Move review methodology into agent system prompt - #7
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The review methodology now lives in agent/reviewer.md as the system prompt, making it deterministic — the agent cannot change or paraphrase it. command/review.md is slimmed to just pass the input. This prevents the spawning agent from taking liberties with the review prompt, which was breaking the ship cycle.
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…prompt $ARGUMENTS is only substituted in command templates (prompt.ts:1383-1391). When placed in the agent system prompt (agent/reviewer.md), it's never replaced, so commands like `git show $ARGUMENTS` expand to empty strings in bash. Replaced with descriptive <input> placeholder; the concrete value is delivered via the user message (command/review.md: `Input: $ARGUMENTS`).
…r prompts Enforcement now lives in the plugin, not the prompt. Only two paths produce an enforcement-grade review note: 1. /review <target> command path (args.command === 'review') 2. Reviewer subtask with target-only prompt (SHA, PR ref, branch) Custom reviewer prompts (e.g. 'Review commit abc1234 for correctness...') still run but do NOT get a review note. This is the enforcement boundary. Prompt hardening in agent/reviewer.md is defense-in-depth only. Adds: - isCanonicalReviewInvocation() — pure function gating note attachment - isTargetOnlyPrompt() — rejects multiline prose, sentences, instructions - 13 new tests covering the exact bypass prompt from the live failure, /review path, target-only prompts, and rejection patterns
Adds note to Manual review section explaining that seeing only 'Input: <target>' is expected — the full methodology is in the reviewer agent system prompt. Updates PR description to document the canonical invocation gate and the user-visible behavior change.
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…argets extractPrNumber now matches both #7 and PR 7 / Review PR 7. isTargetOnlyPrompt rejects bare numeric strings like '7' before branch-name fallback, preventing ambiguous targets from resolving to HEAD. stripTargetSelectorPrefix no longer strips 'review pr ' prefix so PR 7 stays intact for extractPrNumber. Adds 8 new tests: - extractPrNumber: PR 7, Review PR 7, PR #7 - isCanonicalReviewInvocation: Review PR 7, PR 7 (true); bare '7', Review 7, Review branch 7 (false) - resolveTargetSha: PR 7, Review PR 7 resolve to PR head
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Why this exists
The review methodology lived in
command/review.mdas the command template. When the agent spawned a reviewer subagent viatask(), it was told to copy the prompt verbatim — but being an LLM, it paraphrased, truncated, or rewrote it. This broke the ship cycle: the reviewer subagent received an incomplete or wrong prompt.Design decisions
Decision: Move methodology into agent system prompt
The agent file body (
agent/reviewer.md) becomes the subagent's system prompt. This is deterministic — the spawning agent cannot change or paraphrase it. The command file is slimmed to just pass the input (Input: $ARGUMENTS).Alternatives considered:
tool.execute.beforehook to overwrite the prompt — more complex, more failure surfaceTradeoff: The methodology is now in the agent file, not the command file. Users who want a custom review prompt must edit
agent/reviewer.mdinstead ofcommand/review.md.Decision: Remove git notes mentions from agent-facing files
The plugin and pre-push hook are infrastructure. When agents know about git notes, they try to run
git notes addmanually, bypassing the plugin. The fix: remove allgit notesmentions from agent-facing instructions. The agent just needs to know/review <sha>before push.What this enables
Risks and safeguards
Risk: Users who customized
command/review.mdwill lose their custom promptMitigation: The methodology is now in
agent/reviewer.md— update that file insteadCodeAnt-AI Description
Make agent-initiated code reviews consistent and easier to start
What Changed
Impact
✅ Consistent review guidance✅ Fewer incomplete subagent reviews✅ Simpler agent-initiated reviews💡 Usage Guide
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