| name | codeowners-review-routing |
| description | Design and maintain CODEOWNERS path ownership, required review rules, and monorepo routing that avoids single-owner bottlenecks. Use when CODEOWNERS syntax, path owners, required reviewers, branch protection review counts, monorepo package ownership, review routing, or fixing slow PR queues caused by overly broad owner teams.
|
CODEOWNERS Review Routing
Own who must review which paths: CODEOWNERS syntax, required vs optional
review, monorepo package maps, and load-balanced ownership so PRs merge without
one person or team as a permanent gate.
When To Use
- Authoring or refactoring CODEOWNERS (GitHub/GitLab/Azure DevOps)
- Mapping path → team/user; required reviews / code-owner enforcement
- Monorepo package owners, shared libs, platform/infra paths
- Reducing owner bottlenecks (single individual, huge catch-all
*)
- Keywords: CODEOWNERS, required reviewers, path ownership, review routing,
monorepo owners, bottleneck, branch protection code owners
Do not use as primary for:
| Need | Skill instead |
|---|
| PR title/body Why/What/Test | pr-description-writing |
| Branch strategy / when to open PR | git-workflow-conventions |
| Review comment tone / severity | code-review-comments-style |
| Code correctness of the change | code-quality-standards |
| CI pipeline shape | ci-cd-pipeline-patterns |
Repo Config First
Host and repo rules outrank defaults below.
- Owners files:
.github/CODEOWNERS, root/docs CODEOWNERS, GitLab
CODEOWNERS, Azure path policies
- Branch protection / rulesets: min approvers; require code-owner review;
dismiss stale; last-push approval
- Team graph: valid
@org/team / users with write/approve rights
- Monorepo layout:
apps/*, packages/*, generators (Nx, Turborepo, custom)
- Overlays: assignment bots, Gerrit OWNERS, Danger rules—reconcile dual maps
- Sensitive paths: crypto, auth, billing, prod infra—tighter teams
- Neighbors: match team names and last-match order conventions
Precedence: Follow host dialect and live protection. Edit the active owners
file; do not invent a parallel ownership map.
Workflow
1. Inventory
| Capture | Why |
|---|
| Hot paths (auth, payments, infra, shared libs) | Need explicit owners, not only * |
| PR volume per path | Detect bottleneck teams |
| Broad globs / orphan paths | Mega-reviews or unowned churn |
2. CODEOWNERS syntax (portable core)
# Last matching pattern wins on GitHub — confirm host dialect
* @org/default-reviewers
*.md @org/docs
/apps/web/ @org/web-team
/packages/ui/** @org/design-system
/services/billing/ @org/billing @org/security
- Leading
/ = repo root (GitHub); bare patterns may match any segment.
- Owners:
@user, @org/team, or email; teams need visibility + permission.
- CODEOWNERS only suggests until protection enables require-code-owners (or
GitLab approval rules / ADO path policies). Separate tags from mandatory gates.
3. Required reviews (protection layer)
- Global min approvers (often 1–2) on the default branch.
- Enable require code owners only when path coverage is real.
- Prefer path-scoped tighter rules (billing, IAM, Terraform) over raising
global count for every file.
- Admin-bypass for incidents only—not permanent single-human gates.
4. Monorepo patterns
| Pattern | Use |
|---|
| Per-app / per-package directory owners | Default product-team map |
Dedicated owners for packages/* | Avoid any-app free-for-all on shared code |
Platform team on /infra, /.github | CI and landing-zone changes |
| Separate docs owners; generated CODEOWNERS + CI | Large monorepos / *.md |
Root workspace files (package.json, lockfiles) → multi-member platform team, not one TL.
5. Avoid owner bottlenecks
- Prefer teams over individuals; replace bootstrap individuals quickly.
- Never leave sole
@person on high-churn * or /.
- Split mega-teams; secondary owners on critical paths; verify host any-of vs all-of.
- Push specificity so most PRs hit one package team; rebalance slow-queue globs.
- Require security/platform only on sensitive globs—not every PR.
6. Validate and ship
Dry-run PR on sample paths; host coverage UI if any; CI-check teams resolve;
update CONTRIBUTING “who owns what”; revisit quarterly for orphan packages.
Routing
| Situation | Primary | Helper |
|---|
| CODEOWNERS, path owners, required code-owner reviews, monorepo routing, bottlenecks | This skill | — |
| Branch/PR process hygiene | git-workflow-conventions | this for owner rules |
| PR description | pr-description-writing | this if owners explained |
| Review comment wording | code-review-comments-style | — |
| CI enforcing owners validity | ci-cd-pipeline-patterns | this for patterns |
| Code quality under review | code-quality-standards | domain skill |
Output Checklist
Rules
- Repo/host first: dialect and protection beat blog defaults.
- Teams over heroes: individuals on
* or core packages create queue outages.
- Specific before broad: package paths over one global owner for all code.
- Required ≠ mentioned: enable code-owner requirements only after real coverage.
- Sensitive tighter; rest lighter—protect security without freezing delivery.
