coderabbit-cli_skill

Overview

This skill guides an AI agent to call the local CodeRabbit CLI to perform focused code reviews on the current changes. It emphasizes selecting the correct diff range, preferring the --prompt-only mode, and converting CLI output into actionable items for the user. The goal is to integrate CodeRabbit as a review assistant while keeping the human in the loop.

How this skill works

The agent runs coderabbit review on a specific diff range (uncommitted, relative to default branch, or from a base commit). It defaults to --prompt-only so CodeRabbit produces concise prompts for the agent to parse. The agent treats each review as a long-running task, parses CodeRabbit output into numbered action items, and reports summaries and decisions back to the user.

When to use it

• Review local uncommitted changes before committing (use --type uncommitted).
• Audit a branch against the default branch to catch regressions or style drift.
• Inspect a set of recent commits (e.g., --base-commit HEAD~3) before pushing.
• When you need actionable suggestions summarized for developer decision-making.
• When you want CodeRabbit to generate reviewer prompts without large raw dumps.

Best practices

• Always limit the diff to only the files relevant to the current task to avoid noise.
• Prefer --prompt-only; use --plain only if you must read the raw review text.
• Inform the user that the review can take minutes and provide periodic status updates.
• Wrap long runs with shell-level timeouts if you require external timeout control.
• Summarize findings as numbered action items; label any non-adopted suggestions with reasons.
• Avoid repeated quick re-runs; default to at most 1–2 follow-up review rounds after major changes.

Example use cases

• Run coderabbit review --prompt-only --type uncommitted to check a hotfix before commit.
• Audit feature branch differences: coderabbit review --prompt-only --base main.
• Review a sequence of recent commits: coderabbit review --prompt-only --base-commit HEAD~5.
• Combine repo config: coderabbit review --prompt-only --base main --config coderabbit.yaml to apply repo-specific rules.
• Run reviews from a specific repo path: coderabbit review --prompt-only --cwd /abs/path/to/repo --base main.