Skip to main content

Customizing Prompts

You can tailor the AI's behavior by customizing the prompts used for code reviews and commit message generation.

How to Customize​

There are four ways to provide custom prompts and rules, listed in order of increasing priority:

  1. VS Code Settings: Edit the ollama-code-review.prompt.review or ollama-code-review.prompt.commitMessage settings.
  2. Rules Directory (.ollama-review/rules/): Place Markdown files containing team conventions in this directory.
  3. Project Config File (.ollama-review.yaml): Add this file to your workspace root to override settings and prompts.

Rules Directory (.ollama-review/rules/)​

For universal team conventions, you can create a .ollama-review/rules/ directory at your workspace root.

  • Format: Plain Markdown (.md) files.
  • Workflow: All files in this directory are concatenated and injected into the "Team Rules" section of every review prompt.
  • Example: A file named 01-typescript.md might contain: 
    - Always use TypeScript strict mode.
    - Never use the `any` type — use `unknown` and type guards.
    - Prefer named exports over default exports.
  • Ordering: Files are sorted by filename, so you can use prefixes like 01-, 02- to control the order.

Project Config (.ollama-review.yaml)​

This file allows you to share consistent AI review settings across your whole team. It overrides both built-in defaults and VS Code settings.json.

Supported Keys​

# Custom prompts
prompt:
  review: "..."
  commitMessage: "..."

# Frameworks list
frameworks:
  - React
  - TypeScript
  - Node.js

# Diff filter overrides
diffFilter:
  ignorePaths:
    - "**/generated/**"
  ignoreFormattingOnly: true

Prompt Variables​

You can use the following variables in your templates:

Review Prompt​

  • ${code}: The git diff or file content being reviewed.
  • ${frameworks}: The list of configured frameworks.
  • ${skills}: Content from active agent skills.
  • ${profile}: Context from the active review profile.

Commit Message Prompt​

  • ${diff}: The staged diff.
  • ${draftMessage}: The developer's draft message (if any).

Example .ollama-review.yaml​

prompt:
  review: |
    You are an expert Senior Security Engineer. 
    Review the following diff for security vulnerabilities:
    
    ${code}
    
    Focus on:
    - OWASP Top 10
    - Input validation
    - Secret exposure
  
  commitMessage: |
    Generate a concise commit message in Conventional Commits format for:
    ${diff}

Tips for Better Prompts​

  • Be Specific: Tell the AI exactly what you want it to focus on (e.g., "performance", "type safety").
  • Persona: Give the AI a persona like "Senior React Developer" or "Security Auditor".
  • Format: Specify the desired output format if you want something different from the default.