[Released] dev-orchestra: A Closing Review of the Whole Change v1.3.0

Introduction

dev-orchestra is a plugin for Claude Code / Codex / Antigravity that takes a one-sentence request through design, implementation, testing, review by several AIs, and fixes.

This post rounds up the changes in v1.3.0 (2026-10-28). The changes from v1.1.0 to v1.2.1 are in the previous release post.

dev-orchestra is open source on GitHub (MIT license). If it looks useful, a star would mean a lot.

→ github.com/istb16/dev-orchestra

Main changes

A closing review of the whole change

From the second round on, dev-orchestra’s code review looks only at the diff of the fix. That is cheaper than sending the whole change every round, but it can miss a fix that clashes with an earlier part of the change.

In 1.3.0, with review.whole_change_recheck on, a review now ends on a round that looked at the whole change.

1. A round that looked only at the fix comes back with nothing above Low
2. The accepted Lows are fixed and re-tested, and the whole change since the base is reviewed once more
3. If that whole-change round also has nothing above Low, its accepted Lows are fixed and re-tested, and the review ends without another round

The first round already looks at the whole change, so if it has nothing above Low, the review ends there. When the whole-change round is due, review snapshot and review run take the whole change by themselves, so --full is not needed. The output says scope: whole change (review.whole_change_recheck).

$ dev-orchestra review snapshot
Snapshot: .ai/workflows/a47656e712c1/reviews/review-target.diff
  strategy: git diff HEAD
  scope:    whole change (review.whole_change_recheck)
  files:    5
  size:     3866 bytes (sha256 44824ffac2ab)

The cap on rounds (review.max_review_iterations, default 2) still applies, with one exception: the whole-change round right after a clean fix-only round may run as the round after the cap (round max + 1). If something above Low is still open when the cap is reached, the review ends as before, with a final fix and re-test and no further round.

While the option is on, review status prints a next: line saying what to do next.

$ dev-orchestra review status
iteration 2/2
accepted findings: 0
blocking (critical/high): 0 
re-review recommended: yes
next: re-review the whole change (review snapshot takes it)
coverage: round complete, change complete

It is on by default. Among the presets, quality turns it on, fast turns it off, and standard leaves the default (on).

I tried it with a fix that deliberately clashes with an earlier part of the change; the steps and output are in the dev-orchestra series post on reviewing the whole change once more at the end (scheduled for November 7, 2026).

A change you may need to act on: reviews can take more rounds

Under standard (including when no preset is chosen) and quality, two things change.

• A Medium finding now calls for another round. Before, only Critical and High (review.re_review_severities) did. From 1.3.0, any finding “above Low” (Medium and up, plus whatever you added to re_review_severities) that is not rejected or a duplicate leads to another review
• A whole-change round is added at the end. Where the review used to end on a fix-only round, one whole-change round now follows

So a review can take more rounds than before, and more time and tokens with them. To get the old loop back, turn the option off. With it off, the behaviour and output are the same as in 1.2.1.

dev-orchestra config set review.whole_change_recheck false --scope global

This writes the global configuration. You can also turn it off in the project configuration (.dev-orchestra.yaml), but a project file can arrive with the branch under review, so turning it off there is treated as loosening the review. config validate and doctor warn about it.

$ dev-orchestra config validate
Configuration is valid.
Warnings:
  - review.whole_change_recheck: the project config (.dev-orchestra.yaml) turns it off; that file can come with the branch under review, so check that this is intended

Smaller changes and bug fixes

• With the option on, a round that finds nothing is no longer counted as a repeat of the previous round. A clean fix-only round followed by a clean whole-change round is not reported as “the last fix changed nothing” (in review run’s note, identical_rounds and status’s reasons). With the option off, and for the design review and progress record, repeats are counted as before
• New keys in the --json output: review status gains whole_change_recheck, round_scope, next_review and wanted (the findings that keep the loop open); status gains review.next_review, review.wanted and design_review.wanted; review-target.json gains scope and recheck; and consolidated.json gains snapshot.scope and snapshot.recheck. No key was removed or renamed

Stabilization

I added tests for the new review loop and did other work to keep things stable. Apart from what is described above, nothing changes for users.

How to update

How to update depends on the CLI you use. Follow the update post and point it at the new release tag (v1.3.0). After updating, it is worth running dev-orchestra doctor once.

Summary

• A closing review of the whole change (review.whole_change_recheck): once a fix-only round has nothing above Low, the whole change is reviewed once more before the review ends. That closing round may run as the round after the cap
• On by default under standard (including no preset) and quality. A Medium finding now calls for another round, so a review can take more rounds than before. To go back, set review.whole_change_recheck: false
• A round that finds nothing is no longer counted as a repeat of the previous one
• New keys in --json; none removed or renamed

GitHub: istb16/dev-orchestra (a star is always appreciated)