Automated code review Action to programmatically approve PRs, comment, or request changes using GitHub's API. This GitHub Action is useful for teams who want to automate code review processes, enforce quality gates, and provide consistent feedback across all pull requests.

• Programmatic Code Reviews: Automatically submit reviews with comments, approvals, or change requests.
• Simple Integration: One-step usage in any workflow with minimal configuration.
• Powered by GitHub API: Uses Octokit for secure pull request management and review operations.
• Organization-wide: Can be used across any repository with proper permissions.
• Type-Safe: Built with TypeScript for reliability and better developer experience.

• Your workflow must pass the necessary inputs to this action.
• This action requires Node 20 runtime (included in GitHub-hosted runners).
• The GitHub token must have pull-requests: write permissions to submit reviews.

name: Automated Code Reviewon: pull_request: types: [opened, synchronize]branches: [main, master]jobs: code-review: runs-on: ubuntu-latestpermissions: contents: readpull-requests: writesteps: - name: Submit Code Reviewuses: ws2git/code-scout@v1with: pull_request_url: ${{github.event.pull_request.html_url }}event: 'comment'body: '🤖 Automated review: Code structure looks good!'github-token: ${{github.token }}

name: Manual Code Reviewon: workflow_dispatch: inputs: pull_request_url: description: 'PR URL to review'required: truereview_type: description: 'Review type'required: truetype: choiceoptions: [comment, approve, request_changes]review_message: description: 'Review message'required: truejobs: manual-review: runs-on: ubuntu-latestpermissions: contents: readpull-requests: writesteps: - name: Execute Manual Reviewuses: ws2git/code-scout@v1with: pull_request_url: ${{github.event.inputs.pull_request_url }}event: ${{github.event.inputs.review_type }}body: ${{github.event.inputs.review_message }}github-token: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Internally, this action uses the GitHub Octokit REST API to submit code reviews programmatically.

Technical workflow:

1. Parse PR URL: Extracts owner, repository, and pull request number from the URL
2. Validate Inputs: Ensures all parameters meet GitHub API requirements
3. Fetch PR Data: Retrieves the latest commit SHA from the pull request
4. Submit Review: Creates a review with the specified event type and message

Core implementation:

// Submit review via GitHub APIawaitoctokit.rest.pulls.createReview({ owner, repo,pull_number: pullNumber,commit_id: commitSha,body: reviewMessage,event: reviewType,});

If any required parameter is missing or invalid, the action fails with descriptive error messages.

This Action uses the GitHub Token to authenticate with the GitHub REST API and requires write permissions for pull requests.

Recommended: For repositories within the same organization, use the default ${{github.token }}:

with: github-token: ${{github.token }}

Cross-Repository Reviews: For reviewing pull requests in external repositories, use a PAT (Personal Access Token) with repo scope:

with: github-token: ${{secrets.CODE_REVIEW_PAT }}

Never expose tokens in plain text or commit them to version control.

⚠️Important Configuration Notes:

• Permissions: Ensure your workflow has pull-requests: write permission
• Event Types: Use lowercase for event types in workflows (comment, approve, request_changes)
• Message Length: Review bodies are limited to 65,536 characters
• Rate Limiting: Be mindful of GitHub API rate limits when using frequently

• GitHub Actions Documentation
• GitHub REST API - Pull Request Reviews
• Octokit Documentation
• TypeScript Configuration

If you find a bug or have a question, open an issue.