Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Code Review Specialist agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
Code Review Specialist is an agent skill: a folder of instructions and helper scripts that an AI agent loads when your request matches its description. This guide explains what the skill makes the agent do, how to install it from the ZIP on our page, how to trigger it, and what to check before relying on its output. After reading, you will be able to install the skill and ask for a structured review of a file or pull request.
Code Review Specialistluongnv89/claude-howto · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the code-review-specialist ZIP from our page and unzip it. Confirm that SKILL.md sits at the top level of the skill folder.
- 2Choose an install location. Place the folder in ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or in your project's .claude/skills/ folder to share it with a team. In the Claude apps, upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills instead.
- 3Confirm Python 3 is available. The bundled metric scripts require Python 3. Skip this step only if you will not run them.
- 4Ask for a review in plain language. Name the file or pull request and say what you want, for example asking the agent to review a file for security problems.
- 5Run the metric scripts when useful. Ask the agent to run analyze-metrics.py on a file, or compare-complexity.py on before and after versions for a refactor.
- 6Triage the findings. Work through Critical and High items first, check each suggested fix against your own code, and confirm findings with tests or a human reviewer.
What the Code Review Specialist skill makes the agent do
Once installed, the agent reviews code more systematically than it would with a general prompt. The skill covers four areas: security, performance, code quality, and maintainability. It tells the agent to follow a bundled checklist so no category is skipped, and to write findings in a fixed format.
- Security: authentication and authorization issues, data exposure, injection vulnerabilities, cryptographic weaknesses, sensitive data logging
- Performance: algorithm efficiency, memory use, database query problems, caching opportunities, concurrency issues
- Quality: SOLID principles, design patterns, naming, documentation, test coverage
- Maintainability: readability, function size (the checklist says under 50 lines), cyclomatic complexity, dependency management, type safety
Install the skill from the ZIP
Download the ZIP for code-review-specialist from our page and unzip it. The skill is a folder that must contain SKILL.md at its top level. Put the folder in one of two places depending on how you want to use it.
For all your projects, unzip it into your personal skills directory, ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder so teammates who clone the repository get it too.
If you use the Claude apps instead of a local setup, you can upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/code-review-specialist/
- Project install: <your-project>/.claude/skills/code-review-specialist/
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Trigger the skill with natural requests
You do not need a special command. The skill's description tells the agent when to use it: when you ask to review code, analyze code quality, evaluate pull requests, or mention code review, security analysis, or performance optimization. Say what you want in plain language and name the file or change.
Being specific helps. Mention the file path, the pull request, or the refactor you made, so the agent knows which code to read.
- Review src/auth/login.py for security problems
- Do a code review of the changes in this pull request before I merge
- Analyze the code quality of utils/parser.py and suggest fixes
- Check this endpoint for injection and data exposure risks
- Compare the complexity of my refactored billing module against the original
Use the bundled Python metric scripts
The skill includes two Python helpers. scripts/analyze-metrics.py calculates code metrics for the file under review, including function count, class count, average line length and a complexity score. scripts/compare-complexity.py compares cyclomatic and cognitive complexity between two versions of a file, which is useful when reviewing a refactor.
Both scripts need Python 3. They use simple regex counts and only analyze Python-style syntax, so treat their numbers as rough guides and do not use them on other languages.
- analyze-metrics.py: run on the file under review to gather quantitative data
- compare-complexity.py: run with the before and after versions of a file when reviewing refactoring changes
Read the findings format
The skill asks the agent to start with a summary: an overall quality rating from 1 to 5, a count of key findings, and recommended priority areas. Critical issues come next, then findings grouped by category.
Each finding follows the bundled finding template, which includes a severity (Critical, High, Medium or Low), a location (file and lines), a description of what, why it matters, current and expected behavior, and a suggested fix. Use the severity to decide what blocks a merge and what can wait.
- Severity levels: Critical (blocks deployment), High (fix before merge), Medium (fix soon), Low (nice to have)
- Each finding includes the file, lines and function name where the issue was found
Safety notes: scripts and network
This skill runs scripts. Its metadata says it runs scripts and does not use the network. Read the two Python files before running them on sensitive code, as you would with any script. Because the review is heuristic, do not treat a clean report as proof that code is secure. Keep a human security review for high-risk changes.
- Runs scripts: yes (two Python helpers)
- Uses network: no
- The checks are heuristic and the metric scripts can miss or misreport issues
What people use it for
- Reviewing a single file for injection or data exposure risks before it is merged
- Getting a severity-rated list of issues on a pull request before asking a teammate to look
- Checking a refactor for complexity changes by comparing the old and new versions of a Python file
- Looking for long functions and unclear naming in a module that has grown over time
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the code review specialist skill?
Download the ZIP from our page and unzip it so that the code-review-specialist folder, containing SKILL.md, sits in ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or in your project's .claude/skills/ folder for a shared install. In the Claude apps, you can upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
What do I need to run the code review skill?
You need a Claude runtime that supports skills. You need Python 3 only if you want to run the two bundled metric scripts.
Is the code review specialist skill free?
The skill is published under the MIT licence. This page does not list a price, so check the source repository for any licence terms beyond what is stated there.
Does the skill send my code over the network?
The skill's metadata says it does not use the network. It does run two bundled Python scripts, so review those files before running them on sensitive code.
Can I use this skill for a non-Python project?
You can ask for a review of code in other languages, but the metric scripts only analyze Python-style syntax. Their results for other languages are unreliable, so rely on the agent's review for those and not the script numbers.
How does this compare to a human security audit or a linter?
The skill is a second set of eyes, not a replacement for a human security audit. Its checks are heuristic and the metric scripts use simple regex counts that can miss or misreport issues. Use it alongside tests, your own linters and a human reviewer for sensitive code.
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Our verdict
Choose this skill if you want a consistent, severity-rated second review of files or pull requests, and you are working mainly in Python for the metric scripts. Pick something else if you need a formal security audit, or if most of your code is in languages the Python helpers cannot analyze.
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