AI Assisted Code Review - Review Script
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Overview
Code reviews are an integral part of the software development process. It involves examining code written by other peers/developers and providing feedback to improve the overall quality of code, However, code review can also present challenges for developers. Here are some common challenges developers face during code reviews.
- Time constraints: Code reviews can be often time-consuming, and developers may have to review code while managing other tasks. This can create pressure to complete the review quickly and might result in issues being missed.
- Communication: Developers may have difficulty communicating feedback effectively. They may not have the same understanding of the problems or may not be able to articulate their feedback clearly, which can often lead to conflicts and misunderstandings.
- Subjective: Code review is a subjective process, and different developers may have different opinions on the best approach. This can lead to disagreements and difficulty in reaching a consensus.
- Technical expertise: Developers may not have the same level of technical expertise, making it difficult for them to understand and provide feedback on certain aspects of code.
- Review fatigue: Developers may be fatigued with the tedious process of code reviews, resulting in them becoming less diligent or thorough over time.
Solution:
AI-Assisted Code Suggestions can help speed up the review process and reduce errors. The review script will help reviewers synthesize the code and highlight areas of focus to speed up the review cycle for large MRs.
Workflow: The author makes changes to the existing code base and creates an MR for review, reviewer opens MR and gets a summary of changes in form of a review script that highlights important changes as well as code suggestions for improvements in the code that needs the reviewer's attention.
Other ideas to help assist with code reviews:
- Create a comment when a new MR gets opened
- Update comments once new code gets pushed to MR
- Suggest test cases
- Calculate and display quality metrics of code quality
- Code patterns (Code style, security, error-prone, performance, compatibility, Unused code)
- Ability to display code coverage and suggestions to improve coverage