Run reviews on my Mac is one of the switches of pull-request reviews inside GitHub. Off, the default, every review runs on the server with the installation account's seats: Our Keys, its own API keys or Free Key. On, each review runs on the Mac of the person who opened the pull request, with the seats that Mac has, CLI subscriptions included.
Where to find it. Web: Settings → Account → Connected → Pull-request reviews on GitHub. Mac: Settings → Account → Connected. iPhone: Settings → Account → Connected → GitHub Reviews. The switch is on each installation; the two under Your pull requests are each person's own.
Whose Mac
The Mac of whoever opened the pull request, never anybody else's. A teammate's pull request never runs on the owner's Mac. The author is recognised only by the GitHub account they connected under Settings → Account, and only when they are the installation's account or on its team. Anyone else's pull request runs on the server.
| Your setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Review my pull requests on my Mac | On | Off, your pull requests run on the server, on the installation's account |
| Name my Mac in review comments | On | Off, the comment says "the author's Mac" instead of your Mac's name |
What you see
The review is posted on GitHub exactly as one from the server: the summary comment, inline comments, a check. Its last line says on and the Mac's name after the seats that wrote it. The discussion is in the author's list, and their Mac shows a notice while it runs.
What the Mac gets
The diff and the pull request's description, nothing else. No GitHub token and no repository lookups; the server keeps those and is the only thing that writes to GitHub. The run is read-only and unattended, in an empty folder of its own.
When the server runs it instead
- The author has no connected GitHub account here, is not on the team, or switched their Mac off.
- Their Mac is offline, busy, or has Run requests from my other devices off.
- Their app is too old to know about reviews.
- Their Mac has not picked the review up within two minutes, or its seats failed.
- The pull request comes from a fork.
The review is then late by two minutes at most, never lost.
Cost
A review on a Mac costs what its seats cost there, and that is the Mac owner's, not the installation's. A CLI subscription charges nothing extra. The cost limit per review applies to reviews the server runs; Reviews a day counts both.