Railroad Review Agent Skill

Review code changes against project conventions, specs, and definition-of-done — parallel review directions merged into one station review.

Context cost
12.7k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
3 files · 97.8 kB1 script among them — read before you run
Licence
MITthe author’s own terms
Last change
—v8.4
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Review code changes against project conventions, specs, and definition-of-done — parallel review directions merged into one station review. Trigger on /railroad-review or "review this branch/PR/my changes". Args — directions: direction-set override; lanes: n[model-effort]; scope: branch|wip|all[base]; paths: pathspec; spec; focus: subject; refute-level: threshold; chunks: mode[maxFiles:maxLines]; expect-base-red: red-base waiver.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

collaboration

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md35.1 kB · preview
--- name: railroad-review author: Andreas Geßner version: 8.4 acdsl-context: ACTION-CONCEPT-*, ACTION-IMPL-*, ACTION-REVIEW-*, RULE-PLAN-*, RULE-COMMIT-*, FACT-* allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Workflow, TaskOutput, ToolSearch, Bash(git diff*), Bash(git log*), Bash(git rev-parse*), Bash(git merge-base*), Bash(git rev-list*), Bash(git status*), Bash(git branch*), Bash(git worktree add*), Bash(git worktree remove*), Bash(git worktree list*), Bash(git add*), Bash(git write-tree*), Bash(git commit-tree*), Bash(jq *), Bash(mkdir *), Bash(cp *), Bash(go run ./cmd/acdsl *), Bash(make build*), Bash(make test*) argument-hint: "[directions] [lanes] [scope] [paths] [spec] [focus] [refute-level] [chunks] [expect-base-red]" ---
11# Railroad Review
12
13Structural code review against the project's documented standards, specs, and plans. The review is organized as **directions** — independent lenses with their own context — fanned out to parallel lanes through the station protocol. The session running this skill is the **dispatcher**: it schedules the rounds, holds the human gate, and applies the fixes; it never reviews a lane itself. The skill is the procedure skeleton; the review standards themselves live in the project's context entries.
14
15## When to use
16
17**Use when:** reviewing any code change against project conventions, specs, style guides, and definition-of-done criteria — pull requests, feature branches, commits, uncommitted work-in-progress, untracked files, or a single file. THE review skill, every scope; scope is an intake arg (see Args), not a routing boundary. Invoked via /railroad-review.
18
19**Don't use when:** diagnosing a bug — /diagnose-debug. Checking test coverage — /coverage-increase. Evaluating a change's qualitative consequences — /fimpact. Verdict on existing (unchanged) code — /code-verdict.
20
21**Preconditions:** an interactive non-plan-mode session with the Workflow tool (MODES-002); the project's context docs; branch/all scopes need a diff base; a green base (PROC-009, waivable via expect-base-red); the correctness direction needs a spec, plan, or request doc (**dropped** per DIR-004 without one).
22
23**Workflow position:** standalone (see README.md § Skill map, smine repo).
24
25## Args
26
27- directions: string list overriding the default direction set — values from the Directions table (special-focus still requires focus), e.g. directions: tests security contracts. An explicit set is binding: MODES-004 dynamic selection (diff-proportional drops, risk-map adds) is skipped, the override stated in the review record. Absent ⇒ defaults + MODES-004.
28- lanes: parallel lanes per direction with an optional per-lane model/effort bracket — lanes: <n>[<model>-<effort>], e.g. lanes: 2[opus-medium]. Bracket tokens resolve by vocabulary: a token in low | medium | high | xhigh | max is the effort, anything else the model — 2[opus], 2[medium], and 2[opus-medium] all parse. Default 2; absent bracket ⇒ lanes inherit the session model/effort.
29- spec: spec/plan/request doc for the correctness direction; absent ⇒ the DIR-003 table's default chain, and with no doc at all the direction drops (DIR-004).
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md4,534 words
Files3
LicenceMIT
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈290
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
12,435
on trigger
The instruction body and 2 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
6.4%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 64% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

12.7k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

It asks the agent to write files, using whatever file access your client already has. Whether it reaches the network is not declared.

What it asks for
Writes filesyes
Network accessnot declared

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. It also asks for Bash, which could do either, so what is not named there is not ruled out. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

3 files, 97.8 kB on disk. Mostly text — the instructions the model reads — with 1 script in it that your client would run only if the instructions tell it to.

  • SKILL.md35.1 kB
  • changelog.json15.8 kB
  • workflows/railroad-review.js46.9 kB
What is not in it

A skill installs nothing and depends on nothing: it is a folder your client reads. This one carries 1 script beside the text, so the bundle is 3 files you can review in full before installing. The MIT licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Railroad Review · 12.7k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/railroad-review/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/railroad-review" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/railroad-review ] || { mv .claude/skills/railroad-review "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/railroad-review" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/railroad-review"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add kevinhorst/railroad-review

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/railroad-review/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/railroad-review/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/railroad-review" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/railroad-review ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/railroad-review "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/railroad-review" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/railroad-review" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/railroad-review/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version8.4
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencekevinhorst/railroad-review

Versions

v8.4 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v8.4
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v8.4 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

Reviews

—no reviews yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Sign in to review it

A review is tied to an account so it can be answered, edited and taken down by the person who wrote it.

Sign in
Who can post

Anybody with an account, one review each. It carries the version that was current when you wrote it, and the publisher may reply once.

Who wrote it

KE
kevinhorst

Publishes on mcprush.

0 servers listed1 skill listednot claimed
Profile
Publisher
Servers0
Claim this skill