review

Tusk Review

Tusk Review provides CLI commands for running the Tusk AI code review against your local working tree — before you push or open a pull request. Surfaces issues in the terminal; never posts comments to GitHub or GitLab.

Prerequisites

Authenticate with Tusk:

tusk auth login

Or set the TUSK_API_KEY environment variable. See onboarding docs for details.

The repo you're in must already be connected to Tusk (one-time setup by any user in your org). The CLI detects the repo from the origin remote; override with --repo owner/name.

Commands

tusk review run

Submit a code review for your current working tree. Generates a git patch (including uncommitted and untracked changes), uploads it, polls for completion, and prints the result.

tusk review run
tusk review run --json | jq .
tusk review run --output review.txt
tusk review run --min-severity high

Common flags:

• --repo owner/name — override the repo (defaults to origin remote).
• --min-severity low|medium|high|critical — severity floor for surfaced issues.
• --exclude <glob> / --include <glob> — extra path excludes, or re-include a default skip. Repeatable.
• --json — backend-rendered JSON to stdout (pipe to jq).
• --output <file> — write the result to a file instead of stdout.
• --quiet — suppress stderr progress.
• --no-poll — submit and exit immediately with the run id (see Fire-and-forget below).

tusk review status <run-id>

Check the status of a previously submitted run. Defaults to a one-shot snapshot.

tusk review status cr_01JK7...
tusk review status cr_01JK7... --watch
tusk review status cr_01JK7... --json

Pair with --watch to block until the run reaches a terminal state (SUCCESS, FAILED, or CANCELLED). Honors the same --json, --output, and --quiet flags as run.

Typical workflow

1. Make changes in a repo connected to Tusk.

2. Run the review:

   tusk review run

   Stderr shows progress; stdout prints the final review when it's done (usually 3–5 min).

3. Fix issues locally.

Fire-and-forget

Use --no-poll to submit the review and exit immediately. Useful for kicking off a review from one machine and reading it elsewhere or whenever you don't want to block a terminal:

$ tusk review run --no-poll
cr_01JK7...
$ tusk review status cr_01JK7... --watch

With --json, the run id is wrapped for programmatic consumers:

$ tusk review run --no-poll --json
{"runId":"cr_01JK7..."}

Ctrl+C on a --no-poll run has no effect on the backend — the run is independent of the CLI process.

Filtering

Lockfiles, binaries, and common build output are skipped automatically (same list the server-side review uses). To tweak:

• .tuskignore at the repo root — .gitignore-style globs, additive to the defaults.
• --exclude <glob> — one-off add. Repeatable.
• --include <glob> — cancel a default skip (e.g. --include 'package-lock.json'). Repeatable.

If everything you changed is filtered out (e.g. a pure package-lock.json bump), the CLI exits 0 with "Nothing to review" — no wasted server-side run.

Size limits

The CLI enforces patch size limits before upload:

• Hard caps: 10,000 changed lines / 200 files / 1 MiB patch bytes. The CLI aborts with a top-contributors list.
• Soft warnings (stderr, continues): 2,000 lines / 50 files.

If you hit a hard cap, the error points at the biggest contributing files — usually unfiltered generated code or lockfiles not caught by the default filter. Add them to .tuskignore and rerun.

Exit codes

• 0 — review completed (issues may or may not be found), or nothing to review after filtering.
• 1 — run failed (sandbox error, patch-apply failure, timeout, auth, network).
• 2 — user-actionable pre-flight or request failure:
  • mid-rebase / merge / cherry-pick / revert in the working tree
  • patch too large
  • submodule changes in the patch (not supported in v1)
  • repo not connected to Tusk under your current org
  • rate limit hit (with next-allowed timestamp)
  • no active seat for your code-hosting identity

JSON output

The JSON schema is backend-rendered and documented server-side. Pipe through jq for filtering:

# Pretty-print
tusk review run --json --quiet | jq .