Reviewing Code with MCP

Once Optibot MCP is installed and configured, you can run code reviews live inside your AI editor and watch them progress in real time — or integrate reviews into your CI/CD pipeline as an automated step.

Watch Review Progress in Real Time

When you trigger a review (e.g., “review my local changes” or “review this branch”), Optibot streams the review progress back to your editor. You’ll see the review move through these stages:

Progress updates appear in real time in your editor so you always know where the review stands. For large diffs, this typically takes 30–90 seconds.

CI/CD Integration

You can use the Optibot MCP tools in CI/CD pipelines by running optibot-mcp as a command-line tool with your API key.

Setup

1. Generate an API key from your Optibot dashboard at agents.getoptimal.ai → Settings → API Keys.
2. Store the API key as a secret in your CI provider:
   • GitHub Actions: Add it as a repository or organization secret named OPTIBOT_API_KEY.
   • GitLab CI: Add it under Settings → CI/CD → Variables.
   • Other providers: use the equivalent secrets/environment variable mechanism.
3. Reference the secret in your workflow YAML as an environment variable.

GitHub Actions Example

name: Optibot Code Review

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  optibot-review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Install Optibot MCP
        run: npm install -g @optimalai/optibot-mcp

      - name: Run Optibot Review
        env:
          OPTIBOT_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.OPTIBOT_API_KEY }}
        run: optibot-mcp review_branch

This runs a branch review on every pull request targeting main. Findings appear in the workflow run logs and, if Optibot’s GitHub integration is configured, are also posted as PR comments.

Other CI Providers

The pattern is the same for any CI provider that supports environment variables:

1. Install: npm install -g @optimalai/optibot-mcp
2. Set OPTIBOT_API_KEY from your secrets store.
3. Run optibot-mcp review_branch (or review_local_changes if reviewing uncommitted changes).

Environment Variables