Code review

Some random #thoughts on code review.

Code review is a really important part of software engineering. It not only shares knowledge around the team, but reinforces the idea that the team is responsible for everything produced and shipped, not just an individual. By going through a code review process the entire team should assume responsibility. [[20260625104409-comprehension-debt]]

Focus on things that matter. Understand the important parts of the code, and leave comments on that. Nitpicks are acceptable, but should be minimised [[20250612032609-pull-requests-nitpicks]]. You can also tailor the amount of review based on a few key factors:

• blast radius
• how long the code lives
• how many people need to understand it

As a general rule, keep pull requests as small as possible, per [[20250130055749-atomic-pull-requests]].

Ensure you're reading both test changes and code changes. Sometimes a 'fix' for a test is actually masquerading a test that should have broken.

AI has also made the importance of code review more important [[20260625012124-ai-code-review]].

[[20211011115919-technical-debt]]

[[documentation]] [[engineering]]