Guide

A deterministic PR file-triage filter. Zero runtime dependencies. Pure function. No I/O.

Given the files in a pull request, classifies each as skip, skim, or review-candidate so a reviewer (or the next LLM tier in a review pipeline) spends attention only on what changed. Uses path patterns, git metadata, and diff-level heuristics. No AST parsing. No network. No filesystem.

Extracted from PR Compass and published standalone so any review pipeline can use it.

Installation

npm install @prcompass/pr-triage-filter
# or pnpm / yarn / bun

Requires Node 20+. ESM-only. sideEffects: false.

Quick start

import { classifyPrFiles } from '@prcompass/pr-triage-filter';

const result = classifyPrFiles({
  files: [
    {
      path: 'pnpm-lock.yaml',
      changeType: 'modified',
      additions: 120,
      deletions: 45
    },
    {
      path: 'src/pricing.ts',
      changeType: 'modified',
      additions: 30,
      deletions: 5,
      patch: '@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@\n ...'
    }
  ]
});

for (const v of result.verdicts) {
  console.log(v.path, v.verdict, `(${v.ruleId})`, v.reason);
}
// pnpm-lock.yaml skip (lockfile) Package lockfile — content is auto-generated
// src/pricing.ts review-candidate (default) Production source code outside tests, docs, and config paths.

classifyPrFiles is pure — same input, same output. The order of result.verdicts matches input.files.

Verdicts

This package emits an escalation verdict — what the next tier should do with the file:

Note — classifiers downstream of this package (notably Tier 2 in PR Compass) use a different, final-reviewer vocabulary (review | skim | skip). The two taxonomies intentionally diverge.

See the full first-match-wins rule table at /rules.

Why zero dependencies

• Every transitive dep is a vulnerability surface someone has to maintain.
• Ecosystem adoption is easier if adding this package doesn't add 40 MB to your node_modules.
• If a triage filter needs a library to work, it's probably over-engineered.

"dependencies": {} is enforced. The package-invariants test fails the build if a runtime dependency is added.

Non-goals

This package is file-triage only — input is files, output is verdicts. It deliberately does not:

• Parse code (no AST, no language-aware understanding of changes).
• Run on the working tree (no fs, no git subprocess — caller produces FileInput).
• Score risk or severity (that's @prcompass/core).
• Suggest fixes or post comments — out of scope by design.

Target accuracy is ~85–90 % against hand-reviewed fixtures. The goal is to remove 50–70 % of files from a reviewer's budget, not to be perfect. Two known accepted false-positive classes are documented in the Rule table.

Where next

• API reference — every function, every type.
• Rules — the full classification table and the rationale for ordering.
• Glossary — canonical terms used in source, types, and docs.
• Examples — copy-paste integrations for GitHub PR webhooks and the CLI.