# Crafter Review

Adversarial review before a push or a send. A range of commits is frozen, cut into units, and every unit is read by review lenses - one `claude --print` process each - in a fixed order of gates. Each lens asks one question and reports defects with their evidence; a gate passes when its lenses find nothing, and the last gate is the owner, who approves the exact frozen hash. A static lens's clean read of a unit is kept and reused only once three rounds have read it clean.

It reviews three kinds of artifact:

- `commits`: a commit range of one of your own repositories, before the push;
- `series`: a kernel patch series as `git format-patch` exports it, with its cover letter, before the send;
- `reply`: a mailing-list reply draft.

## Install

crafter-review ships as a Flatpak with its own git, Node and ripgrep, so every machine reviews with the same tools.

```bash
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists catcrafts https://flatpak.catcrafts.net/catcrafts.flatpakrepo
flatpak install catcrafts net.catcrafts.CrafterReview
alias crafter-review='flatpak run net.catcrafts.CrafterReview'
```

The machine provides the rest:

| | |
|---|---|
| **The Claude Code CLI** | Proprietary, not bundled. Found through `CLAUDE_BIN` or `REVIEW_GATES_CLAUDE_BIN`, the PATH, an editor extension's bundled binary, `~/.claude/local` or `~/.local/bin`. |
| **Seats** | A dotenv file with `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN1..6` or `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY1..6`: `--env-file`, else `$SEATS_ENV_FILE`, else the working directory's `.env` when it holds a seat or a placement setting, else `~/.config/crafter-review/env`. Its seats go over the environment's; with none, your own login. The file's `REVIEW_GATES_*` placement settings count too. `crafter-review seats` probes them; every driver on the machine shares one seat board. |
| **Chromium** | For a lens with the browser: `crafter-review browser install`, once. |
| **A local Supabase stack** | For a lens with the database (`supabase start`, or the repository's own bring-up). The `sql` helper speaks the Postgres protocol itself; every call is one transaction, rolled back. |
| **gpg** | Only for signed commits: `freeze` reads the signatures through gnupg's keyboxd socket. |

## Set a repository up

From the repository's toplevel:

```bash
crafter-review init
crafter-review config        # edit .review-gates/config.json until it prints no problem
```

`init` writes `.review-gates/config.json` from the template when there is none, adds `.review-gates/push/` and `.review-gates/trees/` to `.gitignore`, and writes the `/prepush` skill to `.claude/skills/prepush/`. The skill is generated: it ignores itself in git, and a later `init` refreshes it. `init` writes nothing it did not make, unless `--force`.

`.review-gates/config.json` is committed. It says:

- what `freeze` checks: `authors`, `aiTrailers`, `requireSigned`, and the branch a range is measured against (`base`, `rangeFrom`);
- `modes.<name>`: the kind of artifact, the lenses it runs and their effort. Every lens is off until a mode lists it; `run --mode` picks one;
- `lenses.<name>`: the environment a lens gets (`none`, `browser`, `supabase` or `browser+supabase`) and, if the repository has one, its `section` - a file of this repository's own appended to the lens's charter;
- `functional`, `slots`, `supabase`: how the application is started and reached, one stack or several, and where its database answers;
- `allowDirty`, `gate0`: the tracked paths the stack rewrites, and the commands Gate 0 runs by hand.

`crafter-review doc config` prints the template; `crafter-review doc prepush` prints the procedure the `/prepush` skill follows.

## Run a review

```bash
crafter-review freeze --slug <branch>     # Gate 0: the checks, the export, the hash - and the run line
crafter-review run …                      # the line freeze printed (run-line.txt), from a detached shell
```

Exit codes: 0 SEND-READY, 1 FIX FIRST, 2 run the same line again (INCOMPLETE, PARTIAL or CONFIRMING), 3 preflight. Every finding, note and coverage entry is in the dump, `gate-state/commits-<hash8>-run-<n>.json`. `crafter-review stop --hash <hash8>` kills a run's passes and writes its dump.

A directory can review other repositories: `freeze --repo <path> --out <dir> --worktree`, then the printed run line. The config, the seats and the records are the reviewing directory's.

The kernel modes take `--subsystem <name>`, whose journal (`ledger.md`, `captures/`) is the lenses' evidence, and the trees `--trees` names; lore.kernel.org is read through `utilities/lore.py` in the working directory. `--reviewers "A B,C D"` adds one maintainer persona per reviewer, calibrated on their own lore mail; clean gates without a persona pass are GATES CLEAN, not SEND-READY.

## The lenses

Gates run in order, and each must pass before the next starts. The owner is the last gate of every mode.

**`commits`** - a commit range:

| Gate | Lens | Asks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Approach | `repo-better-solution` | the right mechanism, layer and commit shape? compatible with what users have? |
| 2 Functional | `repo-functional` (needs the browser) | in the running application, does the range do what its code and messages say, and leave the flows next to it working? |
| 3 Proof | `repo-bug-prover` | a demonstrated defect in the range's code |
| 3 Proof | `repo-security` | a demonstrated gap in a protection the repository promises |
| 4 Commit truth | `repo-facts` | every claim in every commit message and changed document, proven or gone |

**`series`** - a kernel patch series:

| Gate | Lens | Asks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Structure | `better-solution` | should the series be replaced: another mechanism, layer or shape? |
| 2 Code | `code-quality` | the defects a careful subsystem maintainer finds: interactions, error and teardown paths, style |
| 2 Code | `minimalism` | can it be done with less: fewer lines, hunks, patches, files? |
| 2 Code | `bug-prover` | a demonstrable defect in the code the series produces |
| 3 Artifact truth | `facts` | every claim in the cover letter, the messages and the notes, disproved or proven |
| 3 Artifact truth | `consistency` | contradictions between the artifacts, the ledger and what was said on-list |
| 3 Artifact truth | `process-docs` | the series against the kernel's own in-tree process documentation |
| 3 Artifact truth | `etiquette` | how it lands with the humans on the thread: tone, attribution, conventions |
| 3 Artifact truth | `conciseness` | the shorter text, every dropped clause accounted for |
| 4 Persona | `maintainer-persona` | one named reviewer's reading of the final artifact (`--reviewers`) |

**`reply`** - a mailing-list reply: Gate 3, artifact truth, with `facts`, `etiquette`, `consistency` and `conciseness`, then the persona gate.

## Commands

| Command | |
|---|---|
| `init`, `config`, `doc` | set a repository up; the merged config and its problems; the shipped texts |
| `freeze` | Gate 0: the checks, the export, the hash, the run line; `--verify` at push time |
| `run` | the gates of a mode (`--mode`); `--dry-run` launches nothing |
| `stop` | stop a run: its passes are killed, the dump written |
| `seats`, `slots` | every seat probed; how many stacks fit in free memory |
| `browser install` | the Chromium the Playwright MCP server drives |
| `sql`, `totp`, `inventory` | the helpers a lens runs; the partition of an artifact into units |

## License

crafter-review is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only (`LICENSE`).

Vendored files in the lib directory maintain their own license.

## Copyright

Copyright (C) 2026 Catcrafts®