How to request a Harbourmaster review

Use this guide to request a Harbourmaster review for the current pull request head.

Start the first review

Open or reopen a non-draft pull request from a branch in the same repository. The workflow can also start when a pull request leaves draft state or receives a new commit while the label is absent.

The workflow starts Harbourmaster, adds the harbourmaster-review label, and reviews the current head. It then posts the result on the pull request.

Request a review for a new commit

If harbourmaster-review is present, the label records the prior review cycle. A later commit does not start another review. The new workflow run emits a warning and fails the Harbourmaster review check on that head. If branch protection requires that check, the new head cannot merge until a human requests a re-review.

Use the pull request Labels control to remove the harbourmaster-review label. Add the label again to request a review for the latest head. A human must make this change. Automation must not request this re-review.

!IMPORTANT The harbourmaster-review label marks a review cycle. It is not an approval, a finding state, or a merge decision.

Read the result

Open the Harbourmaster review GitHub Actions check to see the workflow result. The default run posts one advisory COMMENT review with a summary and verified inline findings. If no finding remains, Harbourmaster posts a short no-issues review.

Treat findings as review input. Confirm them against the code, repository rules, and normal CI results. Keep the usual human review process.

Pull requests that do not run

The supported workflow skips draft pull requests and pull requests from forks. GitHub then shows the job as skipped. It also skips publication when required credentials or write access are unavailable.

For setup details, see How to add Harbourmaster reviews to a repository. For skip and failure diagnosis, see How to diagnose a Harbourmaster review failure.