Write your own review patterns

Review patterns codify knowledge from past reviews and make it reusable. To add a repo-specific pattern, drop a Markdown file into .planwerk/review_patterns/ in the target repository — planwerk-agent picks it up automatically on the next review, audit, or propose run.

For the exact file layout (frontmatter fields, sections) see the review pattern format; for how patterns from different locations are prioritized, see pattern sources.

Knowledge building

The tool systematically builds knowledge over time:

First Review           Subsequent Reviews       Mature System
────────────          ────────────────────      ─────────────
Claude review    ──▶  Claude review        ──▶  Claude review
(no patterns)         + general patterns        + general patterns
                      + repo-specific           + repo-specific
      │               patterns                  patterns (many)
      ▼                     │                         │
Suggest new                 ▼                         ▼
patterns             Refine patterns            High-precision
                     + suggest new ones         reviews

Knowledge building process:

1. After the first review: The tool analyzes review results and suggests new general patterns that should be added to internal/patterns/patterns/.
2. For recurring findings: When the same issue occurs across multiple repos, the Occurrences field is incremented and the pattern is refined.
3. Repo-specific patterns: The development team creates these themselves in .planwerk/review_patterns/ based on their domain knowledge. planwerk-agent picks them up automatically.