Code Review

Code Review Skill

Provides comprehensive code review capabilities covering quality, security, and best practices analysis.

When to Use

• User asks you to review their code
• User wants to improve code quality
• User asks about security vulnerabilities in code
• User wants to identify antipatterns or code smells
• User requests best practices suggestions
• User wants a general code quality assessment

Available Operations

• Analyze Code Structure: Evaluate organization, modularity, and architecture
• Check Best Practices: Compare against established coding standards
• Security Review: Identify potential security vulnerabilities
• Antipattern Detection: Find common code smells and antipatterns
• Generate Review Report: Provide structured feedback with recommendations

Multi-Step Review Workflow

When conducting a code review, follow these steps in order:

Step 1: Initial Code Analysis

Read the code thoroughly and identify:

• Primary purpose and functionality
• Programming language and frameworks used
• Overall structure and organization
• Entry points and main logic flow

Step 2: Best Practices Check

Evaluate the code against best practices. Load the best practices guide for comprehensive checks:

• references/best_practices.md - Comprehensive coding standards and practices

Key areas to check:

• Naming conventions (variables, functions, classes)
• Function design (single responsibility, proper parameters)
• Error handling patterns
• Code organization and modularity
• Documentation and comments

Step 3: Security Review

Check for security vulnerabilities. Load the security checklist for detailed guidance:

• references/security_checklist.md - Security review checklist based on OWASP guidelines

Key security areas:

• Input validation and sanitization
• Authentication and authorization
• Injection vulnerabilities (SQL, command, etc.)
• Data exposure and encryption
• Dependency security

Step 4: Antipattern Detection

Identify code smells and antipatterns. Load the antipatterns guide for reference:

• references/common_antipatterns.md - Common antipatterns and how to fix them

Common issues to look for:

• God classes/functions
• Deep nesting
• Magic numbers and strings
• Copy-paste code
• Resource leaks

Step 5: Generate Review Report

Compile findings into a structured report:

## Code Review Summary

**File/Module**: [name]
**Language**: [language]
**Overall Assessment**: [Excellent/Good/Needs Improvement/Critical Issues]

### Strengths
- [List positive aspects]

### Issues Found

#### Critical (Must Fix)
- [Security vulnerabilities, bugs]

#### Major (Should Fix)
- [Significant antipatterns, bad practices]

#### Minor (Consider Fixing)
- [Style issues, small improvements]

### Recommendations
1. [Specific actionable recommendations]
2. [...]

### Resources Referenced
- [List which reference files were consulted]

Resources

Reference these files for detailed guidance during reviews:

• references/best_practices.md - Comprehensive coding best practices covering organization, naming, error handling, testing, and documentation
• references/security_checklist.md - Security review checklist covering OWASP Top 10, input validation, authentication, and common vulnerabilities
• references/common_antipatterns.md - Guide to detecting and fixing common antipatterns like god classes, spaghetti code, and resource leaks

Examples

Example 1: Quick Review Request

User asks: "Can you review this function?"

Response approach:

• Load this skill's full instructions
• Analyze the provided code
• Check against best practices (load references/best_practices.md if needed)
• Identify any obvious security issues
• Provide concise feedback with specific recommendations

Example 2: Security-Focused Review

User asks: "Check this code for security vulnerabilities"

Response approach:

• Load this skill's full instructions
• Load references/security_checklist.md for comprehensive security checks
• Systematically check each security category
• Provide detailed security findings with severity ratings
• Include specific fix recommendations

Example 3: Comprehensive Code Review

User asks: "I need a thorough code review of my authentication module"

Response approach:

• Load this skill's full instructions
• Follow the complete multi-step workflow
• Load all three reference files as needed
• Provide comprehensive report covering all aspects
• Prioritize recommendations by impact

Notes

• Always be constructive in feedback - explain why something is an issue and how to fix it
• Severity ratings: Critical (security/bugs), Major (significant quality issues), Minor (style/polish)
• Focus on the most impactful issues first
• Provide specific code examples when suggesting fixes
• Consider the context - production code needs higher scrutiny than prototypes
• Reference specific sections of the guide files when making recommendations