The best time to catch a bug is before it becomes a bug. The second-best time is before it reaches your main branch. The worst time is in production.
AI Code Reviews in CLI brings fast, intelligent code reviews directly to your terminal, helping you catch issues early, before they reach production. Run reviews locally, over SSH, or in cloud environments without pushing code or opening an IDE. Review code before committing, before pushing, before opening a pull request, or as part of automated CI/CD checks.
Unlike traditional linters or static analyzers, the analysis is context aware. It explains why an issue matters and how to fix it, detecting security vulnerabilities, potential bugs, performance problems, and code quality issues that rule-based tools miss.
Key features
Whether you’re doing a quick pre-commit check or a thorough code audit, AI Code Reviews in CLI adapts to your workflow. The tool is built around flexibility, letting you control the depth of analysis, what to focus on, and how to receive feedback.
Choose your review depth
Not every code review needs the same level of scrutiny. When you’re about to commit, you want fast feedback on critical issues. When you’re reviewing a feature branch before a pull request, you want comprehensive analysis.
- Essential Mode shows only HIGH-severity issues, ideal for pre-commit or CI gates with quick, focused feedback.
- Comprehensive Mode (default) includes all severity levels for thorough analysis during pull requests and code audits.
Focus areas
Concentrate reviews on specific concerns:
- Security – SQL injection, authentication, data validation, XSS
- Performance – Bottlenecks, memory leaks, optimization opportunities
- Bugs – Logic errors, edge cases, runtime errors
- Best-practices – Code style, design patterns, maintainability
- Tests – Test coverage, test quality, testability
- Documentation – Comments, documentation, code clarity
Severity filtering
Filter by severity to display only high, medium, or low-priority findings:
- High – Must-fix: crashes, security vulnerabilities, breaking changes
- Medium – Should-fix: best practice violations, moderate issues
- Low – Nice-to-have: formatting, minor refactoring suggestions
Fits naturally into Bito’s ecosystem
If you’ve used Bito’s AI Code Reviews in your IDE or on GitHub, you already know the quality of feedback you get. The CLI brings that same intelligence to a different moment in your workflow.
- When you’re actively writing code in VS Code or Cursor, the IDE integration gives you real-time suggestions.
- When you open a pull request, the GitHub integration provides comprehensive reviews for your team.
- And when you’re working in the terminal, committing from a remote server, or running pre-commit checks, the CLI catches issues before they leave your machine.
Bonus: Add Bito CLI to your agentic workflow
AI Code Reviews in CLI also integrates with AI coding agents like Cursor, Claude Code, and Windsurf. Add one rule to your agent’s configuration, and you can run reviews using natural language.
Just say “review my changes” and your agent automatically runs Bito CLI, reads the feedback, and can fix issues on the spot. All without leaving your conversation.
Learn how to set it up: AI Code Reviews in AI Coding Agents
Getting started
Setting up AI Code Reviews in CLI takes less than two minutes. The installation script handles everything, from downloading the binary to setting up the command-line shortcut.
1. Installation
Run the installation command for your platform:
- macOS and Linux: curl -fsSL https://bitoreview.bito.ai/install.sh | bash
- Windows (PowerShell): irm https://bitoreview.bito.ai/install.ps1 | iex
The installer puts the CLI binary in a user-local directory and adds it to your PATH. You’ll have access to both bitoreview and the shorter br alias.
2. Authenticate with your API key
Before running your first review, configure your Bito API key:
- bitoreview config set-api-key
You’ll be prompted to paste your key securely. If you don’t have one yet, sign up at https://alpha.bito.ai and create an access key under Settings → Advanced Settings.
3. Run your first review
Now you’re ready. Navigate to any project directory and run:
- bitoreview review
The CLI automatically detects your version control system and analyzes all changes. Within seconds, you’ll see a detailed breakdown of issues organized by severity and category.
Dive deeper
This is just scratching the surface. AI Code Reviews in CLI supports multiple version control systems including Git, SVN, Mercurial, and Perforce. You can customize output formats for CI/CD integration, configure default settings in a project file, and automate reviews with pre-commit hooks.
For the complete guide on commands, configuration, and advanced workflows:
- Installation Guide – Platform-specific setup details
- How to Use – Real-world examples and workflows
- Available Commands – Full command reference
- Troubleshooting – Common issues and solutions
Start catching issues earlier
AI Code Reviews in CLI helps you maintain code quality and security without slowing down your development workflow. Reviews run on-demand, scoped to your selected files or changes, with no requirement to push code to get feedback.
Try AI Code Reviews in CLI and catch issues before they reach production.
