Pr Improver
Trail of BitsOfficialPublished by Trail of Bits
- Skill
- Workflow
- Software development
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
- No issues found
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
PR Improver is an autonomous workflow that iteratively reviews and fixes code changes within a branch. It uses a designated PR reviewer to identify issues and a fixer agent to apply corrections, repeating the process until the review returns no critical or major findings. The skill is scoped to the directories modified by the branch and maintains a ledger to track progress, ensuring that changes remain within defined boundaries and preventing infinite loops through escalation detection.
What it does
- Identifies the scope of changes based on the branch diff.
- Executes an iterative loop of reviewing and fixing code.
- Enforces scope guards to ensure changes stay within relevant directories.
- Detects non-convergence and escalates to the user for design decisions.
- Provides structured reporting on convergence, budget caps, or halts.
- Supports resuming interrupted loops using a persistent ledger.
When to use it
- When you need to clean up a branch before opening or updating a pull request.
- When you want to automate the process of fixing review findings.
- When you have a branch with multiple issues that require iterative refinement.
- When you need to ensure a branch meets quality standards before merging.
Advantages
- Reduces manual effort by automating the review-fix-re-review cycle.
- Maintains consistent quality standards across the branch.
- Prevents scope creep by restricting fixes to modified directories.
- Provides clear feedback on why a loop halted or escalated.
Usage examples
- “clean up this branch”
- The agent identifies the changed files, calculates the scope, and initiates the automated review-and-fix loop until the PR review passes.
- “fix this PR until review passes”
- The agent runs the workflow to iteratively address findings from the configured PR reviewer until the code reaches a clean state.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/trailofbits/pr-improver/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip pr-improver.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Trail of Bits
PR Improver
Improve the current branch by running /code-improver:improve — a dynamic workflow that
loops a PR reviewer and a fixer subagent over the branch's changes until a review
reports zero critical/major findings. The loop, its ledger, and its guards live in the
workflow; this skill derives the scope from the branch diff and relays the outcome.
Starting the loop
The user provided: $ARGUMENTS (if empty, take base branch and preferences from the
conversation).
1. Resolve the branch and its change surface
Repo root:
git rev-parse --show-toplevel. Fail loudly outside a repository.Base: the argument if given, else the repository's default branch (
git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD→ its short name, falling back tomain). Refuse to run when the current branch IS the base — there is no diff to improve.Changed files:
git diff --name-only <base>...HEAD. If empty, say so and stop.Scope: the changed files' directories, widened — per-file globs are too tight (PR fixes legitimately add tests next to changed code). Map each changed file to its repo-relative directory glob
<dir>/**(**at the repo root only if files at the root changed), then deduplicate and drop globs covered by another.
2. Resolve the loop script
Resolve improve.js from this SKILL.md's installed location
to an absolute path and confirm the file exists. Its plugin directory is pluginRoot.
Use this exact plugin copy; if the file is missing, stop.
3. Invoke the workflow
Run it with the Workflow tool, {scriptPath: "<the path from step 2>", args: {...}}:
{
"target": "<repo root>",
"reviewer": {
"kind": "skill",
"name": "pr-review-toolkit:review-pr",
"notes": "Review the working tree's changes against <base> as a pull request: correctness, tests, error handling, and the review dimensions the skill prescribes."
},
"scope": ["<derived-dir-glob>/**"],
"pluginRoot": "<the plugin directory from step 2>",
"maxRounds": 5
}reviewer— the default above requires thepr-review-toolkitplugin. When the user names a different PR reviewer (skill or agent), use it, with kind set accordingly.maxRoundsonly if the user asked for a different cap.pluginRootis the resolved plugin directory from step 2, for the metrics collector.finalizedefaults are right for PRs: no version bump unless the branch sits inside a plugin, narration strip and docs pass on.decisiononly on continuation (below).
The loop's baseline snapshot is the tree at loop start — its scope guard protects the branch's uncommitted work; the PR's own commits are what the reviewer reviews.
The workflow runs in the background and needs no babysitting: it reviews, fixes, re-reviews, checks scope after every fix round, and can only complete on a clean review. It never commits; all changes stay in the working tree.
If the Workflow tool is unavailable or denied, stop and say so. Do not improvise the loop inline with direct edits — the ledger, scope guard, and escalation guarantees live in the workflow, and an inline imitation has none of them.
If the result is halted: "reviewer-unavailable", relay it and stop. The reviewer
is not installed in this session; tell the user which plugin provides it (the default
needs pr-review-toolkit) and re-run after installing. Do not review the branch
yourself.
Do not end your turn while the loop is running. The Workflow tool returns a task id immediately; the result comes later. In an interactive session the completion notification re-invokes you — wait for it. In a non-interactive run (scripted, CI, eval) there is no later turn: stopping abandons the loop mid-round, so after launching, poll the task (TaskOutput with the returned task id, or sleep-and-recheck) until it completes, then relay the result. A session that answers "the loop is running, I'll report later" has lost the run.
Relaying the result
The workflow returns a structured result. Report it honestly — the distinctions matter:
converged: true— the last action was a review with zero critical/major findings. Report rounds used, remaining minor findings (open_minor_count), and the artifact paths (ledger_path,metrics).capped: true— the fix budget ran out and the FINAL review still found blocking issues. Say plainly: capped, NOT converged, and listopen_blocking. Do not present this as success.escalation— the loop detected it was not converging (recurring findings, non-decreasing counts, or a fix relocating a problem). Relay the escalation message and finding ids to the user: this needs a design decision, not more rounds.halted— a guard fired (scope violation, unregistered new files, a dead or unavailable reviewer, or a finalize pass whose own edits failed the check that follows it). Relay the paths inviolations/new_untracked_files, the sites infinalize_regressions, and the notes.notesalways travel with the result — surface them; they include loud warnings such as "a git repository was initialized".
Continuing after an escalation
The loop stops on escalation by design. When the user decides, start a fresh run with the same args plus:
{ "decision": "<the user's ruling, verbatim>" }The new run reloads the on-disk ledger, so every finding, rejection, and verdict carries over — rounds restart, re-derivation does not.
To stop a running loop, stop the workflow task (TaskStop); the ledger on disk is current to the last round and a re-run resumes from it.
When NOT to use
One-time review: run the PR-review skill directly; the loop's value is iteration
A skill: use the
skill-improverentry — it wires the right reviewerUnpushed exploratory work: review-and-fix loops harden a diff; while the shape is fluid, manual iteration gives more control
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer929 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer19.7 KiB
- SKILL.md6.5 KiB
Requirements and compatibility
Written for: Claude Code
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Declares allowed tools, Claude Code frontmatter
Security
No issues found by our static scan· No issues found
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Trail of Bits
- Publisher
- Trail of Bits (Official)
- Source
- trailofbits/skills · plugins/code-improver/skills/pr-improver · commit e4dd0bb
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Trail of Bits or Trail of Bits.
Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download pr-improver.zip