rtlreviewbot-action

Public entry point for rtlreviewbot, an AI PR-review GitHub App.

The review logic lives in a private repo. A public consumer repo can't uses: a private repo's action — GitHub's org Actions-access setting only extends a private action to private/internal org repos, never to public ones. This thin public action is resolvable from any consumer (public or private); at run time it fetches the private runtime and executes it.

It contains no review logic — only action.yml (the composite entry point) and bootstrap-token.sh (a least-privilege token minter). See rtlreviewbot#17 for the design.

How it works

1. bootstrap-token.sh mints a short-lived GitHub App installation token scoped to contents:read on rtlreviewbot only. It discovers the installation from the repo (GET /repos/Ride-The-Lightning/rtlreviewbot/installation) — the org installation id is not hardcoded.
2. actions/checkout pulls the private rtlreviewbot runtime at runtime_ref using that token.
3. The CLI is installed and the runtime's existing scripts/run-review.sh is exec'd — identical to running the in-repo private action.

The token the consumer's installation_id produces (for posting reviews on the consumer PR) is minted separately inside the runtime, exactly as before. The bootstrap token is a distinct, narrower token used only to read the runtime.

For the full flow — the two-token model, the run sequence, and why the runtime needs no changes — see docs/architecture.md.

Usage

In a consumer repo, point the shim's uses: at this repo:

- uses: Ride-The-Lightning/rtlreviewbot-action@v0.10.0
  with:
    event_name:      ${{ github.event_name }}
    event_action:    ${{ github.event.action }}
    repo:            ${{ github.repository }}
    pr_number:       ${{ github.event.issue.number || github.event.pull_request.number }}
    actor:           ${{ github.event.sender.login }}
    comment_body:    ${{ github.event.comment.body }}
    comment_id:      ${{ github.event.comment.id }}
    installation_id: REPLACE_WITH_INSTALLATION_ID
    app_id:                  ${{ secrets.GATEWAY_APP_ID }}
    private_key:             ${{ secrets.GATEWAY_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    anthropic_api_key:       ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
    claude_code_oauth_token: ${{ secrets.CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN }}

The full shim (triggers, permissions, job) is in the runtime repo at templates/rtlreviewbot.yml. The only difference vs. the legacy in-repo action is the uses: line above.

Inputs

Same surface as the private action, plus one:

Input	Required	Default	Notes
runtime_ref	no	v0.10.0	Ref of the private runtime to run. Defaults to the release this action was tagged in lockstep with. Override only to test an unreleased runtime.

All other inputs (event_name, repo, pr_number, actor, comment_*, installation_id, app_id, private_key, anthropic_api_key, claude_code_oauth_token, review_mode) match the private action one-for-one.

Versioning

Two version axes, pinned in lockstep: rtlreviewbot-action@vX.Y.Z defaults runtime_ref to the runtime's vX.Y.Z. Pin a consumer to a tag and both the entry point and the runtime are pinned together.

Prerequisites

• The rtlreviewbot App must have contents:read on the rtlreviewbot repo (i.e. the repo is in the App installation's selection). (Confirmed: the Ride-The-Lightning installation is set to all-repositories with contents:read.)
• The App must be installed on the consumer repo so its installation_id exists.

Security

The action executes private code fetched at run time using App credentials the consumer already supplies and already runs today via the legacy private action — no new code-execution exposure. The bootstrap token is the App's own, minted from those same credentials, scoped to contents:read on a single repo, and masked in logs. The only public surface here is action.yml + bootstrap-token.sh; both are kept logic-free (mint + checkout only).

License

MIT © 2026 Shahana Farooqui