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Bitbucket CLIBitbucket CLI

Bulk reviewer assignment

Assign reviewers to existing open pull requests without removing the reviewers already there. Use repository default reviewers if you only need assignments on new PRs.

Identifying reviewers

Section titled “Identifying reviewers”

bb pr reviewers add takes a nickname, display name, email, @me, account ID (712020:3cfed7e0-...) or braced UUID ({c1cb1bb5-...}). Names cost a workspace member lookup on every call, so the scripts below keep the pool as account IDs. See Identifying users for the rules and for how to look the IDs up.

These scripts use account IDs only and compare them with author.account_id. Do not mix UUIDs or display names into the pool. Missing author IDs stop the run before any assignments.

Recipe: assign a fixed reviewer list

Section titled “Recipe: assign a fixed reviewer list”

Adds every account ID in REVIEWERS to every open PR in WORKSPACE/REPO. Existing reviewers are not removed; if a reviewer is already assigned, bb pr reviewers add is a no-op.

bulk-assign-reviewers.sh
#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail


WORKSPACE="${WORKSPACE:-myworkspace}"
REPO="${REPO:-myrepo}"
# Space-separated Bitbucket account IDs (not usernames, not display names).
REVIEWERS="${REVIEWERS:?set REVIEWERS to space-separated account IDs}"


open_prs=$(bb pr list -w "$WORKSPACE" -r "$REPO" --all --json \
  | jq -er '
      if all(.pullRequests[];
        .author.account_id | type == "string" and length > 0)
      then [.pullRequests[] | "\(.id)\t\(.author.account_id)"] | join("\n")
      else error("Missing PR author account ID") end
    ')
failed=0


while IFS=$'\t' read -r pr_id author; do
  [ -n "$pr_id" ] || continue
  echo "PR #$pr_id (by $author)"


  for reviewer in $REVIEWERS; do
    if [ "$reviewer" = "$author" ]; then
      echo "  - skip $reviewer (PR author)"
      continue
    fi


    if bb pr reviewers add "$pr_id" "$reviewer" \
         -w "$WORKSPACE" -r "$REPO" >/dev/null; then
      echo "  + added $reviewer"
    else
      echo "  ! failed to add $reviewer" >&2
      failed=1
    fi


    sleep 1   # rate-limit cushion
  done
done <<< "$open_prs"
exit "$failed"

Usage

Section titled “Usage”
Terminal window
WORKSPACE=myworkspace REPO=myrepo \
  REVIEWERS="712020:3cfed7e0-0ed6-49fc-bb35-410a00ccee6f 712020:9ab1f22c-51de-4e7d-9f0e-2b7a10cd3311" \
  ./bulk-assign-reviewers.sh

Each assignment may resolve the user, fetch the PR and update it. A bulk run can make several requests per reviewer. Both scripts continue after individual assignment failures and exit nonzero if any failed.

Recipe: rotation by hash bucket

Section titled “Recipe: rotation by hash bucket”

To select one reviewer per PR, take its ID modulo the eligible pool size. The author is always excluded. With the same pool and author, the selection is stable; changing either can select someone else. Existing reviewers remain assigned.

rotation-assign.sh
#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail


WORKSPACE="${WORKSPACE:-myworkspace}"
REPO="${REPO:-myrepo}"
# Account IDs, same rule as above.
POOL=(
  "712020:3cfed7e0-0ed6-49fc-bb35-410a00ccee6f"
  "712020:9ab1f22c-51de-4e7d-9f0e-2b7a10cd3311"
  "712020:c40be5aa-7c19-4a0b-83f2-6d1e94ab7702"
)


open_prs=$(bb pr list -w "$WORKSPACE" -r "$REPO" --all --json \
  | jq -er '
      if all(.pullRequests[];
        .author.account_id | type == "string" and length > 0)
      then [.pullRequests[] | "\(.id)\t\(.author.account_id)"] | join("\n")
      else error("Missing PR author account ID") end
    ')
failed=0
while IFS=$'\t' read -r pr_id author; do
  [ -n "$pr_id" ] || continue
  eligible=()
  for reviewer in "${POOL[@]}"; do
    [ "$reviewer" = "$author" ] || eligible+=("$reviewer")
  done
  if [ "${#eligible[@]}" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "PR #$pr_id: no eligible reviewer" >&2
    failed=1
    continue
  fi
  idx=$(( pr_id % ${#eligible[@]} ))
  reviewer="${eligible[$idx]}"
  if ! bb pr reviewers add "$pr_id" "$reviewer" -w "$WORKSPACE" -r "$REPO"; then
    failed=1
  fi
  sleep 1
done <<< "$open_prs"
exit "$failed"

Handling rate limits

Section titled “Handling rate limits”

The CLI already retries 429 responses up to 3 times automatically. For large bulk operations, use a larger delay or bound each run with --limit 50. There is no offset flag, so track handled IDs to avoid repeatedly processing the same page.

Split large runs across scheduled jobs. Use the retry wrapper only when rate limits persist beyond the built-in retries.

Section titled “Related”