Five steps to your
first paid review.

Each step is sequential. You'll receive email confirmation when PulsePR has reviewed or approved each one.

01

Sign the Reviewer Agreement Required

Your onboarding email includes a DocuSign link for the Reviewer Agreement. Read it carefully before signing — it covers your confidentiality obligations, commission structure, and code of conduct. This is the foundation of the trust relationship with PulsePR and every Customer you'll work with.

  • Bilateral NDA coverage begins the moment you sign
  • Your Compensation Addendum (your per-review rate and commission split) is attached to the Agreement
  • Questions before signing? Email reviewers@pulsepr.dev — we're happy to clarify anything
02

Complete your reviewer profile Required

Your profile is what PulsePR uses to match you to the right assignments. An accurate, detailed profile means better matches and more relevant work. Vague profiles get fewer assignments.

  • Primary stack: list every language and framework you'd confidently review at a Staff level — not just ones you've used
  • Domain expertise: be specific (e.g. "distributed transaction systems" beats "backend")
  • Anti-expertise: flag areas you are explicitly not confident in — this prevents mismatches and protects your reputation
  • Weekly availability: set your default capacity in reviews per week; you can override this week by week
  • Conflict of interest flags: list any companies or industries where you have a conflict, so we can filter assignments automatically
03

Review methodology training Required

Before your first assignment, you'll complete PulsePR's review methodology training — a structured module covering how to write reviews that are genuinely useful to Customer engineering teams, not just technically correct.

  • Module 1 — What a good architectural review looks like: structure, tone, severity classification, and what separates a finding from a nit
  • Module 2 — Common failure modes in PR reviews: vagueness, over-scope, false confidence, and the "drive-by" problem
  • Module 3 — Sample reviews with commentary: annotated examples of strong and weak reviews from the PulsePR archive
  • Typically takes 3–5 hours. Delivered as async reading — no scheduled sessions
04

Calibration review Required

Your calibration review is a practice assignment on a real (anonymized) PR that PulsePR has already reviewed internally. You complete it as if it were a live assignment, and then receive detailed feedback comparing your review to our internal benchmark.

This isn't a pass/fail gate — it's the single most useful feedback you'll get as a new reviewer. Most reviewers say it meaningfully changes how they approach their first several real assignments.

  • You have 48 hours to complete it once assigned
  • Feedback is delivered within 3 business days
  • If the feedback surfaces significant gaps, we'll discuss before moving to live assignments — not as a disqualification, but to set you up to succeed
05

Payment setup Required

PulsePR pays monthly via bank transfer (ACH for US-based reviewers, SWIFT/SEPA for international). You'll need to complete payment setup before your first assignment goes live — we can't process payouts to unverified accounts.

  • US reviewers: bank account details + W-9 form
  • International reviewers: bank account details + W-8BEN form
  • Payouts processed within 15 days of each month's close — detailed in your earnings statement
  • Annual 1099-NEC (US) or equivalent issued by January 31

What happens after
onboarding completes.

How assignments work

When a Customer tags a PR with @pulsepr, PulsePR's matching system identifies the best-fit reviewer based on stack, domain, and current availability. You receive an email with the assignment details: the PR diff, the Customer's stack context, and the applicable SLA (standard 24-hour or priority 4-hour).

You have a short window to accept or decline. If you accept, the clock starts on the SLA. Submit your review through the PulsePR dashboard — we format and post it to GitHub. If you need to decline, do it immediately so we can reassign without missing the SLA.

SLA windows

Standard reviews: 24 hours from acceptance.
Priority reviews: 4 hours from acceptance.

Missing an accepted SLA without notifying PulsePR is a serious breach. If something unexpected comes up, contact us immediately — we'd rather reassign than have a Customer miss their window.

Ongoing quality feedback

PulsePR's engineering team samples a portion of completed reviews every month and provides written feedback. This isn't a performance review — it's craft feedback. We want you to get better, because better reviewers earn more and receive higher-value assignments.

Earnings and availability

Update your weekly availability in the reviewer dashboard any time. More availability means more assignments. Priority reviews earn a premium. Reviewers who build a track record in high-demand stacks are prioritized for higher-value engagements over time.

Everything you need
in one place.