Nitpicker

Open-source AI PR reviewer. Reviews the diff only — cheaper, faster, fewer tokens. Any model.

Auto-review	On open, reopen, ready for review
On demand	Comment /nitpicker
Q&A	@bot why did we change this?

Install

curl -fsSL https://nitpicker.dev/install | bash

The installer clones into ~/nitpicker, then runs a short wizard:

1. Choose deploy method (Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, or GitHub Actions)
2. Installs missing tools when it can
3. Creates the GitHub App when needed (browser)
4. Asks for your LLM API key
5. Deploys / prints workflow setup
6. Opens the app install page (App modes)

# optional flags
curl -fsSL https://nitpicker.dev/install | bash -s -- \
  --method lambda \
  --org my-org \
  --provider openai \
  --model gpt-4.1

Deploy methods

Method	Flag	Needs	Best for
AWS Lambda	--method lambda	AWS account + GitHub App	Multi-repo bot, instant webhooks
Cloudflare Workers	--method worker	CF account + GitHub App	Multi-repo bot, no AWS
GitHub Actions	--method actions	Repo workflow + LLM_API_KEY secret	No always-on server; per-repo

App modes (Lambda / Workers): real bot user, multi-repo install, /nitpicker + @bot Q&A.

Actions mode: posts as github-actions[bot] (unless you pass a PAT). Add the workflow from examples/github-actions/nitpicker.yml and set secret LLM_API_KEY. Q&A via @github-actions ….

Installer flags

Pass after bash -s -- (or to pnpm setup):

Flag	Default	Notes
--method NAME	prompt	lambda | worker | actions
--org ORG	your user	GitHub org that will own the app
--name NAME	nitpicker	GitHub App name
--provider NAME	anthropic	anthropic | openai | google
--model MODEL	per provider	model id (see defaults below)
--llm-key KEY	—	skip the API key prompt
--region R	us-east-1	AWS region (lambda)
--stack NAME	nitpicker	CloudFormation stack name (lambda)
--worker-name N	nitpicker	Cloudflare Worker name (worker)
--skip-deploy	off	write .env only; deploy later
-h, --help	—	print flag help

Default models when --model is omitted:

Provider	Default model
anthropic	claude-sonnet-5
openai	gpt-4.1
google	gemini-2.5-flash

Installer environment variables

Variable	Default	Notes
NITPICKER_HOME	~/nitpicker	clone / install directory
NITPICKER_REPO	https://github.com/sagivo/nitpicker.git	git remote to clone
NITPICKER_BRANCH	main	branch to check out
DEPLOY_METHOD	—	same as --method
LLM_API_KEY	—	same as --llm-key; also accepts provider-specific *_API_KEY vars
AI_PROVIDER	anthropic	same as --provider
AI_MODEL	per provider	same as --model
AWS_REGION	us-east-1	same as --region
STACK_NAME	nitpicker	same as --stack
CF_WORKER_NAME	nitpicker	same as --worker-name

NITPICKER_HOME=~/tools/nitpicker \
  curl -fsSL https://nitpicker.dev/install | bash -s -- --method worker --provider openai

Already cloned? pnpm setup runs the same wizard (same flags).

GitHub Actions (manual)

# .github/workflows/nitpicker.yml
name: Nitpicker
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, reopened, ready_for_review]
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write
jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: sagivo/nitpicker@main
        with:
          llm-api-key: ${{ secrets.LLM_API_KEY }}
          ai-provider: anthropic   # optional
          ai-model: claude-sonnet-5

Full template: examples/github-actions/nitpicker.yml.

Local dev

cd ~/nitpicker && pnpm dev
# smee -u <url> --target http://localhost:3000/api/github/webhooks

Config

Written to .env by setup. Tweak anytime, then redeploy.

AI & behavior

Variable	Default	Notes
LLM_API_KEY	—	provider API key (required)
AI_PROVIDER	anthropic	anthropic | openai | google
AI_MODEL	claude-sonnet-5	model id
BOT_NAME	nitpicker-bot	must match @mentions (app slug, or github-actions for Actions)
REVIEW_ON_OPEN	true	auto-review on PR open / reopen / ready for review
MAX_DIFF_SIZE	50000	max diff chars sent to the model
MAX_REVIEWER_GUIDE_SIZE	20000	max chars from reviewer guide files
MAX_COPILOT_INSTRUCTIONS_SIZE	20000	max chars from copilot instruction files

GitHub App (Lambda / Workers)

Variable	Notes
APP_ID	GitHub App ID
WEBHOOK_SECRET	webhook HMAC secret
PRIVATE_KEY_BASE64	app private key, base64-encoded PEM (preferred)
PRIVATE_KEY	raw PEM; used if PRIVATE_KEY_BASE64 is unset

Deploy

Variable	Default	Notes
DEPLOY_METHOD	—	lambda | worker | actions
STACK_NAME	nitpicker	CloudFormation stack (lambda)
AWS_REGION	us-east-1	deploy region (lambda)
CF_WORKER_NAME	nitpicker	Worker name (worker)

pnpm deploy          # Lambda (from .env)
pnpm deploy:worker   # Cloudflare Workers (from .env)
# Actions: add workflow + secrets — no deploy command

License

MIT