crit-cli - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: crit-cli description: Use when an agent needs to author or reply to crit inline comments programmatically (including multi-agent workflows commenting on shared code/plans/docs/proposals), publish or unpublish a crit review with crit share, sync a crit review to or from a GitHub PR, or read/interpret a crit review JSON file. Covers crit comment, crit share, crit unpublish, crit pull, crit push, review file format, and resolution workflow. Not for invoking an interactive review loop — that's the `/crit` command. user-invocable: false agent: all

Crit CLI Reference

If a plan was just written and the user said /crit or crit, invoke the /crit command — do not use this reference skill. This skill covers CLI operations like crit comment, crit pull/push, and crit share.

Comments have three scopes:

Line comments (scope: "line") — tied to specific lines, stored in files.<path>.comments
File comments (scope: "file") — about a file overall, stored in files.<path>.comments with start_line: 0
Review comments (scope: "review") — general feedback, stored in the top-level review_comments array

The review file path is shown by crit status.

{
  "review_comments": [
    {
      "id": "r_f1e2d3",
      "body": "Overall the architecture looks good",
      "scope": "review",
      "author": "User Name",
      "resolved": false,
      "replies": [
        { "id": "rp_b4a5c6", "body": "Thanks, addressed the minor issues", "author": "Gemini" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "files": {
    "path/to/file.go": {
      "comments": [
        {
          "id": "c_a1b2c3",
          "start_line": 5,
          "end_line": 10,
          "body": "Comment text",
          "quote": "the specific words selected",
          "anchor": "The sessions table needs a complete rewrite...",
          "author": "User Name",
          "resolved": false,
          "replies": [
            { "id": "rp_c7d8e9", "body": "Fixed by extracting to helper", "author": "Gemini" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Field rules:

resolved: false or missing — both mean unresolved. Only true means resolved.
quote (optional): the specific text the reviewer selected — narrows scope within the line range. Focus changes on the quoted text rather than the entire range.
anchor (line comments): full text of the commented lines when placed. When edits shift line numbers, locate content by anchor rather than trusting start_line/end_line.
drifted: true: original content was removed or heavily rewritten — line numbers are approximate at best.
Unresolved comments may have replies — read them before acting.

# Review-level (general feedback)
crit comment --author 'Gemini' '<body>'

# File-level (whole file, no line numbers)
crit comment --author 'Gemini' <path> '<body>'

# Line (single line or range)
crit comment --author 'Gemini' <path>:<line> '<body>'
crit comment --author 'Gemini' <path>:<start>-<end> '<body>'

# Reply to an existing comment
crit comment --reply-to <id> --author 'Gemini' '<body>'

Hard rules:

Always pass --author 'Gemini' (or your agent name) so comments are attributed correctly.
Always single-quote the body — double quotes break on backticks and shell metachars.
Line numbers reference the file on disk (1-indexed), not diff line numbers.
Reply bodies support markdown — use code fences and inline code where helpful.
Only pass --resolve when the user explicitly asks. Never resolve proactively.

Use --json for atomicity (single write, no partial state) and speed (one process). Two ways to feed the JSON:

# Short, single-line bodies — pipe via stdin:
echo '[
  {"body": "overall feedback", "scope": "review"},
  {"path": "session.go", "body": "restructure", "scope": "file"},
  {"file": "src/auth.go", "line": 42, "body": "Missing null check"},
  {"file": "src/auth.go", "line": "50-55", "body": "Extract to helper"},
  {"reply_to": "c_a1b2c3", "body": "Fixed — added null check"},
  {"reply_to": "r_f1e2d3", "body": "Done"}
]' | crit comment --json --author 'Gemini'

Prefer --file <path> for any multi-paragraph body. Shell-quoted JSON breaks the moment a "body" string contains a raw newline. Use write_file to author the JSON to a temp file, then point crit at it:

# After write_file /tmp/replies.json:
crit comment --json --file /tmp/replies.json --author 'Gemini'

--file - reads stdin (same as omitting the flag).

Per-entry schema:

Field	Type	Required	Notes
`file` / `path`	string	line/file comments	Relative path. `path` alone (no `line`) → file-level.
`line`	int/string	line comments	`42` or `"45-47"`
`end_line`	int	optional	Defaults to `line`
`body`	string	always
`author`	string	optional	Per-entry override; falls back to `--author`
`scope`	string	optional	`"review"` / `"file"` — usually inferred
`reply_to`	string	replies	Comment ID (`c_…` or `r_…`)
`resolve`	bool	optional	Only when user explicitly asks

Scope inference (when scope omitted): has reply_to → reply; no file/path and no line → review-level; path but no line → file-level; file/path + line → line.

Comment IDs are unique per session, but the same ID can collide across files. Disambiguate with `--path`:

crit comment --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --path src/auth.go --author 'Gemini' 'Fixed the null check'

In --json mode, set the file field on the entry. Review-level IDs (r_…) are globally unique and never need this.

Plan reviews (via `crit plan` or the `exit_plan_mode` hook) store the review file in `~/.crit/plans//`. **Always pass `--plan `** — without it, `crit comment` looks in the project root and won't find the comments. The slug is shown in the review feedback prompt.

crit comment --plan my-plan-2026-03-23 --reply-to c_a1b2c3 --author 'Gemini' 'Updated the plan'

crit pull [pr-number]                                    # Fetch PR review comments into the review file
crit push [--dry-run] [--event <type>] [-m <msg>] [pr]   # Post review comments as a GitHub PR review

Requires gh CLI installed and authenticated. PR number is auto-detected from the current branch.

--event values: comment (default), approve, request-changes. -m adds a review-level body message.

crit share <file> [file...]                          # Upload and print URL
crit share --qr <file>                               # Also print QR code (terminal only)
crit share --org <slug> <file>                       # Share under an organization
crit share --org <slug> --visibility unlisted <file> # Org share with explicit visibility
crit unpublish [file...]                              # Remove shared review

No server needed — reads files directly from disk. If a review file exists, comments for the shared files are included automatically.
Always relay the output — copy the URL (and QR if used) into your response. Don't make the user dig through tool output.
--qr is terminal-only — skip in mobile apps, web chat UIs, or anywhere Unicode block characters won't render correctly.
--org <slug> shares under an organization. Visibility defaults to organization (members only). Override with --visibility (organization, unlisted, public).
Unpublish uses the persisted delete token in the review file — no extra args needed.