CLI Command Reference

Complete reference for all CodeRabbit CLI commands and options.

Commands

cr is the short alias for coderabbit. Both work identically — use whichever fits your workflow.

Command	Description
cr	Run code review in non-interactive plain text mode (default)
cr --plain	Output detailed feedback in plain text format
cr --agent	Output structured JSON for agent-driven workflows
cr review --light	Request a lighter CLI review for active local development
cr auth	Authentication commands
cr auth login	Authenticate via browser OAuth, self-hosted (--self-hosted), or API key (--api-key "<key>")
cr auth logout	Log out from CodeRabbit
cr auth status	Show current authentication status
cr auth org	Choose or switch the login/default organization for browser-based auth
cr stats	Show review statistics
cr doctor	Check the CLI installation, local storage, authentication, Git repository state, update policy, and service connectivity
cr review	AI-driven code reviews with plain text or agent output
cr review findings	Show review comments stored locally for the current review context
cr update	Check for and install the latest CLI version

Review modes

Mode	Description
Default / --plain	Detailed plain text feedback in the terminal
--agent	Structured JSON output for coding agents and automation
--light	Faster local review policy for feedback on active development work

--agent review output

cr review --agent writes one JSON object per line to stdout. Read the stream line by line and handle events by their type.

Field	Description
type	Always finding for review results
severity	One of: critical, major, minor, trivial, info
fileName	File path for the finding
codegenInstructions	Agent-oriented fix instructions
suggestions	Suggested fix commands or snippets
comment	Human-readable review comment, included when codegenInstructions is empty

Other event types in the stream include review_context, status, heartbeat, complete, and error.

heartbeat events are periodic keep-alive signals — reset timeout timers on receipt and otherwise ignore them. For finding events, use codegenInstructions for agent fix logic and fall back to comment when it is absent.

When the selected review scope has no file changes, cr review --agent still emits the review_context event, then emits a status event with status: "review_skipped" and a complete event with status: "review_skipped", findings: 0, and message: "No changes detected". Plain mode prints a no-changes message and exits without starting a review.

Diagnostics

Run cr doctor when installation, authentication, or review startup fails. The command checks:

• CLI runtime and version
• Local CodeRabbit storage directory
• Authentication state and auth environment
• Current Git repository and branch metadata
• Auto-update policy
• CodeRabbit backend reachability
• CodeRabbit WebSocket reachability

cr doctor exits with status code 1 when any check fails. Warnings are shown in the report, but they do not cause a non-zero exit code.

Stats command

Command	Description
cr stats	Show stats (builds on first run)
cr stats --rebuild	Rescan review history and rebuild stats

Agent-friendly auth commands

Command	Description
cr auth login --agent	Browser-based OAuth login with structured JSON events for agents
cr auth logout --agent	Log out with structured JSON events for agents
cr auth status --agent	Return authentication status as structured JSON
cr auth org --agent	Return organization data as structured JSON for agent workflows; starts browser OAuth first if needed

For GitHub Actions and other non-interactive environments, use cr auth login --api-key "<key>" and follow the Headless CLI integration guide.

cr auth org changes the login/default org for browser-based auth. Review attribution still depends on the current repository, while API-key auth always uses the API key’s organization.

Options

Option	Description
--plain	Output detailed feedback in plain text format (default)
--agent	Output structured JSON for agent-driven workflows
--light	Request the lighter CLI review policy
-t, --type <type>	Review type: all, committed, uncommitted (default: all)
-c, --config <files...>	Additional instructions for CodeRabbit AI (for example, claude.md or coderabbit.yaml)
--base <branch>	Base branch for comparison
--base-commit <commit>	Base commit on current branch for comparison
--api-key "<key>"	Agentic API key for non-browser or headless authentication (auto-detected if logged in via cr auth login --api-key)
--dir <path>	Review directory path (must contain an initialized Git repository)
--show-prompts	Print saved AI prompts from the most recent local review without running a new review

--agent is supported in authentication workflows as well as reviews. cr auth login --agent applies to the browser-based OAuth login flow and is not used with --self-hosted or --api-key login.

PR reviews and CLI reviews will differ, even if run on the same code. CLI reviews optimize for immediate feedback during active development, while PR reviews provide comprehensive team collaboration context and broader repository analysis.