CodeRabbit Reference Architecture

Overview

Make authority and data flow explicit. Separate source, control planes, provider events, knowledge sources, and reporting.

Prerequisites

Identify the CodeRabbit organization, Git provider, repository, plan, and accountable owner.
Read references/official-docs.md and re-check any time-sensitive contract before execution.
Use synthetic or read-only evidence until the approval boundary is satisfied.
Preserve the repository's independent CI, security, and human-review requirements.

Current Contract

Repository YAML, central config, settings, and global overrides form precedence.
CodeRabbit can use guidelines, learnings, linked repos, MCP, and tools.
Provider support and auth differ.
Dashboards, exports, reports, and APIs are distinct.

Authentication

Treat Git-provider sessions, CodeRabbit web sessions, CLI credentials, and CodeRabbit API keys as separate credentials. Use only an already-approved session or secret-manager reference, never print a secret, and do not place credentials in .coderabbit.yaml, source files, logs, or deliverables.

Instructions

Map organizations, providers, repos, trust zones, data, identities, plans, and gates.
Draw configuration resolution and review-event flows with ownership.
Select knowledge, tools, cache, retention, reporting, and continuity controls.
Validate happy, exclusion, provider-failure, secret, and rollback paths.

Tool Discipline

Use Glob to locate candidate configuration and evidence files without widening scope.
Use Grep to find relevant fields, commands, identifiers, and stale claims.
Use Read to inspect the smallest required files and authoritative evidence.
Use Write only for a new approved local draft or evidence artifact.
Use Edit only for a bounded approved change whose rollback is known.
Do not use these file tools as a substitute for authenticated CodeRabbit or provider operations.

Approval Boundaries

Require architecture, security, privacy, repository, and platform owners before scope expansion. Keep analysis and drafts local until approval is explicit, and record who approved the action and its scope.

Output

A boundary diagram, authority matrix, data flows, controls, failure modes, and phased plan. Include source dates, unknowns, and the exact boundary between observed fact and recommendation.

Error Handling

Condition	Response
Current contract is unclear or docs disagree	Stop mutation, cite both sources, and request owner resolution.
Required access or approval is missing	Produce a draft and evidence plan only.
Validation or pilot behavior differs from expectation	Restore the prior state and retain the failed evidence.
Output contains secrets or private code	Stop, quarantine the artifact, redact it, and notify the data owner.

Examples

Example 1

Design central defaults with local exceptions and global security overrides.

Example 2

Add MCP context only after data scope and auth approval.

Validation

Confirm every claim against the dated sources in references/official-docs.md.
Verify the requested scope, owner, approval, happy path, failure path, and rollback.
Re-read the effective configuration or provider state after any approved change.
Report unsupported fields, undocumented endpoints, and unverified assumptions as failures.

Resources

Official documentation and contract notes
Re-check the dated contract before any live operation.
Treat unresolved or changed vendor behavior as a stop condition.

coderabbit-reference-architecture