Reviewing pull requests

Reviewing a pull request means understanding what changed, whether CI is healthy, and whether the change matches team rules (for example your project’s CLAUDE.md and related instructions). Claude Code’s current /code-review command can review a local diff, file path, branch, ref range, or pull request.

Set up gh first

The Code Review system is built around gh: view PRs, diffs, checks, and post comments. Typical setup:

brew install gh
gh auth login

(Use your platform’s install path if not on Homebrew; see the GitHub CLI manual.)

Run /code-review

Run /code-review without arguments to review your branch’s commits ahead of its upstream plus uncommitted changes. You can also name a target:

/code-review 1234
/code-review main...my-feature
/code-review high src/payments

Effort levels run from low through the levels your selected model supports. Lower levels return fewer, higher-confidence findings; higher levels trade time and tokens for broader coverage.

• --fix applies findings to the working tree after the review.
• --comment posts a summary when there are no findings; when validated findings exist, it posts individual inline comments through the GitHub inline-comment integration.
• ultra starts UltraReview, the cloud multi-agent review.

The terminal command does not require installing the GitHub App. Reviewing or commenting on a pull request still requires access to that repository and an authenticated GitHub account.

Quick mental model: gh commands reviewers use

These fit both hand-authored and agent-driven review flows:

• gh pr view <n>: PR overview such as title, body, author, and status.
• gh pr diff <n>: patch; --name-only for a file list. Alternatively use gh pr view <n> --json files.
• gh pr checks <n>: CI / merge requirement status.
• Commenting when appropriate, e.g. gh pr comment, or inline tools your organization exposes via MCP (advanced).

Permissions

Posting comments on behalf of a user requires gh to act as you. Narrow Bash allow patterns if you use shared settings files; see Permissions.

Back: How PRs are created in Opening pull requests, and local work in Committing code.

Source: Claude Code review documentation.