auto-review-loop - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: "auto-review-loop" description: "Autonomous multi-round research review loop. Repeatedly reviews using a secondary Codex agent, implements fixes, and re-reviews until positive assessment or max rounds reached. Use when user says "auto review loop", "review until it passes", or wants autonomous iterative improvement."

Auto Review Loop: Autonomous Research Improvement

Autonomously iterate: review → implement fixes → re-review, until the external reviewer gives a positive assessment or MAX_ROUNDS is reached.

Context: $ARGUMENTS

Constants

MAX_ROUNDS = 4
POSITIVE_THRESHOLD: score >= 6/10 AND verdict ∈ {"ready", "almost"} — both must hold, matching the operative STOP CONDITION below. Verdict vocabulary is {"ready", "almost", "not ready"}. (Earlier wording used "or" + a stale verdict set; the AND form is authoritative.)
REVIEW_DOC: review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md (cumulative log) (fall back to ./AUTO_REVIEW.md for legacy projects)
OUTPUT_DIR = review-stage/ — All review-stage outputs go here. Create the directory if it doesn't exist.
REVIEWER_MODEL = gpt-5.5 — Model used via a secondary Codex agent. Must be an OpenAI model (e.g., gpt-5.5, o3, gpt-4o)
REVIEWER_BACKEND = codex — Default: Codex reviewer agent at xhigh reasoning. Override with --reviewer: oracle-pro only when the user explicitly requests Oracle; if Oracle is unavailable, warn and fall back to Codex xhigh. Same-family note: this default reviewer is a second Codex/GPT agent — valid for Type-A completeness/drive review, but not a cross-family Type-B verdict; install a skills-codex-claude-review / skills-codex-gemini-review overlay for a cross-family acquittal (see shared-references/reviewer-routing.md).
HUMAN_CHECKPOINT = false — When true, pause after each round's review (Phase B) and present the score + weaknesses to the user. Wait for user input before proceeding to Phase C. The user can: approve the suggested fixes, provide custom modification instructions, skip specific fixes, or stop the loop early. When false (default), the loop runs fully autonomously.
COMPACT = false — When true, (1) read EXPERIMENT_LOG.md and findings.md instead of parsing full logs on session recovery, (2) append key findings to findings.md after each round.
REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY = medium — Controls adversarial depth: medium uses normal Codex xhigh review through spawn_agent / send_input; hard adds Reviewer Memory and Debate Protocol; nightmare adds direct repository-reading adversarial verification by an independent reviewer.
RENDER_HTML = true — When true (default), auto-render review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md to HTML on loop termination via /render-html. Uses --no-review (the loop itself IS the cross-model review; the HTML render is a structural conversion). Set false to skip, or pass — render html: false.

💡 Override: /auto-review-loop "topic" — compact: true, human checkpoint: true, difficulty: hard

Claude-Aligned Reviewer Memory and Debate

For difficulty: hard and difficulty: nightmare, maintain review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md.

Before each reviewer call, prepend the full REVIEWER_MEMORY.md contents under ## Your Reviewer Memory (persistent across rounds).
Tell the reviewer to check whether prior suspicions were genuinely addressed or merely sidestepped.
Require a Memory update section in the reviewer response.
After Phase B, copy the Memory update into REVIEWER_MEMORY.md before writing REVIEW_STATE.json.
In nightmare, launch an additional fresh adversarial reviewer with direct repository/file-reading instructions. It should read NARRATIVE_REPORT.md or review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md for the author's claims, then verify those claims against code, logs, result files, and paper drafts instead of trusting executor summaries.

Instructions

In hard and nightmare modes, the reviewer must actively look for omissions, unsupported claims, cherry-picked evidence, metric mistakes, and weaknesses the executor may have downplayed.

For difficulty: hard and nightmare, use the Debate Protocol after a critical review:

Codex writes a concise rebuttal with evidence, not spin.
Send the rebuttal to the same reviewer via send_input.
The reviewer rules which objections are resolved, unresolved, or newly discovered.
Only mark a concern resolved when the reviewer accepts the rebuttal.

