Configure extra instructions

Customize how Qodo reviews your code by passing extra instructions to the Issue finding agent, Compliance agent, or Review effort mode, using the Qodo portal, your .pr_agent.toml configuration file, or directly in a PR comment for a single review.

You can customize how Qodo reviews your code by passing extra instructions to the Issue finding agent, Compliance agent, or the review effort agent. Instructions can be configured in the Qodo portal, in your .pr_agent.toml file, or included directly in a PR comment for a single review.

The /agentic_review command supports three instruction parameters, one per agent:

• issues_user_guidelines: extra instructions for the Issue finding agent, which handles bug, security, and performance detection
• compliance_user_guidelines: extra instructions for the Compliance agent, which handles rule checking
• smart_router_extra_instructions: extra instructions for the review effort agent, which decides how much review depth a pull request needs. See Control review effort for the full set of review effort controls.

Configure in the Qodo portal

You can set custom instructions for the Issue finding agent, Compliance agent, and review effort agent in the Qodo portal. Portal settings apply organization-wide when no repository-level configuration is defined.

Configure in .pr_agent.toml

Add the following to your .pr_agent.toml:

[review_agent]
issues_user_guidelines = "Focus on security vulnerabilities and input validation"
compliance_user_guidelines = "Check for GDPR compliance requirements"
smart_router_extra_instructions = "Treat database migration files as high risk"

Use a PR comment

To apply instructions for a single review without changing your config file, include them as parameters when triggering /agentic_review in a PR comment:

/agentic_review --review_agent.issues_user_guidelines="Focus on security vulnerabilities" --review_agent.compliance_user_guidelines="Check for GDPR compliance" --review_agent.smart_router_extra_instructions="Treat database migrations as high risk"