Self-Reviewing Code

Purpose

Review your own PR with beginner-mind before marking ready. Step back and catch assumptions, missing edge cases, unclear code.

Core insight: You're too close to the code. Review as if seeing it for the first time.

Pre-Review

just check-all    # Automated checks
gh pr checks      # CI status

Self-Review Checklist

Before marking ready:

• • Re-read original issue - ALL criteria met?
• • Review diff - code clear and maintainable?
• • Edge cases covered in tests?
• • Documentation updated?
• • just check-all passes?
• • CI green?

Software Laws

Apply these industry-standard principles:

• •Postel's Law - Liberal input acceptance, conservative output
• •Hyrum's Law - All observable behavior becomes API contract
• •Kernighan's Law - Simple code over clever code
• •Leaky Abstractions - Understand when abstractions leak
• •DRY - Single source of truth, no duplication
• •YAGNI - Add only when actually needed

Review Questions

Clarity:

• •Would this make sense to someone unfamiliar?
• •Variable/function names descriptive?
• •Complex logic commented with "why"?

Correctness:

• •Tests cover edge cases?
• •Error conditions handled?
• •Could this fail in production?

Maintainability:

• •Code DRY?
• •Functions single-responsibility?
• •Future changes easy?

Performance:

• •Obvious performance issues?
• •Database queries efficient?

Security:

• •Inputs validated?
• •Sensitive data handled properly?
• •No injection vulnerabilities?

Common Issues

• •Leftover debugging code (console.log, print)
• •Commented-out code
• •TODOs that should be issues
• •Magic numbers without constants
• •Missing null/undefined checks
• •Hardcoded values that should be config

Fresh Eyes Technique

1. •Walk away 15+ minutes
2. •Come back, review as if someone else wrote it
3. •Read diff line by line
4. •Question every decision

Ask: "Would I approve this reviewing someone else's code?"