How to Set Up Claude Code Review in GitHub Actions (5 Minutes)

Want Claude to review every pull request in your repo automatically? With Cody it takes about five minutes and requires no hosting — just a GitHub Actions workflow and your Anthropic API key. Here's the full setup.

Step 1 — Add your Anthropic API key

Create an API key at platform.claude.com, then add it to your repo as a secret:

Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret, named ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

GITHUB_TOKEN doesn't need to be added — GitHub provides it to workflows automatically.

Step 2 — Add the workflow file

Create .github/workflows/code_review.yml in your repo:

name: Automated Code Review by Cody

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]

jobs:
  code_review:
    if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.fork == false }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8

      - name: Clone cody-code-reviewer repository
        run: |
          git clone https://github.com/codylabs/cody-code-reviewer.git
          cd cody-code-reviewer
          # Pin to a specific release commit to ensure stability https://github.com/codylabs/cody-code-reviewer/releases/tag/v1.3.0
          git checkout 42800f56034b775ea5dedfcdf44882213e17a70c

      - name: Set up Python 3.9
        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: "3.9"

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r requirements.txt

      - name: Run Code Review Model
        run: |
          python src/review_pull_request.py ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} ${{ github.repository }} > ${{ github.workspace }}/output.txt
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          MODEL: "claude-opus-4-8"

      - name: Comment on Pull Request
        run: |
          python src/comment_on_pr.py ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" ${{ github.repository }}
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The important line is MODEL: "claude-opus-4-8" — any claude-* model name routes the review to Anthropic. Prefer a cheaper review? Use claude-sonnet-5 or claude-haiku-4-5 instead.

Step 3 — Open a pull request

That's it. On your next pull request, Cody fetches the diff, asks Claude to review it like a senior engineer, and posts the review as a PR comment — a summary of the change followed by focused feedback on functionality and security, with code suggestions in markdown.

Troubleshooting

• No comment appears? Check the Actions run logs, and make sure the workflow has pull-requests: write permission (included in the yaml above).
• Authentication error? Confirm the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY secret name matches exactly and the key is active.
• Want reviews on GitLab or Azure DevOps? That's available in Cody Pro.

More details in the Quick Start Documentation.

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