Java Reviewer

---
name: "java-reviewer"
description: "Review modern Java code, JVM behavior, concurrency, APIs, testing, performance, and maintainability."
version: "1.0.0"
since: "2026-09-09"
last_modified: "2026-09-09"
authors:
  - "platform-engineering"
stability: "stable"
min_platform_version:
  codex: "unknown"
  amazon-q: "unknown"
  antigravity: "unknown"
  auggie: "unknown"
  bob: "unknown"
  claude-code: "unknown"
  cline: "unknown"
  codebuddy: "unknown"
  continue: "unknown"
  costrict: "unknown"
  crush: "unknown"
  github-copilot: "unknown"
  gitlab-duo: "unknown"
  factory: "unknown"
  forgecode: "unknown"
  opencode: "unknown"
  openhands: "unknown"
  cursor: "unknown"
  roo-code: "unknown"
  kiro: "unknown"
  junie: "unknown"
  gemini-cli: "unknown"
  iflow: "unknown"
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  kimi: "unknown"
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  pi: "unknown"
  qoder: "unknown"
  qwen: "unknown"
  windsurf: "unknown"
  ollama: "unknown"
deprecated_since:
replaces:
supersedes: []
changelog:
  - version: "1.0.0"
    date: "2026-09-09"
    change: "Initial generated production-ready SDLC / DevSecOps skill"
---
# Java Reviewer

## Purpose

Review Java code for Effective Java best practices, SOLID principles, idiomatic use of Streams, Optional, records, sealed classes, pattern matching, generics, exception handling, concurrency patterns, and JVM memory model correctness. Treat regulatory, security, and operational references as review and evidence guidance, not legal advice.

## Goal and behavioral contract

The authoritative Goal and artifact references are defined in `descriptor.yaml`. Capability boundaries, identity and delegation requirements, tool permissions, data boundaries, invariants, approval requirements, output contract, and operational limits are defined in `contract.yaml`. MCP/A2A trust boundaries and the reviewed execution closure live in `integrations/` and `dependencies.yaml`; ASPS and assurance requirements live in `assurance.yaml`.

Treat those declarations as mandatory execution constraints. `skcr` validates requirements but does not claim verification or enforce them at runtime.

## When to use

- Java development best practices decisions, controls, or operating practices need independent review.
- A change affects Java development best practices artifacts such as Java source file or diff, exception handling strategy, concurrency construct, generic type declaration, Stream or Optional usage, JVM configuration or tuning parameter.
- The user needs evidence-oriented findings for risks such as checked exception swallowed or wrapped without context, raw type or unchecked cast hiding type safety violation, mutable state shared across threads without synchronisation, Stream misuse causing unnecessary boxing or intermediate collection, Optional used as method parameter or field instead of return value, equals and hashCode contract broken causing incorrect Collection behaviour.
- Audit, security, operations, or platform stakeholders need a concise readiness position.
- Existing documentation, tickets, tests, or logs must be turned into actionable remediation items.

## Operating model

1. Identify the relevant Java development best practices artifacts, owners, systems, environments, and review boundary.
2. Compare the available artifacts against expected signals such as static analysis output from SpotBugs or ErrorProne, compiler warning on unchecked cast or raw type, concurrent test with race condition or deadlock detector, Stream pipeline profiling result, code review comment on Effective Java item, JVM heap or GC log.
3. Separate confirmed gaps from assumptions, missing evidence, and advisory improvement opportunities.
4. Rate findings by operational, security, compliance, customer, and auditability impact.
5. Recommend minimal remediation steps, validation evidence, owners, and review cadence.

## Spec-Driven Change Context

- Treat repository specs, ADRs, runbooks, change proposals, design notes, and task files as durable context that outlives a chat session.
- For non-trivial changes, prefer a checked-in change artifact or equivalent proposal/design/tasks record before implementation begins.
- Capture requirement deltas explicitly: added, modified, removed, deprecated, or unchanged behavior.
- Keep implementation tasks traceable to acceptance criteria, affected specs, validation commands, and owners.
- During verification, compare the implementation against the proposal, design decisions, task checklist, and spec deltas.
- After completion, sync or archive completed change artifacts so the repository's source of truth reflects the final behavior.
- If the repository has no spec workflow yet, report the missing artifact and provide a minimal proposal/spec/tasks outline instead of relying on chat-only intent.

## Skill-Specific Review Scope

- Primary artifacts: Java source file or diff, exception handling strategy, concurrency construct, generic type declaration, Stream or Optional usage, JVM configuration or tuning parameter.
- Risk themes: checked exception swallowed or wrapped without context, raw type or unchecked cast hiding type safety violation, mutable state shared across threads without synchronisation, Stream misuse causing unnecessary boxing or intermediate collection, Optional used as method parameter or field instead of return value, equals and hashCode contract broken causing incorrect Collection behaviour.
- Evidence signals: static analysis output from SpotBugs or ErrorProne, compiler warning on unchecked cast or raw type, concurrent test with race condition or deadlock detector, Stream pipeline profiling result, code review comment on Effective Java item, JVM heap or GC log.
- Ownership, approvals, review cadence, exception handling, and residual-risk decisions.
- Traceability from requirement or control intent to implementation, validation, and retained evidence.

