General

In the sidebar, open Code review → General (page title General settings). Review categories and the severity threshold are not here any more — they live on Code review → What to review.

Core Settings

Kodus has three config levels: Global, Repository, and Directory. Learn how they work in Config Inheritance & Overrides.

Config Priority

You can keep your review configuration in a kodus-config.yml file at the root of your repository instead of the web UI.

The file is ignored until you opt in. By default kodusConfigFileOverridesWebPreferences is false, which means Kody never reads kodus-config.yml — committing the file alone does nothing.Turn it on first: pick the repository (or directory) in the scope picker at the top of the Code review group in the sidebar, open Code review → General, and enable kodus Config File Overrides Web Preferences (kodusConfigFileOverridesWebPreferences). The toggle only exists at repository and directory scope. Only then does the file take effect — the sidebar then shows a kodus-config.yml applied, kodus-config.yml not found or kodus-config.yml unavailable badge under the scope picker.

Once enabled, the file is merged on top of your web settings, so you only need to declare the keys you want to change — anything you omit keeps its web value.

Unknown keys are silently dropped. Any top-level key that isn’t part of the current schema is removed before the config is applied — no error, no warning. If a setting appears to have no effect, check the spelling against the sample below.

Sample kodus-config.yml

version: 2.0

# general
automatedReviewActive: true
reviewMode: balanced # balanced | heavy
showStatusFeedback: true
kodusConfigFileOverridesWebPreferences: false
reviewCadence:
    type: 'automatic' # automatic | auto_pause | manual
    timeWindow: 15 # minutes
    pushesToTrigger: 3
pullRequestApprovalActive: false
approvalLabels: []
approvalAuthors: []
approvalRiskActive: false
approvalRiskInstructions: ''
approvalSensitivePaths: []
isRequestChangesActive: false # not available on GitLab
runOnDraft: true
ignorePaths:
    - 'yarn.lock'
    - 'package-lock.json'
    - 'package.json'
    - '.env'
    - '**/*.json'
    # ...abbreviated: the shipped default lists several hundred more patterns
ignoredTitleKeywords: []
baseBranches: []
enableCommittableSuggestions: true
byokModel: '' # empty = inherit (directory -> repository -> the main model on AI providers)

# linked repositories — Teams / Enterprise only. Sibling repos the agent may consult during review.
# Soft cap of 3; empty = feature off.
linkedRepositories: []

# what to review: categories
reviewOptions:
    bug: true
    performance: true
    security: true
    business_logic: true

# what to review: deterministic checks (opt-in, beta)
deterministicEvidence:
    ciChecks: false # read the CI results your own pipeline already produced
    tools: # an enabled tool still skips when your CI already runs an equivalent
        secrets: false # credential scanning over the changed files
        dependencies: false # known CVEs in dependencies this PR adds or bumps

# what to review: coding-agent instructions
repoInstructionsEnabled: false # check changes against CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / .cursor/rules; the severity filter applies

# what to review: severity threshold
suggestionControl:
    applyFiltersToKodyRules: false
    severityLevelFilter: 'medium' # low | medium | high | critical

# what Kody writes: PR summary
summary:
    generatePRSummary: true
    behaviourForNewCommits: 'none'
    behaviourForExistingDescription: 'replace'
    customInstructions: ''

# kody rules
kodyRulesGeneratorEnabled: true
kodyLearningExcludedReviewers: []
kodyKnowledgeApproval:
    enabled: false

# what Kody writes: comments during the review + comment visibility
customMessages:
    globalSettings:
        hideComments: false # GitHub only
        suggestionCopyPrompt: true # not available on Bitbucket
    errorReviewMessage:
        status: 'off' # off | active
        content: ''
    startReviewMessage:
        status: 'every_push' # every_push | only_when_opened | off
        content: ''
    endReviewMessage:
        status: 'every_push' # every_push | only_when_opened | off
        content: ''

This sample mirrors the shipped defaults. The canonical source is default-kodus-config.yml in the kodus-ai repository.

Review Behavior

Automated Review

Kody can review PRs automatically when opened, or only when you comment @kody start-review. This is the Enable Automated Code Review toggle.

This affects the initial review only. For subsequent commits, see Review Cadence below.

Review Cadence

Shown under Enable Automated Code Review when it is on. How Kody handles reviews on subsequent commits:

Automatic
Auto-pause
Manual

Review every new push. Continuous feedback on all changes.

Only run follow-up reviews when you comment @kody start-review.

