Output Channels and Routing

After a review finishes, AICodeReviewer dispatches the result to one or more output channels — PR line comments, IM bots, managed issues — based on routing rules. The outputs namespace defines the channels, the routes, the template engine, and the zero-problem policy that decides whether a clean review should notify anyone.

outputs:
  template_engine: handlebars
  no_problems: { action: suppress }
  channels:
    - name: gitea-pr-review
      kind: gitea_pr_review
      trigger: gitea
  routes:
    default:
      line_comments: [gitea-pr-review]
      summary: [gitea-pr-review]

outputs.template_engine

Value	Description
handlebars (default)	Handlebars templates (*.hbs). Built-ins live in templates/builtin/*.hbs.
eta	Reserved — accepted by the schema, but only Handlebars is implemented; setting it has no effect.

Override templates per workspace by placing files under workspaces/<workspace_id>/templates/. Candidate file names are checked in order: <channel_name>.<kind>.md.hbs → <channel_name>.<kind>.hbs → <channel_kind>.<kind>.md.hbs → <channel_kind>.<kind>.hbs → <kind>.md.hbs → <kind>.hbs.

outputs.no_problems — zero-problem policy

Decides whether a successful review with no actionable problems should notify each channel.

action	Behavior
suppress	Do not notify when there are no problems.
publish	Always notify, even with zero problems.
publish_if_summary	Notify only if a non-empty summary was produced.

When nothing is configured, the default depends on the channel kind: managed problem-issue channels (*_problem_issue) default to publish — publishing is what drives stale issues to close; IM bots default to publish_if_summary; everything else defaults to suppress.

The policy is set at three levels, each more specific:

1. outputs.no_problems (global default for all channels)
2. per-channel no_problems inside outputs.channels[]
3. per-workspace + per-channel via workspaces.instances.<id>.outputs.channel_overrides.<channel>.no_problems

outputs:
  no_problems: { action: suppress }
  channels:
    - name: feishu-code-review
      kind: feishu_bot
      no_problems: { action: suppress }

workspaces:
  instances:
    critical-service:
      outputs:
        channel_overrides:
          feishu-code-review:
            no_problems: { action: publish }   # this repo wants an audit trail

If all selected summary channels suppress a zero-problem result, the run is recorded as skipped with skipReason="no_problems_suppressed".

outputs.channels[] — output targets

Every channel has a name (referenced by routes and workspace output lists) and a kind. The common fields below apply to most kinds; kind-specific fields are listed under each kind.

Common fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Unique channel id.
kind	string	Channel kind (see list below). gitea_finding_issue is removed — use gitea_problem_issue.
trigger	string	Trigger name this channel binds to (for VCS-backed kinds).
mention_author	bool	@-mention the commit author in the message. Defaults to true for VCS PR/issue kinds and false for IM bots.
mention_fallback	enum	all (mention everyone) or skip (no mention if author not found).
no_problems	object	Per-channel zero-problem policy (see above).
commit_url_template	string	Override commit link for push/commit targets.
revision_url_template	string	Override revision link (P4/SVN).
change_url_template	string	Override change link.
marker_prefix	string	Title prefix for managed issues (e.g. [AICR]).
marker_label	string	Hidden label identifying managed issues (e.g. aicr-managed).
labels	string[]	Labels to attach.
label_ids	int[]	Numeric label ids (some VCS APIs).
issue_mode	enum	per_problem, consolidated (default), or per_commit.
resolved_action	enum	none, close, mark_resolved, or delete. Action when a problem is fixed.
assign_committer	bool	Add the commit author as assignee (default true).
owners_file	string	Path to OWNERS file (default OWNERS).
add_owners_as_assignees	bool	Add matched OWNERS as assignees.
severity_label_prefix	string	Auto-created label prefix (e.g. aicr:problem:).
severity_label_colors	map	Custom label colors (hex without #).
review_mode	enum	auto (default), review, or comment.
review_event	enum	COMMENT (default) or REQUEST_CHANGES.
review_update_strategy	enum	always_new or update_existing (default).
notify_feishu	object	Optional Feishu notify-on-issue-creation (webhook_url_env, secret_env).

Channel kinds

Kind	Description
gitea_pr_review	Inline line comments on Gitea/Forgejo pull requests.
github_pr_review	Inline line comments on GitHub pull requests.
gitlab_mr_review	Inline line comments on GitLab merge requests.
gitea_problem_issue	Managed Gitea issues created/closed per problem fingerprint.
github_problem_issue	Managed GitHub issues per problem fingerprint (no delete — GitHub does not support it).
gitea_issue	Post the aggregated review as a comment on an existing Gitea issue.
github_issue	Post the aggregated review as a comment on an existing GitHub issue.
feishu_bot	Push aggregated problems to a Feishu (飞书) group via custom bot.
wecom_bot	Push aggregated problems to a WeCom (企业微信) group via webhook.

review_mode — PR review API strategy

For *_pr_review / *_mr_review kinds:

Value	Behavior
auto (default)	Try the PR review API first; fall back to issue comment on 403/422.
review	Always use the PR review API, no fallback.
comment	Always post a plain issue comment, never the review API.

