Configuring pull request review in your factory

Automate pull request review in your factory to check code changes against the acceptance criteria recorded in the issue or pull request, repository conventions, and security requirements. Use this pattern for independent review of code written by people or agents.

This recipe routes pull requests to your factory’s foreman, which asks the review agent to inspect the change and publishes its report. The review agent reports to the foreman rather than posting on the pull request. The automation prompt limits this workflow to review without implementation, approval, or merging. Keep required approvals and merge permissions in the code host.

Prerequisites

• A factory connected to GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps.
• Repository credentials that can read code, checks, and review discussions, and post findings.
• A review policy with required validation commands, security checks, and finding thresholds.
• A test pull request or merge request with a known defect.

Recommended configuration

Use the following table to choose the trigger, agent, skills, settings, and expected output for your review automation.

Part	Recommendation
Trigger	A pull request becomes ready or is created, depending on the provider
Agents	Your factory’s foreman coordinates the review agent and publishes its findings
Skills	Repository-specific review policy and validation commands
Settings	Filter by repository and target branch. Choose a different model or harness from implementation when possible
Output	Actionable findings with affected lines, a recommendation, and validation results

Set up pull request review

1. Use your factory’s existing foreman and review agents. Keep both agents’ shared instructions intact.

2. Add a review-policy skill under agents/review/skills/, using your agent’s directory name if different. Include validation commands, relevant security or migration checks, and which findings require changes. See factory skills for the file format.

3. Add or edit an automation for your code host. Target the foreman with agent: foreman, replacing foreman if yours has a different name. Put this workflow’s review-only instructions in the automation prompt.

   Reuse an existing automation if it already handles those requests. Check for overlapping triggers before adding another route.

   Select your code host from the tabs below, then follow the instructions to configure the automation.

   GitHub

   This automation starts when a pull request is opened ready for review or changes from draft to ready. Replace acme/api-service and main with your repository and target branch.

   automations/review-ready-prs/automation.md

   ---
   agent: foreman
   triggers:
     - provider: github
       event: pull_request_ready
       filter:
         repos: [acme/api-service]
         base_branches: [main]
         labels:
           not_in: [skip-factory-review]
   ---
   
   Coordinate a review-only task. If the pull request is a draft or is no
   longer open, stop without posting a review. Treat this event as a fresh
   review request, even if an earlier revision was reviewed. Ask the factory's
   review agent to inspect the current head commit against acceptance criteria
   in the source issue or pull request and repository guidance, run relevant
   validation, and return its report to you. Publish the report on the pull
   request as comments, not an approval or rejection. Include affected lines,
   impact, recommended corrections,
   validation results, and anything unverified. Stop after publishing.
   Do not edit code, dispatch implementation, approve, or merge.

   The optional skip-factory-review label excludes a pull request when the event fires. For bot-authored events, see the published GitHub bot-event policy.

   GitLab

   Copy agent: foreman and the Markdown review prompt from the GitHub tab’s automations/review-ready-prs/automation.md example. Replace its entire triggers list with the configuration below, using your GitLab project path and target branch in place of acme/api-service and main.

   GitLab review trigger

   triggers:
     - provider: gitlab
       event: merge_request
       filter:
         repos: [acme/api-service]
         base_branches: [main]
         actions: [open]

   merge_request also covers updates, approvals, and other actions. The actions: [open] filter limits initial review to newly opened merge requests. This trigger has no label or draft filter, so keep the prompt’s instruction to skip drafts.

   Azure DevOps

   Copy agent: foreman and the Markdown review prompt from the GitHub tab’s automations/review-ready-prs/automation.md example. Replace its entire triggers list with the configuration below. Replace AZURE_DEVOPS_REPOSITORY_ID with the repository’s UUID, not a GitHub-style owner/repo path, and replace main with the target branch.

   Azure DevOps review trigger

   triggers:
     - provider: azure_devops
       event: pull_request_created
       filter:
         repos: [AZURE_DEVOPS_REPOSITORY_ID]
         base_branches: [main]

   This trigger has no label or draft filter. Keep the prompt’s instruction to skip drafts. See Azure DevOps events and filters for setup and scope.

4. Apply the definition changes before testing. Save edits in the factory dashboard for a Warp-managed factory, or merge them into the configured production branch for a GitHub-backed factory. Confirm validation succeeds and the changes are applied. See where the factory definition lives.

5. Test the selected event with a pull request or merge request that contains a known defect and matches every filter.

   • GitHub - Mark a draft pull request as ready for review, or open a non-draft pull request. To test the optional exclusion, repeat with skip-factory-review applied before opening the pull request or marking it ready.
   • GitLab - Open a non-draft merge request.
   • Azure DevOps - Create a non-draft pull request.

   Confirm the review agent returns its findings to the foreman, the foreman posts the defect on the pull request, and neither agent changes the branch or starts implementation. Test exclusions too: GitHub’s skip label should prevent a run, while draft requests on GitLab and Azure DevOps may start a run but should produce no review.

6. Add re-review events only if the workflow needs them. Use pull_request_synchronized for GitHub, merge_request with actions: [update] for GitLab, or pull_request_updated for Azure DevOps. GitLab and Azure DevOps update events are not limited to new commits. Keep the same repository and target-branch filters, retain the draft and closed-request checks, and decide how the agent should reply to or update earlier findings instead of duplicating them. Push a fix and confirm the next review checks the revised code.

Example workflow

A pull request changes a cache key from account_id:region to account_id. When the author marks it ready, the foreman requests a review. The review agent finds that two regions now share one entry and reports the collision scenario and expected key shape to the foreman, which posts the finding on the pull request.

After the author pushes a fix, a configured re-review event requests another check of the current head commit. The review agent verifies the new key and the foreman publishes the result. A person still decides whether to approve and merge.

Related pages

• Factory use cases - Compare review with triage, implementation, and verification recipes.
• Factory automations - Configure pull request events and filters.
• Factory agents - Configure the review role and choose a separate model or harness.
• GitHub integration - Review supported pull request events and permissions.