Review mode

How deep Kody reviews pull requests (reviewMode):

Balanced (default): the standard review.
Heavy: nine specialist reviewers run next to the main one, for higher recall at the cost of more model calls. See Heavy mode.

The mode applies to every review: automatic ones, @kody review and kodus review. A single review can ask for the other mode with --heavy or --balanced. Like the other settings on this page, it can be set globally, per repository or per directory. Under the two options, Review models shows the model each mode runs on, read-only. They come from AI providers → Routing (follow View organization routing to change them), unless the repository or directory sets its own model, which then runs both modes. With a single connected model the section only says so; with no models of your own (Kodus-managed) it is hidden.

PR Workflow

Auto-approve PRs

Automatic PR approval — Kody approves a PR after a clean review, or once every comment it left is resolved. It never merges. Conditional approval (Beta) limits which PRs Kody may approve and when a person must approve instead. See Auto-approve. Platforms: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos, Forgejo

Request Changes

Enable changing status of Review to ‘Request Changes’ — Kody requests changes when finding critical issues. Platforms: GitHub, Bitbucket, Azure Repos, Forgejo (the toggle is hidden when GitLab is your only connected platform)

Skip Conditions

Ignored files: Glob patterns (e.g., **/*.js) for files Kody skips. The field shows a few patterns as chips; click Edit to open the Ignored files modal, where each new pattern is checked for valid glob syntax and the Test a file box tells you whether a path would be ignored (and by which pattern) or reviewed. Apply only updates the field — nothing is saved until you click Save settings. Default: yarn.lock, package-lock.json, package.json, .env, **/*.json, plus a long list of build, binary and IDE files. Ignore title keywords: Skip PRs with specific keywords (case-insensitive, max 100 chars) Base Branches: Restricts which base branches get reviewed.

Empty (the default) means every base branch is reviewed — there is no built-in dev/release/master list. Add entries only when you want to narrow the scope: once the list is non-empty, Kody reviews only PRs targeting those branches (your repository’s default branch is always included).Entries are matched against the PR’s target branch and support a small pattern syntax:

Entry	Matches
`main`	PRs targeting exactly `main`
`release/*`	PRs targeting any branch under `release/` (`*` is a single-level wildcard)
`=main`	Exact match, same as writing `main`
`!staging`	Excludes PRs targeting `staging`
`contains:hotfix`	Matches on the source branch instead — any PR whose head branch contains `hotfix`

When several entries match, the most specific one wins. Each entry is limited to 100 characters, may only use a-z A-Z 0-9 / * - _ ! = :, and ** is not allowed.

Draft PRs: Enable Running on Draft Pull Requests (runOnDraft) is on by default, so drafts are reviewed. Turn it off to skip them until the PR is marked ready.

Other settings on this page

Show Status Feedback — Kody shows status feedback (emoji reaction or comment) when a review is skipped or blocked.
Enable committable suggestions (Alpha, GitHub only) — suggestions that can be applied directly as commits.
Code review model (repository and directory scope only, shown once an AI provider is configured) — the model this scope reviews with; it inherits by default (byokModel).
Kody Language (Global only) — the language Kody uses in code review responses.

Review categories (formerly Analysis Types)

Kody reviews across four categories. Categories are no longer on General: turn each one on or off with its switch on Code review → What to review, or via reviewOptions in kodus-config.yml.

Bug — logic errors, race conditions, null dereferences, edge cases, and incorrect behavior.
Security — vulnerabilities, injection, auth issues, data exposure, and secrets.
Performance — N+1 queries, hot-path allocations, missing caching, and blocking I/O.
Business Logic — validates the implementation against business rules, requirements, and acceptance criteria linked in the PR. See Business Logic Validation.

Kody Rules are not one of these categories — they always run, independently of reviewOptions. See Kody Rules.

Getting Started

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Cockpit

Kody Issues

Organization

Security

Troubleshooting

Core Settings

Config Priority

Review Behavior

Automated Review

Review Cadence

Review mode

PR Workflow

Auto-approve PRs

Request Changes

Skip Conditions

Other settings on this page

Review categories (formerly Analysis Types)

​Core Settings

​Config Priority

​Review Behavior

​Automated Review

​Review Cadence

​Review mode

​PR Workflow

​Auto-approve PRs

​Request Changes

​Skip Conditions

​Other settings on this page

​Review categories (formerly Analysis Types)

Core Settings

Config Priority

Review Behavior

Automated Review

Review Cadence

Review mode

PR Workflow

Auto-approve PRs

Request Changes

Skip Conditions

Other settings on this page

Review categories (formerly Analysis Types)