Elek

elek reviews every pull request in your repository. When a PR is opened, updated, reopened, or marked ready, the Action runs one Pi session against the diff. The session uses the model you choose, with your key. elek then posts a summary comment and inline comments on the changed lines.

elek is open source and runs entirely in your own GitHub Actions workflow. There is no hosted service, account, or telemetry.

See it review a real tenant-isolation regression in elek-demo#1.

Safety model

• The model gets Pi's read, grep, find, and ls tools and nothing else: no shell, no file writes, no MCP. A guard blocks paths outside the repository, .git, secret files, and symlink escapes.
• The model never receives GITHUB_TOKEN. elek posts the review itself.
• elek has no code path that approves, merges, closes, or pushes. Reviews post with the COMMENT event.
• elek redacts token-shaped secrets from the review before it posts.
• When the base branch has a .elek.yml, elek loads policy from it, so a PR cannot change the rules that review it.

One-minute setup

From your repository root, run:

npx --package github:selimozten/elek elek-init --provider deepseek

This writes .github/workflows/elek.yml and .elek.yml. Add the repository secret DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, commit both files, and open a PR.

To use another provider, pass --provider and optionally --model:

npx --package github:selimozten/elek elek-init --provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-4-6
npx --package github:selimozten/elek elek-init --provider openrouter --model moonshotai/kimi-k2.7-code

elek-init --help lists every flag. It refuses to overwrite existing files unless you pass --force.

Manual workflow

name: elek

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, ready_for_review]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write

concurrency:
  group: elek-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  review:
    # Fork PRs get no secrets and a read-only token, so elek skips them.
    if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name == github.repository }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/[email protected]
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - uses: selimozten/elek@v1
        with:
          deepseek_api_key: ${{ secrets.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY }}
          provider: deepseek
          model: deepseek-v4-pro
          thinking: high

fetch-depth: 0 lets elek build the diff and read the base-branch config from the checkout.

Inputs

Repository config

.elek.yml keeps review policy next to the code:

severity_threshold: important

knowledge_paths:
  - AGENTS.md
  - CONTRIBUTING.md
  - docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

ignore_paths:
  - docs/**
  - "*.md"

instructions:
  - Treat auth and permission changes as security-sensitive.
  - Require tests for parser and config changes.

On a pull request, elek reads .elek.yml and the knowledge files from the base branch. If elek cannot load .elek.yml from the base branch, for example because the base branch has none, it uses the checked-out .elek.yml and knowledge files instead. Commit .elek.yml to your default branch so PRs cannot change their own review policy. elek fails the run when the config file has malformed YAML, so a typo cannot drop your policy without notice. Unknown keys log a warning.

Providers

elek works with any provider Pi supports. Set provider, model, and the matching key input:

For Amazon Bedrock, set AWS_REGION, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY as job-level env. For Vertex, set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS and ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID.

Outputs

Permissions

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write

contents: read is enough because elek never pushes. pull-requests: write posts the review and inline comments. issues: write posts the tracking comment.

FAQ

Does elek review pull requests from forks? No. GitHub gives fork pull_request runs no repository secrets and a read-only token, so elek has no model key and cannot post. The workflow above skips forks. Without that guard, elek exits with a skipped conclusion. Do not switch to pull_request_target to get secrets: that event runs with your secrets while the PR author controls the code.

What about draft pull requests? elek skips drafts and reviews the PR when you mark it ready for review.

Which events does elek handle? Only pull_request with the opened, synchronize, reopened, or ready_for_review action. Other events end with a warning and a skipped conclusion. elek also skips runs that a bot triggers or that a user who is not a repository owner, member, or collaborator triggers.

What does a review cost? elek prints the token counts in the review footer and in the input_tokens and output_tokens outputs. Multiply them by your provider's prices. When the provider reports no usage, elek estimates the counts from the prompt and response length and labels the line as estimated.

What does the model check? Every review applies two lenses. The risk lens looks for bugs, security holes, breaking behavior, and side effects. The design lens looks for structural regressions and needless complexity. The model then drops findings it cannot verify against the changed code. prompt changes the request but not these rules.

Why are comments from github-actions[bot]? The default GITHUB_TOKEN posts as that account. If you pass a GitHub App or bot token as github_token, set the job-level env ELEK_TRACKING_COMMENT_AUTHORS to that login so elek reuses its own tracking comment on later pushes.

Documentation

• docs/setup.md explains setup in more detail and covers troubleshooting.
• docs/examples.md has workflow recipes.
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md describes how a review run works.
• CONTRIBUTING.md and AGENTS.md are for people and agents working on elek.

License

MIT. Built on Pi.