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Creating Pull Requests and Review Triggers

After setting up your repository, diffray will automatically start reviewing your pull requests.

Automatic Triggers​

diffray starts reviews automatically in the following cases:

1. Opening a New PR (opened)​

When you create a new pull request in the repository:

# Create a branch and make changes
git checkout -b feature/new-feature
# ... make changes ...
git add .
git commit -m "Add new feature"
git push origin feature/new-feature

Then open a PR through GitHub UI:

  1. Go to the repository on GitHub
  2. Click "Pull requests" → "New pull request"
  3. Select your branch
  4. Click "Create pull request"

→ Review will start automatically right after creating the PR

2. Updating PR (synchronize)​

When you push new commits to an existing PR:

# While on the PR branch
git add .
git commit -m "Fix review comments"
git push origin feature/new-feature

→ Review will start automatically after each push

3. Reopening PR (reopened)​

If you closed a PR and then reopened it:

  1. Find the closed PR
  2. Click "Reopen pull request"

→ Review will start automatically when reopening

4. Manual Trigger via Label (labeled)​

You can start a review manually by adding a special label:

  1. Open the PR on GitHub
  2. In the right panel find the "Labels" section
  3. Add the diffray-review label

→ Review will start immediately after adding the label

When this is useful:

  • Restart review after an error
  • Get an additional review without changing code
  • Start review for an old PR created before connecting diffray

What Happens When Review Starts​

1. GitHub Check Run is Created​

A "diffray Code Review" status check appears in the PR:

  • Pending (🟡) - review is starting
  • In Progress (🟡) - review is running
  • Success (✅) - review completed
  • Failure (❌) - review failed with error

2. Status Label is Added​

diffray automatically adds the diffray-review-started label to indicate review has begun.

Learn more: Labels and Status

3. Review Executes (5-10 minutes)​

In the background:

  • Repository is cloned
  • PR changes are analyzed
  • AI analyzes the code
  • Checks for duplicate issues from previous reviews

4. Results are Published​

After completion:

  • Comment with results appears in the PR
  • Label updates to diffray-review-completed
  • GitHub Check Run updates to Success
  • You receive a notification from GitHub (if enabled)

Example PR Lifecycle​

1. Create PR
   └─> Review starts automatically
       └─> Label: diffray-review-started
       └─> Check: In Progress
       └─> [5-10 minutes of analysis]
       └─> Result published
       └─> Label: diffray-review-completed
       └─> Check: Success

2. Push new commits
   └─> Labels completed/failed are removed
   └─> New review starts
       └─> Label: diffray-review-started
       └─> ... (cycle repeats)

3. Manual restart (adding label)
   └─> Add label: diffray-review
   └─> Old labels completed/failed are removed
   └─> New review starts
       └─> ... (cycle repeats)

What Does NOT Trigger Review​

diffray does NOT start reviews in the following cases:

  • Changing PR description (edit)
  • Adding other labels (except diffray-review)
  • Changing assignees or reviewers
  • Comments in PR
  • Changing milestone or project
  • Closing PR (closed)
  • Merging PR (merged)

These events are ignored to conserve your review limits.

Canceling a Started Review​

In the current version, there is no way to cancel a review after it starts. The review will complete or fail with an error.

Workaround: If you need to urgently stop a review:

  • Close the PR (this won't stop current execution but will prevent publishing)
  • Contact support for a refund of the spent review

Review Execution Time​

Typical execution time:

  • Small PR (1-5 files, <500 lines): 5-7 minutes
  • Medium PR (5-15 files, 500-2000 lines): 7-10 minutes
  • Large PR (15+ files, 2000+ lines): 10-15 minutes

Factors affecting time:

  • Size of changes (number of files and lines)
  • Code complexity
  • System load

Monitoring Progress​

During review execution you can track progress:

In GitHub PR​

  • Check Run status shows "In Progress"
  • diffray-review-started label is present

In diffray Dashboard​

  1. Go to Dashboard section
  2. In "Recent Reviews" find your review
  3. Status will be "pending" or "processing"

Via URL​

Each review has a unique URL:

https://app.diffray.ai/dashboard/reviews/{reviewId}

You can find reviewId in logs or through Dashboard.

Next step: Understanding Labels and Status →