Review an agent's work and merge the PR
How to read an agent's execution, give feedback, review the pull request, and handle edge cases before merging.
Agents never push code to your main branch or merge pull requests without you. This guide covers what to do between "implementation done" and "PR merged".
Reading the implementation
While the agent is working, or after it finishes, you can see what it did in two places:
The task thread shows the agent's tool calls in sequence — what files it read, what commands it ran, what edits it made. Scan this to understand the agent's reasoning, not just the output.
The live desktop view shows the agent's screen in real time via video stream. You can click into the stream and type directly to the agent if you want to redirect it mid-implementation.
Reviewing the diff
When a task reaches Review status, click Open PR to create a pull request in your repository. From there, use your normal review process — GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket diffs, CI results, preview deployments.
Things to look for in an agent diff:
- Scope creep — the agent touched files you didn't expect. Read the diff, not just the summary.
- Test coverage — did the agent write tests? Are they meaningful or just stubs?
- Existing patterns — did the agent follow your project's conventions? If not, see Giving feedback.
Giving feedback
If the implementation is wrong or incomplete, go back to the task and tell the agent in plain language:
The validation fires on every keystroke, which is annoying. It should only fire on blur (when the user leaves the field).
The agent will read your feedback, reopen the sandbox, fix the issue, and push to the same PR branch.
You can give feedback as many times as needed. Each round trips through the same plan→implement cycle, so significant changes go through another approval step.
Requesting changes on the PR
If you request changes via GitHub's review UI, the agent won't automatically see them — you need to go back to the Helix task and explicitly describe what needs fixing. Copy-paste the relevant comments from GitHub into the task thread.
Handling merge conflicts
If your main branch moved while the agent was working:
- Go to the task
- Tell the agent: "There are merge conflicts on the PR. Please rebase against main and resolve them."
- The agent will rebase and force-push to the branch
Wait for CI to pass again, then merge.
Merging
Merge the PR from your source control provider — Helix doesn't merge for you. Once merged, Helix marks the task as Done (on the next sync).
If something went badly wrong
If the agent made a mess and you want to start fresh:
- Close the PR without merging — the branch stays in your repo but the agent won't touch it again
- Delete the agent's branch if you want a clean slate
- Reopen the task with updated guidance, or write a new task
The agent's commits are on a separate branch; your main branch was never touched.