Standalone Review

Overview

Use this skill when you need a fast, ad-hoc review without running a pipeline or collecting a manifest. It is ideal during implementation or for quick pre-flight checks. Before implementation, use it to review the task/spec against the user’s intent and record the approval in the PRD/TECH_SPEC or task notes.

Quick start

Uncommitted diff:

codex review --uncommitted

Compare to a base branch:

codex review --base <branch>

Specific commit:

codex review --commit <sha>

Custom focus (no diff flags):

codex review "Focus on correctness, regressions, edge cases; list missing tests."

Workflow

1. •Define the review goal and scope

• •State what changed and what success looks like.
• •Keep prompts short, specific, and test-oriented.

1. •Run the review often

• •Run after each meaningful chunk of work.
• •Prefer targeted focus prompts for WIP reviews.

1. •Capture actionable output

• •Prioritize correctness, regressions, and missing tests.
• •Separate confirmed issues from hypotheses to verify.
• •Log key findings in the PRD/TECH_SPEC or task notes so intent survives context compaction.
• •For pre-implementation approvals, note “Approved” (or issues to resolve) in the PRD/TECH_SPEC or task notes.

1. •Escalate to manifest-backed review when needed

• •If you need manifest evidence, use the review wrapper: TASK=<task-id> NOTES="Goal: ... | Summary: ... | Risks: ... | Questions (optional): ..." MANIFEST=<path> npm run review -- --manifest <path>
• •In non-interactive environments, add FORCE_CODEX_REVIEW=1 as needed.

Expected outputs

• •A prioritized list of findings.
• •Pre-implementation approval recorded (or issues flagged) when used for task/spec review.
• •No working tree edits.

Related docs

• •docs/standalone-review-guide.md