ReviewPack 1.1.6-dev.285

ReviewPack (dotnet tool)

ReviewPack is a .NET CLI tool that generates a PR review pack (a set of Markdown files) from the current Git branch changes compared to a base branch.

The output is designed to be easy to paste/upload into an LLM-assisted review workflow:

• a summary (branch context, totals, index of changed files)
• one or more "part" files containing git diff patches (split into chunks)

Requirements

• .NET SDK/runtime compatible with the tool (as installed by dotnet tool)
• git available on your PATH
• Run the command from within a Git working directory
• The output folder must already exist (the tool will create a subfolder for each run)

Install

dotnet tool install --global ReviewPack

After installation the command is available as:

pr-review-pack

Update

dotnet tool update --global ReviewPack

Uninstall

dotnet tool uninstall --global ReviewPack

Usage

Basic example

1. Make sure your base branch reference is up to date:

git fetch origin

2. Create an output folder:

mkdir C:\temp\reviewpacks

3. Run the tool:

pr-review-pack --tool__basebranch "origin/main" --tool__outputpath "C:\temp\reviewpacks" --tool__maxmarkdownsize 15000 --allowConsoleLogging

The tool writes a new subfolder under the output path (named with a run id) containing files like:

• review-pack-0000.md (summary)
• review-pack-0001.md (part 1)
• review-pack-0002.md (part 2)

Options

MCP server mode

When --tool__runasmcpserver true is set, ReviewPack starts an MCP server over stdio and exposes tools from the assembly.

The primary tool is:

• GenerateReviewPack: Generates the review pack markdown files using the server's configured options.

Typical usage is to configure your MCP client to start pr-review-pack as a stdio server, for example:

{
  "command": "pr-review-pack",
  "args": [
    "--tool__runasmcpserver", "true",
    "--tool__basebranch", "origin/main",
    "--tool__outputpath", "C:\\temp\\reviewpacks",
    "--tool__branchfolder", "D:\\Dev\\MyRepo"
  ]
}

Notes:

• In MCP mode, avoid enabling console logging because stdout is reserved for the MCP protocol.
• The server writes its log file to <tool__outputpath>\mcp-rev-pack.log.

Using ReviewPack via an agent (prompting)

GenerateReviewPack is meant to be called by an agent when the user asks for a pre-PR review pack (it does not do the review analysis itself).

Example prompts you can give to an agent that has the MCP server configured:

• "Generate a PR review pack for my current branch (base: origin/main). Return the list of generated markdown files."
• "Please prepare my current Git changes for LLM review (create the review-pack markdown files) and tell me where they were written."
• "I want a pre-PR self-review pack. Generate it, then tell me which review-pack-*.md files I should upload starting from part 0000."

If you also want the agent to do the review, ask for it explicitly as a second step:

• "Generate the review pack and then review the changes. If you can't access the generated files directly, ask me to paste/upload review-pack-0000.md first, then the remaining parts."

What is included in the review pack

• Branch context: current branch name, base branch name, head commit SHA, merge base SHA
• Summary: number of changed files, added/deleted line totals, part count
• Changed files index
• Per-file patches in fenced diff blocks

Notes

• The tool uses the merge-base between HEAD and the provided base branch, then diffs merge-base..HEAD.
• If Git returns no patch content for a file, the output will include a placeholder message.