crit-cli

name	crit-cli
description	Use when working with crit CLI commands, .crit.json files, addressing review comments, leaving inline code review comments, sharing reviews via crit share/unpublish, pushing reviews to GitHub PRs, or pulling PR comments locally. Covers crit comment, crit share, crit unpublish, crit pull, crit push, .crit.json format, and resolution workflow.
user-invocable	false

Crit CLI Reference

If a plan was just written and the user said /crit or crit, invoke the /crit command — do not use this reference skill. This skill covers CLI operations like crit comment, crit pull/push, and crit share.

.crit.json Format

After a crit review session, comments are in .crit.json. Comments have three scopes:

• Line comments (scope: "line") — tied to specific lines in a file, 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 not tied to any file, stored in review_comments

{
  "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": "Copilot" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "files": {
    "path/to/file.go": {
      "comments": [
        {
          "id": "c_a1b2c3",
          "start_line": 5,
          "end_line": 10,
          "body": "Comment text",
          "quote": "the specific words selected",
          "author": "User Name",
          "resolved": false,
          "replies": [
            { "id": "rp_c7d8e9", "body": "Fixed by extracting to helper", "author": "Copilot" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Reading comments

• Line comments are grouped per file with start_line/end_line referencing source lines in that file
• File comments are in the same per-file array but have start_line: 0, end_line: 0, scope: "file"
• Review comments are in the top-level review_comments array (not tied to any file)
• quote (optional): the specific text the reviewer selected — narrows the comment's scope within the line range. When present, focus your changes on the quoted text rather than the entire line range
• resolved: false or missing — both mean unresolved. Only true means resolved.
• Address each unresolved comment by editing the relevant file at the referenced location
• Before acting on a comment, check its replies array — if you have already replied, the reviewer may be following up conversationally rather than requesting a new code change

Replying to comments

After addressing a comment, reply to it using the CLI:

crit comment --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --author 'Copilot' 'Fixed by extracting to helper'
crit comment --reply-to r_f1e2d3 --author 'Copilot' 'All issues addressed'

This adds a reply to the comment thread. Works for both file comment IDs (e.g. c_a1b2c3) and review comment IDs (e.g. r_f1e2d3). Resolving is a user action — do not mark comments resolved from AI.

Multi-file disambiguation: Comment IDs are unique per session, but if you encounter an error like "comment found in multiple files", use --path to specify which file:

crit comment --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --path src/auth.go --author 'Copilot' 'Fixed the null check'

In --json bulk mode, use the file field on the reply entry:

echo '[{"reply_to": "c_a1b2c3", "file": "src/auth.go", "body": "Fixed"}]' | crit comment --json --author 'GitHub Copilot'

Review-level comment IDs (r_XXXXXX) are globally unique and never need disambiguation.

Plan mode comments

When reviewing plans (via crit plan or the ExitPlanMode hook), .crit.json is stored in ~/.crit/plans/<slug>/ — not the project root. Use --plan <slug> so crit comment finds the right file:

crit comment --plan my-plan-2026-03-23 --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --author 'Claude Code' 'Updated the plan'

The --plan flag resolves to the plan storage directory automatically. The slug is shown in the review feedback prompt. Always use --plan when responding to plan review comments — without it, crit comment looks in the project root and won't find the comments.

Leaving Comments with crit comment CLI

Use crit comment to add review comments to .crit.json programmatically — no browser needed:

# Review-level comment (general feedback, not tied to any file)
crit comment --author 'Copilot' '<body>'

# File-level comment (about a file overall, no line numbers)
crit comment --author 'Copilot' <path> '<body>'

# Line comment (single line)
crit comment --author 'Copilot' <path>:<line> '<body>'

# Line comment (range)
crit comment --author 'Copilot' <path>:<start>-<end> '<body>'

# Reply to an existing comment (with optional --resolve)
crit comment --reply-to <id> --author 'Copilot' '<body>'
crit comment --reply-to <id> --resolve --author 'Copilot' '<body>'

Examples:

crit comment --author 'Copilot' 'Overall architecture looks solid'
crit comment --author 'Copilot' src/auth.go 'This file needs restructuring'
crit comment --author 'Copilot' src/auth.go:42 'Missing null check on user.session — will panic if session expired'
crit comment --author 'Copilot' src/handler.go:15-28 'This error is swallowed silently'
crit comment --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --author 'Copilot' 'Added null check on line 42'
crit comment --reply-to r_f1e2d3 --author 'Copilot' 'All issues addressed'

Rules:

• Always use --author 'Copilot' (or your agent name) so comments are attributed correctly
• Always use single quotes for the body — double quotes will break on backticks and special characters
• Paths are relative to the current working directory
• Line numbers reference the file as it exists on disk (1-indexed), not diff line numbers
• Comments are appended — calling crit comment multiple times adds to the list, never replaces
• No setup needed — crit comment creates .crit.json automatically if it doesn't exist
• Do NOT run crit after leaving comments — that triggers a new review round

Bulk commenting (recommended for multiple comments)

When leaving 3+ comments, use --json to add them all in one atomic operation:

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 'GitHub Copilot'

JSON schema per entry:

Field	Type	Required	Description
file	string	yes (line comment) / no (reply)	Relative file path. For replies, disambiguates when the same ID exists in multiple files
path	string	alt for file	Alias for file; when used with no line, infers file-level
line	int/string	yes (line comment)	Start line (42) or range ("45-47")
end_line	int	no	End line (defaults to line)
body	string	yes	Comment text
author	string	no	Per-entry override (falls back to --author)
scope	string	no	"review", "file", or omit to infer from context
reply_to	string	yes (reply)	Comment ID (e.g. "c_a1b2c3" or "r_f1e2d3")
resolve	bool	no	Mark the parent comment resolved (user action — don't set from AI)

Scope inference when scope is omitted:

• Has reply_to → reply
• No file/path and no line → review-level
• Has path but no line → file-level
• Has file/path and line → line-level

Benefits over individual crit comment calls:

• Atomic — one write to .crit.json, no partial state
• Faster — single process invocation instead of N
• Safer — no race conditions with concurrent crit processes

GitHub PR Integration

crit pull [pr-number]                                    # Fetch PR review comments into .crit.json
crit push [--dry-run] [--event <type>] [-m <msg>] [pr]  # Post .crit.json comments as a GitHub PR review

Requires gh CLI installed and authenticated. PR number is auto-detected from the current branch, or pass it explicitly.

Event types for --event: comment (default), approve, request-changes. Use -m to add a review-level body message.

Sharing Reviews

If the user asks for a URL, a link, to share their review, or to show a QR code, use crit share:

crit share <file> [file...]   # Upload and print URL
crit share --qr <file>        # Also print QR code (terminal only)
crit unpublish                # Remove shared review

Examples:

crit share <file>                                # Share a single file
crit share <file1> <file2>                       # Share multiple files
crit share --share-url https://crit.md <file>  # Explicit share URL

Rules:

• No server needed — crit share reads files directly from disk
• --qr is terminal-only — only use when the user has a real terminal with monospace font rendering. Do not use in mobile apps (e.g. Claude Code mobile), web chat UIs, or any environment where Unicode block characters won't render correctly
• Comments included — if .crit.json exists, comments for the shared files are included automatically
• Relay the output — always copy the URL (and QR code if --qr was used) from the command output and include it directly in your response to the user. Do not make them dig through tool output
• State persisted — share URL and delete token are saved to .crit.json
• Unpublish reads .crit.json — uses the stored delete token to remove the review