Claude Code Multi-Agent Review Workflow: Roles, Worktrees, and Manual Sign-off

Claude Code's multi-agent review workflow employs separate roles to ensure the quality of AI-generated code. The primary roles are Author, Reviewer, and Human Decision Maker. These roles are designed to avoid subtle architectural defects and circular refactoring loops that can occur when multiple AI agents work in parallel.

The Author agent is responsible for code implementation and writing local unit tests. The Reviewer agent focuses on discovering edge cases and performing regression checks. Finally, the Human Decision Maker oversees architectural validation and makes the final merge decision.

To maintain proper isolation, the Author and Reviewer agents should not operate within the same working directory or shared conversation thread. Instead, they should work in separate session contexts with independent conversation threads, filesystem worktrees, and environment security measures. This ensures that the Reviewer agent only inspects committed diffs and that API keys and runtime credentials are handled securely via environment variables.

When the Author agent completes implementation, it creates a concise Handoff Card containing task details, changed files, verification commands, risks, and next steps. The Reviewer agent then validates the Retry-After header handling in an isolated worktree and generates a structured summary for the lead engineer. The Human Decision Maker reviews the findings, confirms zero regressions against the main branch, and manually merges the changes to the main branch.

This structured handoff contract ensures that code quality and architectural ownership remain firmly under developer control.