Code review and quality

Code Review and Quality

Overview

Multi-dimensional code review with quality gates. Every change gets reviewed before merge — no exceptions. Review covers five axes: correctness, readability, architecture, security, and performance.

The approval standard: Approve a change when it definitely improves overall code health, even if it isn't perfect. Perfect code doesn't exist — the goal is continuous improvement. Don't block a change because it isn't exactly how you would have written it. If it improves the codebase and follows the project's conventions, approve it.

When to Use

• Before merging any PR or change
• After completing a feature implementation
• When another agent or model produced code you need to evaluate
• When refactoring existing code
• After any bug fix (review both the fix and the regression test)

The Five-Axis Review

Every review evaluates code across these dimensions:

1. Correctness

Does the code do what it claims to do?

• Does it match the spec or task requirements?
• Are edge cases handled (null, empty, boundary values)?
• Are error paths handled (not just the happy path)?
• Does it pass all tests? Are the tests actually testing the right things?
• Are there off-by-one errors, race conditions, or state inconsistencies?

2. Readability & Simplicity

Can another engineer (or agent) understand this code without the author explaining it?

• Are names descriptive and consistent with project conventions? (No temp, data, result without context)
• Is the control flow straightforward (avoid nested ternaries, deep callbacks)?
• Is the code organized logically (related code grouped, clear module boundaries)?
• Are there any "clever" tricks that should be simplified?
• Could this be done in fewer lines? (1000 lines where 100 suffice is a failure)
• Are abstractions earning their complexity? (Don't generalize until the third use case)
• Would comments help clarify non-obvious intent? (But don't comment obvious code.)
• Are there dead code artifacts: no-op variables (_unused), backwards-compat shims, or // removed comments?
• Is a new conditional bolted onto an unrelated flow? That's a design smell, not a nit — push the logic into its own helper, state, or policy instead of tangling an existing path.
• Do repeated conditionals on the same shape appear? They signal a missing model or dispatcher. A "temporary" branch is usually permanent debt.

3. Architecture

Does the change fit the system's design?

• Does it follow existing patterns or introduce a new one? If new, is it justified?
• Does it maintain clean module boundaries?
• Is there code duplication that should be shared?
• Are dependencies flowing in the right direction (no circular dependencies)?
• Is the abstraction level appropriate (not over-engineered, not too coupled)?
• Does this refactor reduce complexity or just relocate it? Count the concepts a reader must hold to follow the change. If a "cleaner" version leaves that count unchanged, it isn't cleaner — prefer the restructuring that makes whole branches, modes, or layers disappear over one that re-centralizes the same logic. Prefer deleting an abstraction to polishing it.
• Is feature-specific logic leaking into a shared or general-purpose module? Keep logic in its owning layer, reuse the existing canonical helper instead of a near-duplicate, and don't normalize architectural drift.
• Are type boundaries explicit? Question gratuitous any/unknown/optional/casts and silent fallbacks that paper over an unclear invariant — making the boundary explicit often makes the surrounding control flow simpler.

4. Security

For detailed security guidance, see security-and-hardening. Does the change introduce vulnerabilities?

• Is user input validated and sanitized?
• Are secrets kept out of code, logs, and version control?
• Is authentication/authorization checked where needed?
• Are SQL queries parameterized (no string concatenation)?
• Are outputs encoded to prevent XSS?
• Are dependencies from trusted sources with no known vulnerabilities?
• Is data from external sources (APIs, logs, user content, config files) treated as untrusted?
• Are external data flows validated at system boundaries before use in logic or rendering?

5. Performance

For detailed profiling and optimization, see performance-optimization. Does the change introduce performance problems?

• Any N+1 query patterns?
• Any unbounded loops or unconstrained data fetching?
• Any synchronous operations that should be async?
• Any unnecessary re-renders in UI components?
• Any missing pagination on list endpoints?
• Any large objects created in hot paths?

Structural Remedies

When you flag a structural problem, propose the move — not just the problem. A review that only says "this is complex" leaves the author guessing. Reach for a named restructuring:

• Replace a chain of conditionals with a typed model or an explicit dispatcher.
• **Collap