If you don't have a Holly account, see How to Review a Specification in Holly as an External Reviewer instead. For background on how the approval workflow fits together, see How Holly's Approval Workflow Works.
Getting Started
Click the link in your email notification to open the specification. Your email includes the name of the specification and may include a note from the document owner about what they'd like you to focus on. If you aren't already logged in, you'll be prompted to log in first and then redirected to the specification.
The specification opens on the Spec editor tab, which is where you'll do all of your editing, commenting, and reviewing.
Choosing a Mode
Near the top of the editor, a dropdown lets you switch between two modes. Suggesting is the default when you open a review.
Suggesting (pencil-in-bubble icon) — Lets you propose specific text changes, which appear as tracked edits for the document owner to accept or reject.
Viewing (eye icon) — Read-only. Switch to this if you just want to read through the specification without making any changes.
Next to the mode dropdown, the Show edits toggle controls whether you're seeing all suggested edits or only the ones the document owner has already accepted. If you're having trouble typing or seeing content you expect, check this toggle first.
Providing Feedback
You have two ways to leave feedback, and they serve different purposes.
Comments
Use comments for questions, concerns, or feedback that doesn't require a specific text change. To add one, either select the text you're commenting on or click + Add comment in the Comments panel on the right, then write your comment and submit.
Comments show up in the Comments panel, where a filter dropdown lets you focus on what matters most:
Open — Comments and suggestions that haven't been resolved, accepted, or rejected yet
Resolved — Comments marked as handled
Accepted — Suggestions the document owner has approved
Rejected — Suggestions the document owner has declined
All — Everything, useful for reviewing the full history
Suggested Edits
Use suggested edits when you know exactly what the text should say. In Suggesting mode, edit the text directly — additions appear in green, deletions appear as strikethrough. The document owner sees each suggestion and can accept or reject it individually.
When to use which: comments for anything that needs discussion or clarification, suggested edits when you already know the fix.
Completing Your Review
Once you've added all your feedback, click Finish review. You'll see a Finish your review window where you can optionally add a public note — a general comment not tied to any specific section, useful for a summary thought like "Looks good, just flagged a couple of questions on the qualifications section." Click Finish review to submit.
The workflow can't advance to the next step until everyone assigned to your step has finished their review, so don't skip this even if you're done adding feedback.
Next Steps
After you finish your review, the document owner will work through the feedback from your step and either respond, accept, or reject what you've submitted. Once everyone in the workflow has finished, the document owner can review feedback. See How to Review Feedback on a Specification for what happens next.