Engineering Code Review
Review code changes for security, performance, and correctness. Trigger with a PR URL or diff, "review this before I merge", "is this code safe?", or when checking a change for N+1 queries, injection risks, missing edge cases, or error handling gaps.
What this skill does
Keep your software safe and fast by catching security risks and bugs in your code before they impact users. Receive a clear report detailing critical fixes, actionable improvements, and confirmation of what works well. Use this whenever you are ready to release new features or need a trusted second pair of eyes on safety and quality.
name: code-review description: Review code changes for security, performance, and correctness. Trigger with a PR URL or diff, “review this before I merge”, “is this code safe?”, or when checking a change for N+1 queries, injection risks, missing edge cases, or error handling gaps. argument-hint: “<PR URL, diff, or file path>“
/code-review
If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.
Review code changes with a structured lens on security, performance, correctness, and maintainability.
Usage
/code-review <PR URL or file path>
Review the provided code changes: @$1
If no specific file or URL is provided, ask what to review.
How It Works
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CODE REVIEW │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ STANDALONE (always works) │
│ ✓ Paste a diff, PR URL, or point to files │
│ ✓ Security audit (OWASP top 10, injection, auth) │
│ ✓ Performance review (N+1, memory leaks, complexity) │
│ ✓ Correctness (edge cases, error handling, race conditions) │
│ ✓ Style (naming, structure, readability) │
│ ✓ Actionable suggestions with code examples │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SUPERCHARGED (when you connect your tools) │
│ + Source control: Pull PR diff automatically │
│ + Project tracker: Link findings to tickets │
│ + Knowledge base: Check against team coding standards │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Review Dimensions
Security
- SQL injection, XSS, CSRF
- Authentication and authorization flaws
- Secrets or credentials in code
- Insecure deserialization
- Path traversal
- SSRF
Performance
- N+1 queries
- Unnecessary memory allocations
- Algorithmic complexity (O(n²) in hot paths)
- Missing database indexes
- Unbounded queries or loops
- Resource leaks
Correctness
- Edge cases (empty input, null, overflow)
- Race conditions and concurrency issues
- Error handling and propagation
- Off-by-one errors
- Type safety
Maintainability
- Naming clarity
- Single responsibility
- Duplication
- Test coverage
- Documentation for non-obvious logic
Output
## Code Review: [PR title or file]
### Summary
[1-2 sentence overview of the changes and overall quality]
### Critical Issues
| # | File | Line | Issue | Severity |
|---|------|------|-------|----------|
| 1 | [file] | [line] | [description] | 🔴 Critical |
### Suggestions
| # | File | Line | Suggestion | Category |
|---|------|------|------------|----------|
| 1 | [file] | [line] | [description] | Performance |
### What Looks Good
- [Positive observations]
### Verdict
[Approve / Request Changes / Needs Discussion]
If Connectors Available
If ~~source control is connected:
- Pull the PR diff automatically from the URL
- Check CI status and test results
If ~~project tracker is connected:
- Link findings to related tickets
- Verify the PR addresses the stated requirements
If ~~knowledge base is connected:
- Check changes against team coding standards and style guides
Tips
- Provide context — “This is a hot path” or “This handles PII” helps me focus.
- Specify concerns — “Focus on security” narrows the review.
- Include tests — I’ll check test coverage and quality too.
Install this Skill
Skills give your AI agent a consistent, structured approach to this task — better output than a one-off prompt.
npx skills add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill engineering Official Anthropic skill. Need a walkthrough? See the install guide →
Works with
No terminal needed — Claude.ai works by pasting the skill into custom instructions.
Details
- Category
- Development
- License
- Apache 2.0
- Author
- @anthropics
- Source
- GitHub →
- Source file
-
show path
engineering/skills/code-review/SKILL.md