Automated Code Review - OpenHands Docs

Automated code review helps maintain code quality, catch bugs early, and enforce coding standards consistently across your team. OpenHands provides a GitHub Actions workflow powered by the Software Agent SDK that automatically reviews pull requests and posts inline comments directly on your PRs.

Overview

The OpenHands PR Review workflow is a GitHub Actions workflow that:

Triggers automatically when PRs are opened or when you request a review
Analyzes code changes in the context of your entire repository
Posts inline comments directly on specific lines of code in the PR
Provides fast feedback - typically within 2-3 minutes

How It Works

The PR review workflow uses the OpenHands Software Agent SDK to analyze your code changes:

Trigger: The workflow runs when:
- A new non-draft PR is opened
- A draft PR is marked as ready for review
- The review-this label is added to a PR
- openhands-agent is requested as a reviewer
Analysis: The agent receives the complete PR diff and uses two skills:
- /codereview or /codereview-roasted: Analyzes code for quality, security, and best practices
- /github-pr-review: Posts structured inline comments via the GitHub API
Output: Review comments are posted directly on the PR with:
- Priority labels (🔴 Critical, 🟠 Important, 🟡 Suggestion, 🟢 Nit)
- Specific line references
- Actionable suggestions with code examples

Review Styles

Choose between two review styles:

Style	Description	Best For
Standard (`/codereview`)	Pragmatic, constructive feedback focusing on code quality, security, and best practices	Day-to-day code reviews
Roasted (`/codereview-roasted`)	Linus Torvalds-style brutally honest review emphasizing “good taste”, data structures, and simplicity	Critical code paths, learning opportunities

Quick Start

Copy the workflow file

Create .github/workflows/pr-review-by-openhands.yml in your repository:

name: PR Review by OpenHands

on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened, ready_for_review, labeled, review_requested]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write

jobs:
  pr-review:
    if: |
      (github.event.action == 'opened' && github.event.pull_request.draft == false) ||
      github.event.action == 'ready_for_review' ||
      github.event.label.name == 'review-this' ||
      github.event.requested_reviewer.login == 'openhands-agent'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run PR Review
        uses: OpenHands/software-agent-sdk/.github/actions/pr-review@main
        with:
          llm-model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
          review-style: standard
          llm-api-key: ${{ secrets.LLM_API_KEY }}
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Add your LLM API key

Go to your repository’s Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions and add:

LLM_API_KEY: Your LLM API key (get one from OpenHands LLM Provider)

Create the review label

Create a review-this label in your repository:

Go to Issues → Labels
Click New label
Name: review-this
Description: Trigger OpenHands PR review

Trigger a review

Open a PR and either:

Add the review-this label, OR
Request openhands-agent as a reviewer

Composite Action

The workflow uses a reusable composite action from the Software Agent SDK that handles all the setup automatically:

Checking out the extensions repository at the specified version
Setting up Python and dependencies
Running the PR review agent (from extensions repo)
Uploading logs as artifacts

Action Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
`llm-model`	LLM model to use	Yes	-
`llm-base-url`	LLM base URL (for custom endpoints)	No	`''`
`review-style`	Review style: `standard` or `roasted`	No	`roasted`
`extensions-version`	Git ref for extensions (tag, branch, or commit SHA)	No	`main`
`extensions-repo`	Extensions repository (owner/repo)	No	`OpenHands/extensions`
`llm-api-key`	LLM API key	Yes	-
`github-token`	GitHub token for API access	Yes	-

Use extensions-version to pin to a specific version tag (e.g., v1.0.0) for production stability, or use main to always get the latest features. The extensions repository contains the PR review plugin scripts.

