Custom reviewers

Add focused reviewers, scope specialists, and filter findings.

Each reviewer has a name, harness, and instructions. Declaring review replaces the default reviewer, so include every reviewer you want to run.

General review and a specialist

.ellipsis/code_review.yaml
ellipsis:
  kind: code_review
  name: backend-review

description: []

review:
  - name: correctness
    harness:
      type: claude_code
      model: claude-opus-5
    instructions: |
      Find reproducible defects in the changed code. Check callers,
      error handling, and tests. Report the failing input or state.
      Skip style and formatting.

  - name: authorization
    harness:
      type: claude_code
      model: claude-opus-5
    instructions: |
      Check authorization on changed request handlers. Trace the
      authenticated principal to each resource lookup. Report
      cases where one account can read or modify another's data.

budget:
  run: 12

Both reviewers run against the same commit range. Their findings appear together in the posted review. Up to eight reviewers may run in parallel.

Scope a specialist

review:
  - name: migrations
    harness:
      type: claude_code
      model: claude-opus-5
    pull_requests:
      paths: ["migrations/**"]
    instructions: |
      Check migration ordering, compatibility with the previous
      application version, and whether rollback preserves data.
      Report concrete failure cases.

This replaces the review stage with one migration specialist. It runs only when the pull request changes a matching path.

Reviewer filters accept paths, base, and head. A skipped reviewer uses no budget allocation.

Add a gatekeeper

.ellipsis/code_review.yaml
ellipsis:
  kind: code_review
  name: verified-findings

filter:
  name: verify-findings
  harness:
    type: claude_code
    model: claude-opus-5
  instructions: |
    Verify each proposed finding against the code. Keep concrete
    defects with a reproducible failure. Reject style opinions
    and unsupported assumptions. Combine duplicate findings.

budget:
  run: 12

This keeps the built-in reviewer and adds a pass before posting. The dashboard retains rejected findings and the gatekeeper's reason.

The gatekeeper needs its own instructions. filter: [] disables it.

Run project checks

.ellipsis/code_review.yaml
ellipsis:
  kind: code_review
  name: tested-review

environment:
  image:
    setup: |
      cd /sandbox/api-repo
      npm ci

review:
  - name: test-regressions
    harness:
      type: claude_code
      model: claude-opus-5
    instructions: |
      Review the changed code for regressions. Run the relevant
      tests in api-repo. When reporting a failure, include the
      command and observed error.

budget:
  run: 10

The pull request repository is cloned automatically. Environment setup installs dependencies before review starts.

Write reviewer instructions

Name the defects to look for, the evidence required, and what to omit. Ellipsis supplies the commit range and handles posting. Do not ask stage agents to submit GitHub reviews themselves.

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