Won’t automation replace real code review?

No. Automation should remove trivial feedback (style, missing tests, obvious bugs) so humans can spend their limited attention on architecture, risk, naming, and alignment. Think of bots as junior reviewers who handle the easy stuff consistently, 24/7.

How do we handle a monorepo without slowing everything down?

Use path filters and labels aggressively. Split workflows into fast and deep lanes. Run language/stack‑specific checks only on touched directories. CODEOWNERS should mirror your module boundaries, and merge queues should rebase/serialize to keep main green.

What about regulated environments (PCI, HIPAA, SOX)?

Codify policy as code: require code owner reviews on sensitive paths, retain audit logs via GitHub, and run tuned Semgrep and secret scanning. Heavy SAST/DAST can run nightly with PR annotations when relevant paths change. We’ve passed audits with this approach at fintechs.

Our UI tests are flaky. How do we avoid blocking merges?

Quarantine known flakes, run a canary subset on PRs, and move the rest to nightly with retries and failure triage. Fail PRs only on new flakes. Consider Playwright + Testcontainers over legacy Selenium if possible; it’s been a solid reliability upgrade for teams we’ve helped.

We have lots of AI‑generated code. Any special guardrails?

Yes: add Semgrep rules for insecure patterns, enforce secret scanning (`gitleaks` or GHAS), and require tests for code changes via Danger. Temporarily require two approvals on auth/payments/data modules. Then run a focused vibe code cleanup sprint to stabilize hotspots.

Do we need SonarQube/Codecov/Everything?

Only if they pay their rent. Start with fast linters, reviewdog annotations, and coverage thresholds that track delta coverage (Codecov’s patch coverage is useful). Add SonarQube when you need long‑term code health trends, not as a gate on every PR.

Platform-productivity · Nov 21, 2025 · 8 minute read

Code Review Automation That Doesn’t Grind Delivery to a Halt

Prune the bespoke bots. Standardize on a paved road that keeps PRs under 10 minutes end‑to‑end, while raising the floor on quality.

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Code Review Automation That Doesn’t Grind Delivery to a Halt

Key takeaways

Implementation checklist