chore: improve claude workflow

[jking-aus]

Improving the code actions workflow:

• giving claude more turns
• adding a recheck flag
• adding a dont-review flag
• adding some more basic tools like read and grep

[claude-code-actions-sigp]

Claude finished @jking-aus's task —— View job

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Code Review Complete

Todo List

• Read modified workflow files
• Compare changes against base branch
• Analyze changes for code quality, security, and best practices
• Provide comprehensive review feedback

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Summary

This PR increases the --max-turns parameter for Claude Code workflows from 10→50 (mentions) and 30→50 (PR reviews). The changes are minimal and focused.

Review Findings

Code Quality ✓

• Changes are clean and well-scoped
• Consistent formatting maintained
• Both workflows updated symmetrically to use the same max-turns value (50)

Security ✓

• No security concerns
• Changes only affect Claude's iteration limit, not permissions or access control
• Existing org member checks remain intact

Performance ⚠️

Potential concern: Increasing max-turns from 10/30 to 50 will:

• Allow Claude to run longer on complex tasks (beneficial for thorough reviews)
• Increase AWS Bedrock API costs (more turns = more API calls)
• Potentially extend workflow execution time

Recommendation: Monitor workflow costs and execution times after this change. Consider whether 50 turns is necessary for typical use cases, or if a middle ground (e.g., 35-40) would suffice.

Testing ⚠️

Gap identified: The PR description mentions several features that aren't present in the code changes:

• "adding a recheck flag" - not found in the diff
• "adding a dont-review flag" - not found in the diff
• "adding some more basic tools like read and grep" - the --allowedTools in PR review workflow wasn't modified

The actual changes only increase max-turns. The PR description appears to describe intended changes rather than actual changes.

Recommendation: Update the PR description to accurately reflect what was actually changed, or add the missing features if they were intended to be included.

Documentation ✓

• Commit message "increase max turns" accurately describes the change
• Workflow comments reference the Claude Code Action PR (Fix commit message handling in catch up scenarios #614)
• No documentation updates needed for this change

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Actionable Feedback

1. Update PR description to match actual changes (only max-turns increase, not the flags/tools mentioned)

2. Consider cost/benefit tradeoff of 50 vs lower values - test with typical PR complexity to find optimal balance

3. If the described features are still planned, create follow-up tasks or expand this PR to include:

   • Recheck flag implementation
   • Dont-review flag implementation
   • Additional allowed tools (Read, Grep)

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[jking-aus]

this is why I need a dont review flag sir

[claude-code-actions-sigp]

Claude finished @jking-aus's task —— View job

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Code Review Complete

Todo List

• Read modified workflow files
• Compare changes against base branch
• Analyze changes for code quality, security, and best practices
• Provide comprehensive review feedback

---

Summary

This PR introduces significant improvements to the Claude Code workflow infrastructure, including:

• New workflow files: Created claude-mentions.yml and claude-pr-review.yml to replace/augment existing workflows
• Label-based controls: Added no-claude-review and claude-recheck labels for fine-grained control
• Increased turn limits: Set --max-turns 50 for both workflows
• Enhanced tooling: Added Read and Grep tools to PR review workflow
• Documentation improvements: Updated CLAUDE.md with Universal Code Quality Principles and agent usage guidelines

Review Findings

1. Code Quality ✓

Strengths:

• Clean YAML structure with good use of conditionals
• Proper use of GitHub Actions features (concurrency control, permissions)
• Well-commented with references to upstream PRs
• Logical organization of steps with clear naming

Minor observations:

• The check-label step (lines 36-48 in claude-pr-review.yml) is somewhat redundant with the job-level if condition (line 22-26), but this provides defense-in-depth which is acceptable

2. Security ✓

Strong security posture:

• Organization membership checks prevent unauthorized usage (MEMBER or OWNER only)
• Proper use of pull_request_target with explicit checkout of PR branch
• AWS credentials configured via OIDC (modern, secure)
• GitHub App token generation properly scoped
• No hardcoded secrets or sensitive data

Best practice observed: Using GitHub App tokens instead of PAT provides better security and auditability

3. Performance & Cost Considerations ⚠️

Potential concerns:

• --max-turns 50 is a 5x increase for mentions (10→50) and 67% increase for reviews (30→50)
• Each turn incurs AWS Bedrock API costs
• Longer-running workflows consume more GitHub Actions minutes
• The track_progress: true setting may add overhead

Recommendations:

1. Monitor Bedrock costs after deployment - 50 turns may be excessive for typical PRs
2. Consider starting with 35-40 turns and adjusting based on actual usage patterns
3. Document the rationale for 50 turns (complex codebase? Large PRs?)

