Know who's opening pull requests before you review them.

firstlook is a GitHub Action that profiles PR contributors and posts a trust assessment on every pull request. It checks account age, contribution history, profile signals, commit signatures, and whether the PR touches security-critical files -- then leaves a clear summary right on the PR.

The xz-utils backdoor was merged by an account that spent two years building credibility through small, legitimate contributions. GitHub's built-in "first-time contributor" label wouldn't have caught it. firstlook gives you the full picture in seconds.

Create .github/workflows/firstlook.yml:

name: firstlook
on:
 pull_request:
 types: [opened, reopened, synchronize]
 workflow_dispatch:
 inputs:
 pr-number:
 description: 'PR number to scan (leave empty to scan all open PRs)'
 required: false
 type: string
jobs:
 assess:
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 permissions:
 pull-requests: write
 contents: read
 steps:
 - uses: getagentseal/firstlook@v1
 with:
 pr-number: ${{ inputs.pr-number }}

No configuration needed. It works out of the box.

New PRs are assessed automatically. For existing PRs, go to Actions > firstlook > Run workflow -- leave the PR number empty to scan every open PR at once, or enter a number to scan one.

Every PR gets a comment like this:

firstlook

Signal	Detail
Account	Created 4y 2mo ago	✅
Repos	36 public	✅
Profile	Bio, Company, Blog	✅
History	89 merged, 3 rejected elsewhere	✅
Merge quality	5 unique mergers, 3 repos with 100+ stars	✅
Activity	10/12 months active	✅
Followers	142	✅
Signed	Yes	✅

Trusted (score: 88/100) -- Established contributor with a verified presence across GitHub.

A label like firstlook: trusted gets applied, and a collapsible Details section shows merger breakdown, repo-specific history, and code review count.

When something needs attention:

firstlook

Signal	Detail
Account	Created 42 days ago	⚠️
Repos	928 public	⚠️
Profile	Bio	⚠️
History	2 merged, 0 rejected elsewhere	⚠️
Merge quality	2 self-merged only	⚠️
Activity	1/12 months active	⚠️
Followers	56	✅
Signed	No	⚠️

🚨 Repo Spam -- 928 repos in 42 days (22.1/day)

Unknown Contributor (score: 0/100) -- Suspicious patterns detected. Thorough review strongly recommended.

• Account age -- how long the GitHub account has existed
• Public repos -- number of public repositories
• Profile completeness -- bio, company, blog, twitter, email
• Contribution history -- merged and rejected PRs to other repositories
• Merge quality -- unique maintainers who merged their PRs, contributions to repos with 100+ stars
• Activity consistency -- how many of the last 12 months had any GitHub activity
• Code reviews -- reviews given to other contributors
• Repo history -- returning contributor or first-timer in your repo
• Followers -- community recognition
• Commit signatures -- whether commits in this PR are signed and verified
• Security-critical files -- whether the PR touches CI, lockfiles, build scripts, or dependency manifests

Cross-signal rules that catch gaming attempts individual metrics would miss:

• Repo Spam -- hundreds of repos created in days (bot/automation accounts)
• Self-Merge Only -- all PRs self-merged, no external validation
• High PR Volume -- excessive merged PRs on a very new account
• Dormant Reactivation -- old account with activity only in the last few weeks
• Low Quality Repos -- many repos but none with meaningful stars, no external mergers

All inputs are optional. Defaults work for most projects.

- uses: getagentseal/firstlook@v1
 with:
 # Token for GitHub API calls (default: automatic)
 github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 # Paths treated as security-critical (comma-separated substrings)
 security-paths: '.github/workflows/,package.json,Makefile,Dockerfile,scripts/'
 # Prefix for PR labels (default: firstlook)
 label-prefix: 'firstlook'
 # Post assessment comment (default: true)
 post-comment: 'true'
 # Apply trust-tier labels (default: true)
 apply-labels: 'true'
 # Skip repo collaborators with write+ access (default: true)
 skip-collaborators: 'true'
 # Usernames to always skip (comma-separated)
 skip-users: 'dependabot,renovate'
 # Org members to auto-trust (comma-separated org names)
 trusted-orgs: 'my-org'
 # Fail the check when tier is at or below this level (default: none)
 # Options: unknown, caution, familiar, none
 fail-on: 'unknown'

Use outputs in downstream workflow steps:

steps:
 - uses: getagentseal/firstlook@v1
 id: fl
 - run: echo "Tier is ${{ steps.fl.outputs.tier }}"

- uses: getagentseal/firstlook@v1
 with:
 fail-on: 'unknown'

Or use outputs for custom logic:

- uses: getagentseal/firstlook@v1
 id: fl
- name: Gate on trust tier
 if: steps.fl.outputs.tier == 'unknown' || steps.fl.outputs.tier == 'caution'
 run: |
 echo "::error::PR author needs manual approval (tier: ${{ steps.fl.outputs.tier }})"
 exit 1

Go to Actions > firstlook > Run workflow and leave PR number empty. Every open PR gets assessed and you see a summary table in the job output.

• Bot accounts -- dependabot, renovate, etc. are skipped automatically
• Repo collaborators -- users with write, maintain, or admin access are skipped by default
• Trusted org members -- anyone in orgs listed in trusted-orgs
• Allow-listed users -- anyone in the skip-users list

AgentSeal -- security tooling for the AI agent ecosystem.

Born from maintaining CodeBurn, where every PR from an unknown account meant 5 minutes of manual profile checking. firstlook automates the first 60 seconds of that process.

MIT