The companion review_event field controls the event type used with the review API: COMMENT (default) or REQUEST_CHANGES.

PR review summary update strategy

review_update_strategy controls how the PR summary behaves across pushes:

Value	Behavior
always_new	Create a new review/comment on every push (original behavior).
update_existing (default)	Find and update the previous AICR summary comment on the PR. Open issues are kept; resolved issues are marked with ✅; new issues are tagged with the introducing commit.

AICR identifies its own managed comments via stable managed comment markers derived from marker_prefix/marker_label, so only AICR-owned summary comments are updated and other comments are left untouched.

outputs.routes — send results to the right channels

Routes map review outputs (line_comments and summary) to channel lists. A default route applies to every event; rules[] override for specific triggers or target kinds.

outputs:
  routes:
    default:
      line_comments: [gitea-pr-review]
      summary: [gitea-pr-review]
    rules:
      - match:
          trigger: p4-main
          target_kind: commit
        summary: [feishu-code-review]
      - match:
          trigger: github
          target_kind: push
        summary: [feishu-code-review, github-problem-issues]

Field	Type	Description
default.line_comments	string[]	Channels for inline line comments.
default.summary	string[]	Channels for the aggregated summary.
rules[].match.trigger	string	Match events from this trigger name.
rules[].match.target_kind	string	Match a target kind (e.g. commit, push, pull_request). pr is normalized to pull_request.
rules[].line_comments	string[]	Override line-comment channels for matched events.
rules[].summary	string[]	Override summary channels for matched events.

Per-workspace output lists (workspaces.instances.<id>.outputs.line_comments and .summary) take precedence over the global routes for that workspace.

Label management (review.labels)

AICodeReviewer can skip reviews based on labels and auto-tag PRs/MRs/issues. This lives under review (not outputs) but is closely related to output dispatch.

review:
  labels:
    ignore: ["aicr:ignore", "aicr-ignore"]   # skip review if any label matches
    auto_tag: "aicr"                         # tag added when AICR starts
    reviewed_tag: "aicr:reviewed"            # tag added when review completes

Field	Behavior
ignore	Checked at the webhook layer. If a PR/MR/issue carries any listed label, AICR returns immediately without scheduling a review.
auto_tag	Fixed tag applied by output dispatchers (gitea_pr_review, github_pr_review, gitlab_mr_review, gitea_issue, gitea_problem_issue) when publishing. Created automatically if missing.
reviewed_tag	Tag applied when a review completes.

All fields support the global → workspace-level override layering.

Managed problem-issue lifecycle limit

gitea_problem_issue and github_problem_issue reconcile stale managed issues by listing only the most recent open issues. The cap lives under review.problem_issue and can be tightened per workspace.

review:
  problem_issue:
    max_recent_issues: 20   # default; valid range is 1..100

workspaces:
  instances:
    latency-sensitive-service:
      review:
        problem_issue:
          max_recent_issues: 10

If a repository has more open managed issues than the limit, fingerprints outside the recent window are not deduplicated or closed in that run. Later runs — or a temporarily raised cap — handle large cleanup runs.

If one configured output channel cannot publish, AICR logs the channel failure and continues trying the remaining routed channels. A run where every dispatch attempt fails is reported as skipped with skipReason: output_dispatch_failed (instead of review_orchestration_failed), so the review result and failure cause stay visible without poisoning the trigger queue.

Non-PR target links

Built-in templates render target.markdownLink / target.displayText instead of assuming every review is a PR. Gitea, Forgejo, GitHub, and GitLab commit links are derived from trigger base_url, repo, and revision. P4/SVN/internal systems provide explicit URL templates via the trigger’s change_url_template or revision_url_template (variables are URL-encoded before substitution):

triggers:
  - name: p4-main
    kind: p4
    change_url_template: "https://swarm.example.com/changes/{{revision}}"
  - name: svn-main
    kind: svn
    revision_url_template: "https://svn.example.com/viewvc/project?view=revision&revision={{revision}}"

Where to go next

• The full per-channel field contract, including the MCP tool contract that agents use to fetch more context, is in Output channels.
• For trigger-side URL templates and file filters, see VCS providers.