Getting Started

Connect Critique to GitHub, run your first review, and learn where to configure policy and credits.

This guide gets you from zero to a working PR review in a few steps.

1. Create an account

Sign up at critique.sh/sign-up with email and password, or use GitHub or Vercel OAuth. Sessions last about a week and refresh automatically when you are active.

Signing in with GitHub is recommended if you will install the Critique GitHub App — it keeps account linking straightforward.

2. Install the GitHub App

Critique reviews code through a GitHub App installation, which is separate from “Sign in with GitHub”:

Open the dashboard.
Follow Connect GitHub (or go through /github/setup after installing from GitHub).
Choose which organizations and repositories Critique can access.
After install, you land on the dashboard with connected=github.

You can add or remove repositories anytime from GitHub’s app settings or from Automation in the dashboard.

3. Turn on automation

Open Dashboard → Automation for the installation you care about:

Confirm repositories are synced and show as active.
Set review policy (strictness, which specialists run, optional model overrides). Defaults are strict enough for most teams; see Policy fields.
Optionally configure repository secrets when reviews need environment variables (same idea as CI secrets — never paste secrets into PR comments).

When a pull request is opened, updated, or reopened, Critique queues a review automatically.

4. Open a pull request

Push a branch and open a PR on a connected repository. Within a short time you should see:

A check run on the PR (Pass / Warn / Fail depending on findings and policy).
A summary comment with the verdict and a link to the full run in Critique.
Inline annotations on lines where findings map to the diff.

You can also type @critique /review on any PR to re-run manually. See @critique bot.

5. Inspect results in the dashboard

Dashboard → Review runs lists recent pipelines. Open a run to see:

Findings grouped by specialist and severity.
Execution timeline and model usage.
Remedy, Queue agent (Cursor / Claude / Codex BYOA), Fix prompt, or handoff JSON when you want to act on feedback.

Shareable links from GitHub comments point to the same run (sign-in required for full detail).

6. Understand credits

Reviews, Remedy, chat, and indexing consume credits from your plan’s monthly pool. The dashboard Usage page shows what ran and what remains.

Compare plans on Pricing.
Read Billing & credits for how pools, floors, and BYOK interact.

Keys, agents, and app connections

Settings supports BYOK and BYOA:

OpenRouter or CrofAI key (BYOK — you pay the provider for review/chat models)
Cursor (Composer 2.5), Anthropic, and OpenAI keys (BYOA — queue agents from completed review runs; keys live under Settings → Agents)

Connections (Connections & Platform API) is separate:

Linear (and upcoming Slack, Sentry, …) for roadmap context in chat
crt_ API keys for MCP, REST v1, and the Merge Gate API

Add model and fix-agent keys after your first review; add Linear or API keys when you want chat or agents to reach outside GitHub.

What to read next

If you want to…	Read
Automate OpenCode jobs over HTTP	Coding Agent API
Gate agent-written PRs (verdict + findings)	Merge Gate API
Install or publish review skills	Agent Skill Marketplace
PR inbox or control room	Dashboard
Leadership metrics and compliance export	Insights
Govern passports and merge policy	Change control
Tune merge blocking vs warnings	Policy fields
Filter spammy or low-trust PRs	Checkpoint
Ask questions about the repo	Chat & workspace — or open `/workspace` directly. Launch essay: Introducing Critique Workspace.
OpenRouter BYOK for model spend	BYOK
Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, Copilot for fixes	BYOA
Linear, MCP, or programmatic API	Connections & Platform API · Merge Gate API
Deploy Critique (env vars, change control, and Platform API)	Environment variables
See how async processing works	Event-driven pipeline
Read the long-form product map (outside docs)	How Critique works