Review Comments¶
Audience: authors and reviewers.
Review comments let reviewers and authors discuss a specific passage of a document on the document, during its review round — instead of in email or a separate tool. Comments are records: they are anchored to the text, immutable once written, and resolvable, and they can gate the release.
1. Adding an anchored comment¶
Select a passage in the document (either while reading it or while editing the draft) and choose Add comment. Your comment is anchored to that block and the quoted text, so it stays attached to the right place even as the surrounding text is edited. Type your note and post it.
- Anyone holding a workflow role on the document (Author, Reviewer, or Releaser) may comment; the Add comment affordance only appears when you are allowed to.
- Replies are one level deep — a comment and its direct replies form one thread.
- Comments are plain text and cannot be edited or deleted once posted (they are part of the review record). To correct yourself, add a reply.
- The document's Author-role holders are notified when a comment is added.
2. Resolving comments¶
When a comment has been dealt with, Resolve it. Resolving is the signal that the point is closed; a resolved thread collapses out of the way (available behind a disclosure) and leaves no inline marker on the text — resolving visibly cleans the passage. A resolved comment can be re-opened (Unresolve) if the discussion needs to continue.
3. The release gate¶
For most document types, a document cannot be released while any review comment is unresolved. This is the comment quality gate (configurable per type in Scope configuration). When you try to release, the action tells you how many comments are still open (e.g. "3 unresolved review comments"); releasing becomes available the moment the last open comment is resolved.
Under automatic release mode the effect is the same: the final approval does not release the document while comments are open — it waits, and a releaser finishes the release once they are resolved. Resolving a comment never releases a document by itself.
4. Who can see comments, and when¶
- While the document is Draft or In review, comments are visible to the people working the round (its workflow-role holders).
- After release, review comments are not shown to ordinary readers at all — a released document is the clean, controlled artifact. Its existence is not even hinted at. Workflow-role holders and quality managers (CONFIGURE_REVIEW_POLICY) can still reveal the round's comments through a discreet "Review comments (N)" toggle, so the review history stays auditable without cluttering the released document.
Governing decisions: ADR-0067 (review comments — anchors, immutability, resolve, release gate, state-bound visibility), ADR-0064 (workflow-role participation), ADR-0030 (review policies).