What is carbon-review?

carbon-review is a terminal based tool that reviews C and C++ code with the help of an AI provider. Instead of fixing your code for you, it points out bugs, undefined behavior, and readability problems, giving you hints so you learn what to fix yourself rather than being handed a rewritten answer. To use it, you install it through Rust's package manager, cargo, or build it from source. Running it against a folder of code opens an interactive terminal interface: a file tree on one side that you navigate with arrow keys or j and k, and a review panel that shows the AI's feedback once you select a file and press Enter. On the very first run, if you have not set an API key yet, it will ask which AI provider you want to use and prompt you for your key, and you can change these settings again later. It supports three AI providers: Groq, OpenAI, and a locally run option called Ollama, each configured through an environment variable holding the API key or connection address, with a sensible default model chosen for each. The tool automatically scans your directory for C and C++ source and header files and sends each one to the chosen provider. To save time and API costs, it caches reviews by the actual content of each line, so if you edit a file and ask for another review, only the changed sections get sent again while the rest of the feedback stays as it was. There is also a batch mode for generating a full report across a project rather than reviewing files one at a time, with output available as HTML, Markdown, or plain text. This tool is aimed at C or C++ developers who want a quick, ongoing second opinion on their code directly from the terminal, without switching to a separate chat window or web tool.