged. Post a boxed BLOCKER (per CLAUDE.md's chat-output-tagging convention) naming the PR, the single disputed item, and both sides of the exchange, then stop iterating that item and wait for the user's call.

• Do: open a sparta PR with no human reviewer requested, and request human review on other repos after AI review is clean or on deadlock.
• Do: take a sparta deadlock to the user in chat as a boxed BLOCKER.
• Don't: run gh pr edit --add-reviewer, or POST to requested_reviewers, against a sparta PR.
• Don't: read this as ending escalation on sparta. An unresolved deadlock still needs a human, and chat is now where it goes.