self-review

Self-review

Make a changeset merge-ready before submission — no regressions, sound code, the project's conventions respected — and prove it was scrutinized: a fresh-context reviewer hunts for what would block the merge, the author answers every finding, and a compact report — scannable by a maintainer in seconds — records the outcome. The report is the review record only; the change's what/why belongs to the PR description (e.g. via /handover), never here.

Only for a changeset you authored. The fresh-context reviewer exists to escape authoring blindness, so someone else's PR has nothing to escape and belongs to maintainer-review.

Resolve the changeset

1. Resolve source and target. No input → current branch against the auto-detected target: the default branch of the upstream remote when one exists (fork workflow), else of origin — via git ls-remote --symref <remote> HEAD, never the often-absent local refs/remotes/<remote>/HEAD; that failing (e.g. offline), the sole existing candidate among main, master, develop/development (preferring upstream's remote-tracking ref, then origin's, then the local branch) — still ambiguous or none → ask. Explicit branches in the invocation win; a detached HEAD → ask which branch is under review. State the chosen target.
2. The reviewed state is the source as it stands — working tree when checked out, else tip. Uncommitted work is reviewed, not blocked, once the author sorts it: modified tracked files are part of the change or deliberate local-only tweaks (build config, data paths), the latter excluded from the diff (pathspec) and named in a procedural caveat — exclusion drops the whole path, so a tweak atop a changed file the author stashes first; untracked files likewise, and since the diff can't see them, those that belong the author git adds first — a forgotten one ships unreviewed later. The report this skill writes needs no sorting and is always excluded. Nothing beyond the tip reviewed → pinned to its SHA; otherwise unpinned — reviewed, but with no SHA for a maintainer to check the pushed head against, until stamped. Pinned is preferable, so suggest committing first when the work is ready for it — never insist, the stamp closes the gap later.
3. git fetch the target's remote (local-only target → nothing to fetch; a failed fetch → say so and ask rather than diff stale refs), then diff from the merge base <base> of target and source: git diff <base> for the working tree, git diff <base> <source> for a tip. No merge base → usually a shallow clone or wrong target: deepen (git fetch --unshallow) and retry, else ask — never fall back to diffing against the target itself, which presents its own commits as the author's. Empty diff → probably a wrong target (typical: a fork's default branch already holding the commits) — say so and ask for the true one; it needs no local ref, git fetch <url> <branch> works by URL.