code-review

Code Review Skill

This skill is the canonical guidance for automated and interactive code reviews in this repo. It is written for LLM reviewers (CI bots and local agents).

Quick Start

• Read the PR description and ensure it matches .github/pull_request_template.md.
• Review the diff focusing on invariants, correctness, and performance-sensitive hotspots.
• If you can run commands locally, prefer targeted verification:
  • ato dev test --llm -k <area> (fast filter)
  • ato dev compile (if Zig/bindings changed)
  • ato dev flags (if behavior depends on ConfigFlags)
• When summarizing failures/regressions, prefer artifacts/test-report.json over HTML.

What to Prioritize (In Order)

1. Correctness + invariants

   • Identify the invariants the changed code is supposed to preserve and check the code that enforces them.
   • If you can't find an invariant in-code or in tests, flag it as "missing invariant coverage".

2. Performance / scalability

   • This branch prioritizes speed and maintainability; watch for accidental O(n^2) walks, repeated graph traversals, excessive allocations, or debug logging in hot paths.
   • Zig/Python boundary changes are especially sensitive (ownership, lifetimes, deinit).

3. Maintainability

   • Prefer small, well-named units and clear boundaries (compiler vs graph vs solver vs library).
   • Avoid adding new "mini frameworks" unless the repo already uses that pattern.

4. Test coverage

   • If behavior changed, require a test (or a strong reason it can't be tested).
   • Prefer targeted tests near the module; avoid broad end-to-end tests unless necessary.

Repo-Specific Review Anchors

• Dev workflow + reports: ato dev test --llm writes artifacts/test-report.json and artifacts/test-report.llm.json, and optionally artifacts/test-report.html (see test/runner/main.py).
• ConfigFlags: inventory via ato dev flags; prefer code-driven discovery over hand-maintained docs.
• Graph/fabll redesign: see AGENTS.md and the relevant .claude/skills/* docs for the area you're reviewing.
• Solver invariants: src/faebryk/core/solver/README.md + src/faebryk/core/solver/symbolic/invariants.py.

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PR Review Output Format

When writing a CI review comment, produce exactly this structure and nothing else. The goal is a minimal, scannable summary a human can glance at in seconds.

Use gh pr comment --edit-last --create-if-none so the review stays in a single updated comment.

Template

## <one-line summary of intent>

| Metric | Score |
|--------|-------|
| **Impact** | X/10 |
| **Test coverage** | X/10 |

<details>
<summary>🔴 High-severity issues (N found)</summary>

### 1. <short title>
<details>
<file:line — description>
</details>

</details>

How to Score Impact (0–10)

Impact measures how important it is for a human to manually review this PR. Think: "if I skip reviewing this, what's the worst that could happen?"

Score	Meaning	Examples
0–1	No-op, typo fix, comment-only, CI config tweak	Fixing a typo in a README, bumping a version pin
2–3	Low-risk, isolated change with no behavioral effect on users	Renaming an internal variable, adding a log line
4–5	Normal feature or bugfix, limited blast radius	Adding a new CLI flag, fixing a parser edge case
6–7	Touches shared infrastructure, changes public API surface, or affects multiple modules	Refactoring a compiler pass, changing graph traversal logic
8–9	High-risk: breaking API/ABI change, security-sensitive, concurrency/lifetime changes, large refactor across module boundaries	Changing Zig↔Python ownership semantics, modifying solver constraint propagation
10	Critical: data loss risk, auth bypass, or silent correctness regression in a hot path	Removing a safety check in the linker, changing deinit order

When in doubt, round up — it's cheaper to over-flag than to miss something.

How to Score Test Coverage (0–10)

Test coverage measures how well the changed behavior is exercised by existing or new tests. Consider both direct test coverage AND whether the changed code sits in a hot path that is transitively tested.

Score	Meaning	Examples
0–1	No tests touch this code path, directly or transitively	Brand-new module with no tests added
2–3	Some transitive coverage but no direct tests for the changed behavior	Helper function called from tested code, but the specific new branch isn't exercised
4–5	Partial coverage: some cases tested, others not	New function has a happy-path test but no edge-case or error-path tests
6–7	Good coverage: most branches exercised, or the change is in a very hot path that many integration tests traverse	Modifying a graph traversal function that every build test exercises
8–9	Strong coverage: direct unit tests plus integration coverage for the changed behavior	New solver rule with dedicated tests AND it runs in existing end-to-end builds
10	Exhaustive or trivially safe: change is purely mechanical, or every branch is tested	Renaming a variable (trivially safe), or new function with 100% branch coverage

If behavior changed but no test was added or updated, the score should be ≤5 regardless of transitive coverage.

What Counts as High-Severity

Only flag issues in these categories — everything else is noise for the PR comment:

• Bugs: logic errors, off-by-one, null/None dereference, use-after-free, wrong return value, race condition
• Performance regressions: O(n²) where O(n) is possible, unnecessary allocations in hot loops, repeated graph traversals, missing caching where prior code had it
• API/ABI compatibility breaks: removing or renaming a public symbol, changing a function signature that downstream code depends on, altering serialization format without migration
• Usability regressions: breaking an existing workflow, removing a feature without deprecation, changing default behavior silently
• Missing docs on hard-to-understand code: if the changed code is non-obvious (complex algorithm, subtle invariant, tricky lifetime management) and has no explaining comment, flag it — but only for genuinely confusing code, not for self-explanatory changes

If zero issues are found, write "None" inside the details block. Do NOT pad with style nits or nice-to-haves.

Rules

• The summary line must be ≤120 chars and describe the PR's purpose/intent.
• Each high-severity issue must reference a specific file:line and be actionable.
• Do NOT include style nits, nice-to-haves, or low-severity suggestions in the PR comment.
• Keep the entire comment as short as possible. Brevity is a feature.

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Interactive Review (Non-CI)

When reviewing interactively (not in CI), you can be more conversational, but still ground every non-trivial claim in the diff or a repo path (be explicit about file + symbol).

Separate feedback into:

• Must-fix (correctness/security/regression risks)
• Should-fix (maintainability/perf improvements)
• Nice-to-have (style/ergonomics)

Prefer actionable suggestions (what to change + why + where). If you're uncertain, ask a concrete question and point to the ambiguous code.