State Persistence (Compact Recovery)

Long-running loops may hit the context window limit, triggering automatic compaction. To survive this, persist state to review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json after each round:

{
  "round": 2,
  "agent_id": "019cd392-...",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "last_score": 5.0,
  "last_verdict": "not ready",
  "pending_experiments": ["screen_name_1"],
  "timestamp": "2026-03-13T21:00:00"
}

Write this file at the end of every Phase E (after documenting the round). Overwrite each time — only the latest state matters.

On completion (positive assessment or max rounds), set "status": "completed" so future invocations don't accidentally resume a finished loop.

Workflow

Initialization

Check for review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json (fall back to ./REVIEW_STATE.json if not found — legacy path):
- If neither path exists: fresh start (normal case, identical to behavior before this feature existed)
- If it exists AND status is "completed": fresh start (previous loop finished normally)
- If it exists AND status is "in_progress" AND timestamp is older than 24 hours: fresh start (stale state from a killed/abandoned run — delete the file and start over)
- If it exists AND status is "in_progress" AND timestamp is within 24 hours: resume
  - Read the state file to recover round, agent_id, last_score, pending_experiments
  - Read review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md to restore full context of prior rounds (fall back to ./AUTO_REVIEW.md)
  - If pending_experiments is non-empty, check if they have completed (e.g., check screen sessions)
  - Resume from the next round (round = saved round + 1)
  - Log: "Recovered from context compaction. Resuming at Round N."
Read project narrative documents, memory files, and any prior review documents. When COMPACT = true and compact files exist, prefer findings.md + EXPERIMENT_LOG.md over full raw logs.
Read recent experiment results (check output directories, logs)
Identify current weaknesses and open TODOs from prior reviews
Initialize round counter = 1 (unless recovered from state file)
Create/update review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md with header and timestamp

Loop (repeat up to MAX_ROUNDS)

Phase A: Review

Route by REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY:

Medium (default) — Codex Review

Send comprehensive context to the external reviewer:

spawn_agent:
  reasoning_effort: xhigh
  message: |
    [Round N/MAX_ROUNDS of autonomous review loop]

    Review the work directly from its artifacts — executor notes are not
    evidence, so read the files yourself rather than trusting my framing:
    - Claims / paper draft: <path>
    - Methods / code under review: <path(s)>
    - Raw results (verbatim files, not a summary): <path(s)>
    - Changed since last round: <changed-file paths> — read the diff, not my description

    Please act as a senior ML reviewer (NeurIPS/ICML level).

    1. Score this work 1-10 for a top venue
    2. List remaining critical weaknesses (ranked by severity)
    3. For each weakness, specify the MINIMUM fix (experiment, analysis, or reframing)
    4. State clearly: is this READY for submission? Yes/No/Almost

    Be brutally honest. If the work is ready, say so clearly.

If this is round 2+, use send_input with the saved agent id to maintain continuity.

Hard — Codex Review + Reviewer Memory

Use the same spawn_agent / send_input route as medium, but prepend the full review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md contents under ## Your Reviewer Memory (persistent across rounds) and require a Memory update section in the reviewer response.

Nightmare — Independent Repository Review

Use everything in hard mode, then ask an additional fresh adversarial reviewer to verify claims against repository files, logs, result files, and paper drafts instead of trusting executor summaries. Preserve the fresh review as a separate raw response and trace.

Phase B: Parse Assessment

CRITICAL: Save the FULL raw response from the external reviewer verbatim (store in a variable for Phase E). Do NOT discard or summarize — the raw text is the primary record.

Then extract structured fields:

Score (numeric 1-10)
Verdict ("ready" / "almost" / "not ready")
Action items (ranked list of fixes)

STOP CONDITION: If score >= 6 AND verdict ∈ {"ready", "almost"} (exact match — "not ready" does NOT qualify) → stop loop, document final state.

Phase B.5: Reviewer Memory Update (hard + nightmare only)

Skip entirely if REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY = medium.

