---
id: 08-reviewer-prompt-update
epic: ci-security-and-supply-chain
title: Sandcastle reviewer prompt update
type: technical-story
status: done
feature: tooling
depends-on: [02-socket-integration, 06-codeql-and-audit-signatures]
blocks: [09-ci-security-guide-and-docs]
created: 2026-05-14T18:59:12+02:00
updated: 2026-05-14T19:21:52.308Z
---

## Goal

Extend `.sandcastle/reviewer.prompt.md` with a "CI security checks" section that instructs the reviewer agent to read Socket CI output and CodeQL findings via `gh run view`, and reject the slice with specific notes if any `critical` Socket finding or `error`-severity CodeQL finding is present.

## Why

The sandcastle reviewer is the single composable gate for agent PRs (ADR-019 constraint). Without an explicit section, an agent reviewer has no machine-readable instruction to check Socket + CodeQL outputs and may approve a slice that introduced a flagged dependency or a static-analysis error. Landing this after Stories 02 + 06 ensures the reviewer references gates that actually exist in CI.

**External dependency:** library-evaluation epic story 06 (sandcastle reviewer prompt) must be complete — the reviewer prompt must exist and have the library-trace check section that this story composes with. That epic is marked done.

## Done when

- `.sandcastle/reviewer.prompt.md` has a "CI security checks" section added after the existing library-trace check section.
- The section instructs the reviewer to: (a) run `gh run view <run-id> --log` (or equivalent) for the PR's check suite; (b) scan the output for Socket findings of severity `critical` — if found, reject with notes naming the finding and referencing the failure-mode hierarchy in `docs/guides/ci-security.md`; (c) scan the output for CodeQL findings of severity `error` — same rejection pattern.
- The reviewer composes these checks with the existing library-trace presence check (both must pass for approval).
- `pnpm typecheck && pnpm lint && pnpm test && pnpm conformance && pnpm fallow:audit && pnpm coverage:diff` all pass (prose-only change; no executable code).

## In scope

- `.sandcastle/reviewer.prompt.md` — new "CI security checks" section only; existing sections unchanged.

## Out of scope

- Automated tests for the reviewer prompt — it's a prose runbook for an agent; success is verified manually (PRD testing decisions).
- Extending the reviewer for `pnpm audit signatures` step failures — those surface as standard CI job failures, already handled by the reviewer's existing "all CI checks must pass" instruction.

## Tasks

- [x] Extend `.sandcastle/reviewer.prompt.md` with a "CI security checks" section after the library-trace check: instruct the reviewer to read `gh run view` output for Socket `critical` findings and CodeQL `error` findings, reject on either with notes naming the finding and citing `docs/guides/ci-security.md` failure-mode hierarchy; one commit, all gates pass.
