Hound quickstart

Install the GitHub App

Hound ships as a GitHub App — pick the repos you want reviewed and the rest is automatic. You'll need admin access on the target account or org.

See the setup guide for the full first-run walkthrough (install, repo selection, first review).

Trigger an on-demand review

Hound exposes POST /api/reviews for triggering a review from CI, your terminal, or anywhere you can fire a request. Requires $HOUND_API_TOKEN and the GitHub App to already be installed on the target repo (see step 1).

curl -X POST https://<host>/api/reviews \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HOUND_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"repo":"owner/name","pr_number":42}'

By default the endpoint responds immediately and runs the review async (the webhook-equivalent "ack fast" pattern). Pass ?wait=true to block until the review finishes and get the full verdict inline:

curl -X POST "https://<host>/api/reviews?wait=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HOUND_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"repo":"owner/name","pr_number":42}'

Read the verdict

Hound posts a formatted review comment on the PR — that's the readable verdict. The JSON response is the acknowledgement.

Async (default) — confirms the review was queued:

{
  "status": "queued",
  "repo": "owner/name",
  "pr_number": 42
}

Sync (?wait=true) — returns once the review finishes:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "repo": "owner/name",
  "pr_number": 42,
  "review_id": 17,
  "comment_posted": true
}

• ✓ status: "ok" with comment_posted: true means the verdict is on the PR.
• ✓ status: "queued" means Hound accepted the job — check the PR for the comment when it lands.
• ✓ Errors return 400 (invalid body) or 500 (review failure) with a JSON error field.