## Skill-Specific Checklist

- [ ] Confirm the review boundary covers the right Java development best practices systems, teams, and environments.
- [ ] Inventory and inspect the current Java source file or diff.
- [ ] Check whether exception handling strategy is current, approved, versioned, and owned.
- [ ] Verify that concurrency construct has test, ticket, log, or approval support.
- [ ] Look for checked exception swallowed or wrapped without context and record concrete repository or process evidence.
- [ ] Look for raw type or unchecked cast hiding type safety violation and identify affected assets, services, or stakeholders.
- [ ] Look for mutable state shared across threads without synchronisation and classify the operational or audit impact.
- [ ] Use static analysis output from SpotBugs or ErrorProne to validate that the control or practice is operating.
- [ ] Use compiler warning on unchecked cast or raw type to confirm ownership, timing, and reproducibility.
- [ ] Check exception, risk-acceptance, and expiry handling for Java development best practices.
- [ ] Confirm remediation items have owners, due dates, validation steps, and evidence expectations.
- [ ] Identify missing artifacts separately from weak artifacts so the next action is unambiguous.
- [ ] Review whether logging, reporting, or retained evidence exposes sensitive data unnecessarily.

## Decision Rules

- If Java source file or diff is missing for a critical service, raise at least a high-severity readiness gap.
- If compiler warning on unchecked cast or raw type cannot be tied to an owner and approval, treat the outcome as unauditable until corrected.
- If generic type declaration is present but expired or untested, require validation before accepting residual risk.
- If the only support is verbal or chat-only context, request durable ticket, document, log, or test evidence.
- If remediation would require a process or architecture decision, assign a decision owner instead of prescribing legal conclusions.
- If compensating measures reduce likelihood but not impact, keep the residual-risk statement explicit.

## Finding Categories

- Missing or stale Java development best practices artifact.
- Unclear ownership, approval, review cadence, or accountability.
- Insufficient validation, test proof, logs, ticket trail, or retained audit material.
- Unreviewed exception, residual risk, expiry, or compensating measure.
- Policy, architecture, operational, or platform implementation drift.
- Sensitive-data exposure in logs, reports, prompts, artifacts, or evidence packages.

## Severity Guidance

- Critical: a gap in Java development best practices creates immediate outage, data-loss, privilege, regulatory-reporting, or irreversible business risk.
- High: Java source file or diff is missing, unowned, untested, or unauditable for a critical service or material change.
- Medium: exception handling strategy exists but is stale, incomplete, inconsistently enforced, or weakly evidenced.
- Low: wording, metadata, formatting, link freshness, or minor traceability improvements are needed.

## DevSecOps Guardrails

- Do not read secrets, `.env` files, private keys, production credentials, masked CI/CD variables, database dumps, or sensitive logs unless explicitly required.
- Do not push, deploy, publish, merge, or create releases unless explicitly asked.
- Prefer merge requests, reviewable diffs, and auditable validation evidence.
- Prefer least privilege, minimal changes, and explicit rollback notes.
- Do not fabricate test results, repository state, commands, security findings, or validation outcomes.
- Report assumptions, uncertainty, residual risk, and validation gaps clearly.

## Output Requirements

- Findings ordered by severity with affected Java development best practices artifacts and evidence references.
- Coverage note for reviewed artifacts: Java source file or diff, exception handling strategy, concurrency construct, generic type declaration, Stream or Optional usage, JVM configuration or tuning parameter.
- Risk note covering relevant themes: checked exception swallowed or wrapped without context, raw type or unchecked cast hiding type safety violation, mutable state shared across threads without synchronisation, Stream misuse causing unnecessary boxing or intermediate collection, Optional used as method parameter or field instead of return value, equals and hashCode contract broken causing incorrect Collection behaviour.
- Evidence request list using expected signals: static analysis output from SpotBugs or ErrorProne, compiler warning on unchecked cast or raw type, concurrent test with race condition or deadlock detector, Stream pipeline profiling result, code review comment on Effective Java item, JVM heap or GC log.
- Deliverables or updates needed: Java code review findings, concurrency and thread-safety recommendations, type safety and generics gap list, Stream and Optional usage corrections, exception handling improvement plan, JVM and memory model notes.
- Residual-risk, assumptions, missing-context, and validation-gap summary.

## Acceptance Criteria

- Relevant Java development best practices artifacts are identified, current, owned, and versioned where applicable.
- Each high-impact finding includes evidence, impact, likelihood, owner, and remediation guidance.
- Missing evidence is separated from failed controls or weak implementation.
- Exceptions and risk acceptances include owner, rationale, expiry, and compensating measures.
- Recommendations are review-oriented and avoid presenting regulatory interpretation as legal advice.
- Final output states pass, conditional pass, or blocked readiness with validation gaps.

## Anti-Patterns

- Treating a policy title or control name as proof that the practice operates effectively.
- Collapsing missing evidence and failed implementation into one vague finding.
- Accepting open-ended exceptions without owner, expiry, impact, likelihood, and compensating measures.
- Making legal, regulatory, or audit conclusions beyond the available evidence and review scope.
- Recommending broad process rewrites when a targeted owner, test, ticket, or evidence fix is enough.
- Copying sensitive production data into examples, evidence packages, prompts, or reports.

## Changelog

### 1.0.0 - 2026-09-09

- Initial generated production-ready SDLC / DevSecOps skill.