Quickstart - Reviewate Docs

Run an AI code review on any public pull request in under 5 minutes. No account needed — just bring your own API key.

What You'll Need

An Anthropic API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) or Claude Code OAuth token.
One of: a GitHub/GitLab personal access token or the gh/glab CLI logged in (token setup, CLI setup)
Python 3.14+ with pip (or uv)

Platform tokens are optional when running locally. If the gh or glab CLI is installed and logged in, Reviewate uses it automatically. Docker and CI always require a token.

Run Your First Review

pip install reviewate

# From a URL (auto-detects platform, repo, PR):
reviewate https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/28000

# Or with owner/repo + PR number:
reviewate facebook/react -p 28000

# First run: prompts for model choices, saves to ~/.reviewate/config.toml

Also works with uv tool install reviewate.

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/numberly/reviewate.git
cd reviewate/code_reviewer
uv sync

# Run — first-run setup will prompt for model choices
uv run python main.py https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/28000

CLI Options

# From PR/MR URL (auto-detects platform, repo, PR number):
reviewate https://github.com/org/repo/pull/48
reviewate https://gitlab.com/group/repo/-/merge_requests/1

# Classic format:
reviewate owner/repo -p 123                    # review (default)
reviewate summary owner/repo -p 123            # summary only
reviewate full owner/repo -p 123               # review + summary
reviewate config                               # re-run setup wizard

Flag	Description
`-p` / `--pr`	Pull request / merge request number (auto-detected from URL)
`--platform`	`github` or `gitlab` (auto-detected from URL) (default is `github`)
`--dry-run`	Run without posting comments to the platform
`--debug`	Enable debug mode with tracebacks and reasoning output
`--json`	Output results as JSON

Model Configuration

On first run, Reviewate prompts you to choose a model and saves your config to ~/.reviewate/config.toml:

[models]
review = "sonnet"
utility = "haiku"

API keys are read from environment variables only — they are never stored in the config file.

You can also configure via environment variables — they override config file values:

export REVIEWATE_REVIEW_MODEL=sonnet
export REVIEWATE_UTILITY_MODEL=haiku

Override priority: env vars > config file > defaults

See Model Configuration for details on the two-tier model system.

Next Steps

Self-Hosting Guide — Deploy the full platform with Docker Compose
CI Integration — Add to your GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
Authentication — Token permissions and CLI auth setup
Model Configuration — Two-tier model system and configuration options