After parsing the assessment, update review-stage/REVIEWER_MEMORY.md:

Your Reviewer Memory (persistent across rounds)

Pass this file back to the reviewer in the next round so it can track its own suspicions.

# Reviewer Memory

## Round 1 — Score: X/10
- **Suspicion**: [what the reviewer flagged]
- **Unresolved**: [concerns not yet addressed]
- **Patterns**: [recurring issues the reviewer noticed]

## Round 2 — Score: X/10
- **Previous suspicions addressed?**: [yes/no for each, with reviewer judgment]
- **New suspicions**: [...]
- **Unresolved**: [carried forward + new]

Rules:

Append each round; never delete prior rounds.
If the reviewer response includes a Memory update section, copy it verbatim.
This file is passed back to the reviewer in the next round's Phase A.

Phase B.6: Debate Protocol (hard + nightmare only)

Skip entirely if REVIEWER_DIFFICULTY = medium.

After parsing the review, Codex writes a structured rebuttal for up to three high-impact weaknesses:

### Rebuttal to Weakness #1: [title]
- **Accept / Partially Accept / Reject**
- **Argument**: [why this criticism is valid, invalid, already addressed, or out of scope]
- **Evidence**: [specific code, result file, log, prior-round fix, or paper section]

Send the rebuttal to the same reviewer via send_input:

send_input:
  target: [saved reviewer id]
  message: |
    Please rule on the author's rebuttal below.
    For each contested weakness, decide: accepted / partially accepted / rejected.
    If rejected, state the minimum evidence or change required.

    [paste rebuttal + evidence]

Record a ### Debate Transcript (hard + nightmare only) section in review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md. Only mark a weakness resolved if the reviewer accepts the rebuttal.

Debate Transcript (hard + nightmare only)

In the round log, preserve the rebuttal, reviewer ruling, accepted objections, rejected objections, and any required follow-up evidence.

Human Checkpoint (if enabled)

Skip this step entirely if HUMAN_CHECKPOINT = false.

When HUMAN_CHECKPOINT = true, present the review results and wait for user input:

📋 Round N/MAX_ROUNDS review complete.

Score: X/10 — [verdict]
Top weaknesses:
1. [weakness 1]
2. [weakness 2]
3. [weakness 3]

Suggested fixes:
1. [fix 1]
2. [fix 2]
3. [fix 3]

Options:
- Reply "go" or "continue" → implement all suggested fixes
- Reply with custom instructions → implement your modifications instead
- Reply "skip 2" → skip fix #2, implement the rest
- Reply "stop" → end the loop, document current state

Wait for the user's response. Parse their input:

Approval ("go", "continue", "ok", "proceed"): proceed to Phase C with all suggested fixes
Custom instructions (any other text): treat as additional/replacement guidance for Phase C. Merge with reviewer suggestions where appropriate
Skip specific fixes ("skip 1,3"): remove those fixes from the action list
Stop ("stop", "enough", "done"): terminate the loop, jump to Termination

Feishu Notification (if configured)

After parsing the score, check if ~/.codex/feishu.json exists and mode is not "off":

Send a review_scored notification: "Round N: X/10 — [verdict]" with top 3 weaknesses
If interactive mode and verdict is "almost": send as checkpoint, wait for user reply on whether to continue or stop
If config absent or mode off: skip entirely (no-op)

Phase C: Implement Fixes (if not stopping)

For each action item (highest priority first):

Code changes: Write/modify experiment scripts, model code, analysis scripts
Run experiments: Deploy to GPU server via SSH + screen/tmux
Analysis: Run evaluation, collect results, update figures/tables
Documentation: Update project notes and review document

Prioritization rules:

Skip fixes requiring excessive compute (flag for manual follow-up)
Skip fixes requiring external data/models not available
Prefer reframing/analysis over new experiments when both address the concern
Always implement metric additions (cheap, high impact)

Phase D: Wait for Results

If experiments were launched:

Monitor remote sessions for completion
Collect results from output files and logs
Training quality check — if W&B is configured, invoke /training-check to verify training was healthy (no NaN, no divergence, no plateau). If W&B is not available, skip silently.

