code-review-quality

Code Review Quality

<default_to_action> When reviewing code or establishing review practices:

1. PRIORITIZE feedback: 🔴 Blocker (must fix) → 🟡 Major → 🟢 Minor → 💡 Suggestion
2. FOCUS on: Bugs, security, testability, maintainability (not style preferences)
3. ASK questions over commands: "Have you considered...?" > "Change this to..."
4. PROVIDE context: Why this matters, not just what to change
5. LIMIT scope: Review < 400 lines at a time for effectiveness

Quick Review Checklist:

• Logic: Does it work correctly? Edge cases handled?
• Security: Input validation? Auth checks? Injection risks?
• Testability: Can this be tested? Is it tested?
• Maintainability: Clear naming? Single responsibility? DRY?
• Performance: O(n²) loops? N+1 queries? Memory leaks?

Critical Success Factors:

• Review the code, not the person
• Catching bugs > nitpicking style
• Fast feedback (< 24h) > thorough feedback </default_to_action>

Quick Reference Card

When to Use

• PR code reviews
• Pair programming feedback
• Establishing team review standards
• Mentoring developers

Feedback Priority Levels

Review Scope Limits

What to Focus On

Feedback Templates

Blocker (Must Fix)

🔴 **BLOCKER: SQL Injection Risk**
 
This query is vulnerable to SQL injection:
```javascript
db.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`)

Fix: Use parameterized queries:

db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', [userId])

Why: User input directly in SQL allows attackers to execute arbitrary queries.

 
### Major (Should Fix)
```markdown
🟡 **MAJOR: Missing Error Handling**
 
What happens if `fetchUser()` throws? The error bubbles up unhandled.
 
**Suggestion:** Add try/catch with appropriate error response:
```javascript
try {
  const user = await fetchUser(id);
  return user;
} catch (error) {
  logger.error('Failed to fetch user', { id, error });
  throw new NotFoundError('User not found');
}

 
### Minor (Nice to Fix)
```markdown
🟢 **minor:** Variable name could be clearer
 
`d` doesn't convey meaning. Consider `daysSinceLastLogin`.

Suggestion (Consider)

💡 **suggestion:** Consider extracting this to a helper
 
This validation logic appears in 3 places. A `validateEmail()` helper would reduce duplication. Not blocking, but might be worth a follow-up PR.

Review Questions to Ask

Logic

• What happens when X is null/empty/negative?
• Is there a race condition here?
• What if the API call fails?

Security

• Is user input validated/sanitized?
• Are auth checks in place?
• Any secrets or PII exposed?

Testability

• How would you test this?
• Are dependencies injectable?
• Is there a test for the happy path? Edge cases?

Maintainability

• Will the next developer understand this?
• Is this doing too many things?
• Is there duplication we could reduce?

Minimum Findings Enforcement

Reviews must meet a minimum weighted finding score of 3.0 (CRITICAL=3, HIGH=2, MEDIUM=1, LOW=0.5, INFORMATIONAL=0.25). If the initial review falls short, run the qe-devils-advocate agent as a meta-reviewer to find additional observations. Every review should have at least 3 actionable observations.

Agent-Assisted Reviews

// Comprehensive code review
await Task("Code Review", {
  prNumber: 123,
  checks: ['security', 'performance', 'testability', 'maintainability'],
  feedbackLevels: ['blocker', 'major', 'minor'],
  autoApprove: { maxBlockers: 0, maxMajor: 2 }
}, "qe-quality-analyzer");
 
// Security-focused review
await Task("Security Review", {
  prFiles: changedFiles,
  scanTypes: ['injection', 'auth', 'secrets', 'dependencies']
}, "qe-security-scanner");
 
// Test coverage review
await Task("Coverage Review", {
  prNumber: 123,
  requireNewTests: true,
  minCoverageDelta: 0
}, "qe-coverage-analyzer");

Agent Coordination Hints

Memory Namespace

aqe/code-review/
├── review-history/*     - Past review decisions
├── patterns/*           - Common issues by team/repo
├── feedback-templates/* - Reusable feedback
└── metrics/*            - Review turnaround time

Fleet Coordination

const reviewFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({
  strategy: 'code-review',
  agents: [
    'qe-quality-analyzer',    // Logic, maintainability
    'qe-security-scanner',    // Security risks
    'qe-performance-tester',  // Performance issues
    'qe-coverage-analyzer'    // Test coverage
  ],
  topology: 'parallel'
});

Review Etiquette

Related Skills

• agentic-quality-engineering - Agent coordination
• security-testing - Security review depth
• refactoring-patterns - Maintainability patterns

Remember

Prioritize feedback: 🔴 Blocker → 🟡 Major → 🟢 Minor → 💡 Suggestion. Focus on bugs and security, not style. Ask questions, don't command. Review < 400 lines at a time. Fast feedback (< 24h) beats thorough feedback.

With Agents: Agents automate security, performance, and coverage checks, freeing human reviewers to focus on logic and design. Use agents for consistent, fast initial review.

Skill Composition

• Security concerns → Compose with /security-testing for security-focused review
• Coverage check → Run /qe-coverage-analysis on changed files
• Ship decision → Feed review results into /qe-quality-assessment

Gotchas

• Agent reviews >400 lines at once and misses issues — chunk reviews to 200-400 lines maximum
• Nitpicking style while missing logic bugs is the #1 agent review failure — prioritize correctness over formatting
• Agent approves code that compiles but has subtle race conditions — always check shared state and async patterns
• Review comments without suggested fixes are unhelpful — always include a proposed alternative
• Agent doesn't check if the PR actually solves the linked issue — verify the stated problem is actually fixed