Customization

Repository-Specific Review Guidelines

Create custom review guidelines for your repository by adding a skill file at .agents/skills/code-review.md:

---
name: code-review
description: Custom code review guidelines for this repository
triggers:
- /codereview
---

# Repository Code Review Guidelines

You are reviewing code for [Your Project Name]. Follow these guidelines:

## Review Decisions

### When to APPROVE
- Configuration changes following existing patterns
- Documentation-only changes
- Test-only changes without production code changes
- Simple additions following established conventions

### When to COMMENT
- Issues that need attention (bugs, security concerns)
- Suggestions for improvement
- Questions about design decisions

## Core Principles

1. **[Your Principle 1]**: Description
2. **[Your Principle 2]**: Description

## What to Check

- **[Category 1]**: What to look for
- **[Category 2]**: What to look for

## Repository Conventions

- Use [your linter] for style checking
- Follow [your style guide]
- Tests should be in [your test directory]

The skill file must use /codereview as the trigger to override the default review behavior. See the software-agent-sdk’s own code-review skill for a complete example.

Workflow Configuration

Customize the workflow by modifying the action inputs:

- name: Run PR Review
  uses: OpenHands/software-agent-sdk/.github/actions/pr-review@main
  with:
    # Change the LLM model
    llm-model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
    # Use a custom LLM endpoint
    llm-base-url: https://your-llm-proxy.example.com
    # Switch to "roasted" style for brutally honest reviews
    review-style: roasted
    # Pin to a specific extensions version for stability
    extensions-version: main
    # Secrets
    llm-api-key: ${{ secrets.LLM_API_KEY }}
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Trigger Customization

Modify when reviews are triggered by editing the workflow conditions:

# Only trigger on label (disable auto-review on PR open)
if: github.event.label.name == 'review-this'

# Only trigger when specific reviewer is requested
if: github.event.requested_reviewer.login == 'openhands-agent'

# Trigger on all PRs (including drafts)
if: |
  github.event.action == 'opened' ||
  github.event.action == 'synchronize'

Security Considerations

The workflow uses pull_request_target so the code review agent can work properly for PRs from forks. Only users with write access can trigger reviews via labels or reviewer requests.

Potential Risk: A malicious contributor could submit a PR from a fork containing code designed to exfiltrate your LLM_API_KEY when the review agent analyzes their code.To mitigate this, the PR review workflow passes API keys as SDK secrets rather than environment variables, which prevents the agent from directly accessing these credentials during code execution.

Example Reviews

See real automated reviews in action on the OpenHands Software Agent SDK repository:

PR	Description	Review Highlights
#1927	Composite GitHub Action refactor	Comprehensive review with 🔴 Critical, 🟠 Important, and 🟡 Suggestion labels
#1916	Add example for reconstructing messages	Critical issues flagged with clear explanations
#1904	Update code-review skill guidelines	APPROVED review highlighting key strengths
#1889	Fix tmux race condition	Technical review of concurrency fix with dual-lock strategy analysis

Troubleshooting

Review not triggering

Ensure the LLM_API_KEY secret is set correctly
Check that the label name matches exactly (review-this)
Verify the workflow file is in .github/workflows/
Check the Actions tab for workflow run errors

Review comments not appearing

Ensure GITHUB_TOKEN has pull-requests: write permission
Check the workflow logs for API errors
Verify the PR is not from a fork with restricted permissions

Review taking too long

Large PRs may take longer to analyze
Consider splitting large PRs into smaller ones
Check if the LLM API is experiencing delays

PR Review Workflow Reference - Full workflow example and agent script
Composite Action - Reusable GitHub Action for PR reviews
Software Agent SDK - Build your own AI-powered workflows
GitHub Integration - Set up GitHub integration for OpenHands Cloud
Skills Documentation - Learn more about OpenHands skills

​Overview

​How It Works

​Review Styles

​Quick Start

​Composite Action

​Action Inputs

​Customization

​Repository-Specific Review Guidelines

​Workflow Configuration

​Trigger Customization

​Security Considerations

​Example Reviews

​Troubleshooting

​Related Resources

Overview

How It Works

Review Styles

Quick Start

Composite Action

Action Inputs

Customization

Repository-Specific Review Guidelines

Workflow Configuration

Trigger Customization

Security Considerations

Example Reviews

Troubleshooting

Related Resources