Phase E: Document Round

Append to review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md:

## Round N (timestamp)

### Assessment (Summary)
- Score: X/10
- Verdict: [ready/almost/not ready]
- Key criticisms: [bullet list]

### Reviewer Raw Response

<details>
<summary>Click to expand full reviewer response</summary>

[Paste the COMPLETE raw response from the external reviewer here — verbatim, unedited.
This is the authoritative record. Do NOT truncate or paraphrase.]

</details>

### Actions Taken
- [what was implemented/changed]

### Results
- [experiment outcomes, if any]

### Status
- [continuing to round N+1 / stopping]

Write review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json with current round, agent id, score, verdict, and any pending experiments.

Append to findings.md (when COMPACT = true): one-line entry per key finding this round.

- [Round N] [positive/negative/unexpected]: [one-sentence finding] (metric: X.XX → Y.YY)

Increment round counter → back to Phase A.

Review Tracing

After every spawn_agent, send_input, oracle-pro, or nightmare adversarial verification call, save a trace following ../shared-references/review-tracing.md. Include prompt summary, reviewer route, saved agent id, raw response path, score/verdict, accepted fixes, rejected rebuttals, and the Reviewer Memory update if present.

Termination

When loop ends (positive assessment or max rounds):

Update review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json with "status": "completed"
Write final summary to review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md
Update project notes with conclusions
Write method/pipeline description to review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md under a ## Method Description section — a concise 1-2 paragraph summary of the final method, architecture, and data flow. This serves as direct input for /paper-illustration.
Generate claims from results — invoke /result-to-claim to convert experiment results from review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md into structured paper claims. Output: CLAIMS_FROM_RESULTS.md. If /result-to-claim is unavailable, skip silently.
If stopped at max rounds without positive assessment:
- List remaining blockers
- Estimate effort needed for each
- Suggest whether to continue manually or pivot
Feishu notification (if configured): Send pipeline_done with final score progression table
Render HTML view (if RENDER_HTML = true, default): invoke /render-html on the cumulative review log:
```
/render-html "review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.md" --no-review --state review-stage/REVIEW_STATE.json
```
Pass --state explicitly when REVIEW_STATE.json exists (the helper does not auto-discover the sidecar). HTML lands at review-stage/AUTO_REVIEW.html with embedded source SHA256. Non-blocking: if /render-html fails, log the error and continue — the HTML is a convenience, not a termination prerequisite.

Output Protocols

Follow these shared protocols for all output files:

Output Versioning Protocol — write timestamped file first, then copy to fixed name

Output Manifest Protocol — log every output to MANIFEST.md

Output Language Protocol — respect the project's language setting

Key Rules

Large file handling: If the Write tool fails due to file size, immediately retry using Bash (cat << 'EOF' > file) to write in chunks. Do NOT ask the user for permission — just do it silently.
ALWAYS use reasoning_effort: xhigh for maximum reasoning depth
Save agent id from first call, use send_input for subsequent rounds
Be honest — include negative results and failed experiments
Do NOT hide weaknesses to game a positive score
Implement fixes BEFORE re-reviewing (don't just promise to fix)
If an experiment takes > 30 minutes, launch it and continue with other fixes while waiting
Document EVERYTHING — the review log should be self-contained
Update project notes after each round, not just at the end

Prompt Template for Round 2+

send_input:
  id: [saved from round 1]
  reasoning_effort: xhigh
  message: |
    [Round N update]

    Since your last review these files changed — read them yourself; do not
    take my word for what changed or whether it worked:
    - Changed files: <paths>
    - Raw diff: <path, or the `git diff` range>
    - Updated raw results: <result-file paths> (verbatim files, not a pasted table)

    Please re-score and re-assess. Are the remaining concerns addressed?
    Same format: Score, Verdict, Remaining Weaknesses, Minimum Fixes.