4. Label-Based Control Logic ✓

Well-designed control flow:

• no-claude-review label: Prevents automated reviews
• claude-recheck label: Triggers re-review and auto-removes after completion
• The complex conditional logic (lines 22-26) correctly handles:
  • Normal PR events (opened, ready_for_review, reopened)
  • Adding claude-recheck label triggers review
  • Removing no-claude-review when claude-recheck is present triggers review

Edge case handled well: The unlabeled logic prevents review spam when removing no-claude-review

5. Testing Gap ⚠️

Missing test coverage:

• No workflow tests for the complex label logic
• Cannot verify the conditional logic works as expected without live testing
• The multi-condition if statement (lines 22-26) is complex enough to warrant testing

Recommendation:

• Test manually with various label combinations:
  • PR with no-claude-review label should skip
  • Adding claude-recheck should trigger review
  • Removing no-claude-review without claude-recheck should not trigger
  • Normal PR opening should trigger review

6. Documentation ✓

Excellent documentation additions:

• CLAUDE.md updates provide clear guidance on agent usage
• Universal Code Quality Principles section is well-structured
• Workflow comments reference upstream PRs
• Specialized agent descriptions are clear and actionable

Particularly good: The "Incremental Improvement Strategy" section provides practical guidance for maintaining code quality

7. Allowed Tools Configuration

Current tools in PR review workflow:

--allowedTools "mcp__github_inline_comment__create_inline_comment,Bash(gh pr comment:*),Bash(gh pr diff:*),Bash(gh pr view:*),Read,Grep"

Observations:

• Good selection of read-only and comment-focused tools
• Notably missing: Write, Edit, Git operations
• This aligns with review-only intent (no code modifications)

Question for consideration: Should the PR review workflow have the ability to:

• Create inline code suggestions (needs Edit capability)?
• Push fixes for trivial issues (needs Write/Git)?

Current configuration is safe but limits Claude's ability to propose concrete fixes.

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Actionable Recommendations

High Priority

1. Test label logic thoroughly before merging - the multi-condition if statement is complex
2. Monitor costs after deployment - 50 turns may be excessive
3. Update PR description to accurately reflect all changes (mentions CLAUDE.md updates, agent improvements, Cargo.lock changes)

Medium Priority

4. Consider adding workflow dispatch trigger for manual testing
5. Document expected cost impact in PR description or comments
6. Add examples of when to use claude-recheck vs @claude mentions

Low Priority

7. Consider adding timeout to Claude Code Action step to prevent runaway costs
8. Add workflow job summary with turn count and completion status

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Specific Code Observations

.github/workflows/claude-pr-review.yml:132
The --allowedTools list is properly formatted but uses inconsistent quoting - this is fine but could be reformatted for clarity:

--allowedTools "mcp__github_inline_comment__create_inline_comment,\
  Bash(gh pr comment:*),Bash(gh pr diff:*),Bash(gh pr view:*),\
  Read,Grep"

.github/workflows/claude-mentions.yml:84
No --allowedTools restriction in mentions workflow - this is likely intentional (mentions can do more than automated reviews) but worth confirming.

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Conclusion

This is a well-designed improvement to the Claude Code workflow infrastructure. The label-based control system addresses the PR author's comment about needing a "dont review flag" effectively. The security posture is solid, and the documentation improvements are valuable.

Primary concerns:

1. Cost impact of 50 turns needs monitoring
2. Complex conditional logic needs thorough testing
3. PR description doesn't match actual changes (missing CLAUDE.md, agents, Cargo.lock updates)

Recommendation: Approve with the expectation that costs will be monitored post-deployment and the label logic will be tested before merge.

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[dknopik]

LGTM