Free, unlimited reviews
for open source projects.

If your repository is public and OSI-licensed, Octopus reviews every pull request. Forever, on us. No credit card, no monthly quota, no "free for the first 100 projects" trick.

Install from GitHub MarketplaceSee the setup

One workflow file. Reviews start on the next pull request.

Unlimited PR reviews

Every opened or updated pull request on every public repo, no monthly cap.

One-file setup

Drop a single GitHub Action step into your workflow. No tokens, no signup.

Source-backed comments

Inline review comments tied to actual lines, with severity levels and source citations.

No code training

Public code stays public. We don't train models on your repos, period.

Setup

One workflow file.
That's the whole thing.

Drop the YAML on the right into .github/workflows/octopus.yml, commit it, and Octopus will start reviewing on the next pull request. The action authenticates via the ephemeral GITHUB_TOKEN so there are no API keys to manage.

  1. 1Add the workflow file to your default branch.
  2. 2Open or update a pull request.
  3. 3Octopus posts inline review comments within a couple of minutes.
Full setup guide
.github/workflows/octopus.yml
name: Octopus Review
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: octopusreview/action@v1
Qualifies

Genuinely open source

Public repositories with an OSI-approved license. If your project meets the Open Source Definition, you're in.

  • MIT, Apache-2.0, GPL, BSD, MPL, ISC
  • LGPL, AGPL, EUPL, Unlicense, CC0
  • Any other OSI-approved license
Use the standard plan

Source-available or private

Projects that are visible but commercially restricted use the standard credit-based plan. Octopus itself is MIT-licensed and self-hostable if you'd rather run it on your own infra.

  • ·BSL, SSPL, Elastic License
  • ·"Non-commercial use only" licenses
  • ·Private repos, internal projects
See pricing
Why we do this

Maintainer burnout isn't caused by writing code.
It's caused by reviewing other people's code.

Open the package.json of any project shipped in the last decade. Every dependency was built by someone who didn't ask for money. The bill never arrives, but the debt is real.

Octopus exists to make code review less exhausting. So giving it to the people who need it most felt less like generosity and more like the obvious move.

Read the full post on dev.to
FAQ

Common questions

What does "free forever" actually mean?
Every public, OSI-licensed repository gets unlimited Octopus reviews on every pull request, with no credit card and no monthly quota. There is no time limit, no project cap, and no "we'll start charging in year two" footnote. We absorb the LLM and infrastructure cost.
Why OSI-licensed and not just "public"?
There is a real difference between an open source project and a public repo with a non-commercial or business-source license. We use the OSI's approved license list to draw the line. MIT, Apache-2.0, GPL, BSD, MPL and similar all qualify. BSL, SSPL, and "non-commercial use only" licenses do not.
Will you train on my code?
No. Public code is already public, and we don't need to train on it to review it. Source is processed in-memory, embeddings are stored only for retrieval during review, and there is no model training pipeline using your repos.
Can my private repo also use this?
Private repos use the standard credit-based plan. Octopus is also MIT-licensed and self-hostable, so you can run the entire stack on your own infrastructure if you prefer.
What if my project gets really big?
It still stays free. We've sized the budget for this program assuming popular projects will use it the most, because that's where it has the most impact for maintainers.
What's the catch?
There isn't one. The selfish version: public repos are where Octopus gets battle-tested across wildly diverse codebases, and word of mouth in the OSS community is the best growth channel software has. We benefit from doing this. So do you.

Add Octopus to your project
in under two minutes.

Free for every public OSI-licensed repository. Forever.

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