Self Code Review

Quick Start

Perform systematic self-review of code changes before commits using a structured 8-step checklist.

Most common use case:

User: "Review my changes before I commit"

→ Run git diff to see changes
→ Execute 8-step review (architecture, quality, tests, docs, anti-patterns, gates)
→ Generate structured report with pass/fail/warnings
→ Fix issues before committing

Result: Clean, quality-validated commit

When to Use This Skill

Mandatory situations:

• Before every commit
• Before creating pull requests
• Before merging to main/master
• After completing feature implementation

User trigger phrases:

• "review my changes"
• "self-review"
• "check my code"
• "validate before commit"
• "code review"
• "ready to commit?"

What This Skill Does

Systematic 8-step review process:

1. Change Discovery - Identify all modified files via git diff
2. Architectural Review - Validate layer boundaries and dependency rules
3. Code Quality Review - Check style, logic, performance, security
4. Test Coverage Review - Ensure comprehensive test coverage
5. Documentation Review - Validate docstrings, README, comments
6. Anti-Pattern Detection - Find universal and project-specific anti-patterns
7. Quality Gates - Run automated checks (mypy, ruff, pytest)
8. Review Report Generation - Structured pass/fail/warning summary

Review Process

Step 1: Change Discovery

Identify modified files:

# See all changes
git diff --name-only

# See detailed changes
git diff

# See staged changes
git diff --staged

Output: List of modified files for review

Step 2: Architectural Review

Check layer boundaries (Clean Architecture projects):

• Domain layer has no external dependencies
• Application layer doesn't import from infrastructure
• Infrastructure implements interfaces from domain
• Interface layer depends only on application/infrastructure

Use validate-architecture skill if available

Checklist:

• No circular dependencies between layers
• Domain layer imports only from domain
• Application imports from domain only
• Infrastructure implements domain protocols
• No business logic in interface layer

Step 3: Code Quality Review

Style & Clarity:

• Naming is clear and consistent with project conventions
• Functions/methods are single-purpose (SRP)
• No magic numbers (use named constants)
• No commented-out code
• Proper indentation and formatting

Logic & Correctness:

• Edge cases handled (empty inputs, null, zero)
• Error handling uses project patterns (ServiceResult, exceptions)
• No off-by-one errors in loops
• Proper null/None checks
• No mutable default arguments (Python)

Performance:

• No N+1 queries (database operations)
• Appropriate data structures (list vs set vs dict)
• No unnecessary loops or repeated calculations
• Lazy evaluation where appropriate

Security:

• No SQL injection risks (use parameterized queries)
• No hardcoded secrets (API keys, passwords)
• Input validation for user-provided data
• Proper authentication/authorization checks

Step 4: Test Coverage Review

Required test types:

1. Unit tests - Test business logic in isolation
2. Integration tests - Test with real dependencies (if applicable)
3. E2E tests - Test through public interface (if applicable)

Coverage checklist:

• Happy path tested
• Edge cases tested (empty, null, boundary values)
• Error cases tested (failures, exceptions)
• All public methods/functions tested
• Coverage 80%+ for new code

Run tests:

pytest tests/ -v --cov=src --cov-report=term-missing

Step 5: Documentation Review

Docstrings:

• All public functions/classes have docstrings
• Docstrings describe purpose (not implementation)
• Complex logic has inline comments explaining "why" not "what"
• No redundant docstrings (don't repeat what code says)

README updates:

• New features documented
• API changes reflected
• Examples updated if needed

Step 6: Anti-Pattern Detection

Universal anti-patterns:

1. God Classes - Classes with 10+ methods or 300+ lines
2. Long Methods - Functions 50+ lines
3. Deep Nesting - 4+ levels of indentation
4. Duplicate Code - Same logic in multiple places
5. Magic Numbers - Unexplained constants
6. Commented Code - Code commented out instead of deleted
7. Inconsistent Naming - Mixed conventions (camelCase vs snake_case)
8. Mutable Defaults (Python) - def func(arg=[])
9. Bare Except - except: without specific exception
10. Missing Type Hints (Python/TypeScript) - Functions without types

Project-specific anti-patterns (check ARCHITECTURE.md):

• Fail-fast violations (try/except around imports)
• Missing ServiceResult usage
• Direct database access (bypassing repository)
• Missing dependency injection
• Skipping validation in constructors

Step 7: Quality Gates

Run automated checks:

# Type checking
mypy src/

# Linting
ruff check src/

# Tests
pytest tests/

# Coverage
pytest --cov=src --cov-report=term-missing

Pass criteria:

• 0 type errors
• 0 linting errors (or justified suppressions)
• All tests passing
• Coverage 80%+ for new code

Step 8: Review Report Generation

Generate structured report with findings:

Report template:

## Code Review Report

### Passed Checks (N/8)
- ✅ Change Discovery: 5 files modified
- ✅ Architectural Review: No layer boundary violations
- ✅ Code Quality: No style/logic issues
- ✅ Test Coverage: 85% coverage, all cases tested
- ✅ Documentation: All public APIs documented
- ✅ Anti-Patterns: No universal anti-patterns detected
- ✅ Quality Gates: mypy, ruff, pytest all passing

### Failed Checks (N/8)
- ❌ Test Coverage: Missing edge case tests for empty input
- ❌ Quality Gates: 2 mypy type errors in handlers.py

### Warnings (N)
- ⚠️ Performance: Potential N+1 query in repository method
- ⚠️ Documentation: README not updated for new feature

### Summary
- **Status:** BLOCKED (2 failures)
- **Action Required:**
  1. Add edge case tests for empty input
  2. Fix type errors in handlers.py
  3. Review N+1 query issue
  4. Update README

**DO NOT COMMIT** until all failures resolved.

Integration with Other Skills

Combine with other validation skills:

• validate-architecture - Automated layer boundary checking
• run-quality-gates - Comprehensive quality validation
• detect-refactor-markers - Find REFACTOR comments and associated ADRs
• detect-srp - Find Single Responsibility Principle violations
• verify-integration - Ensure components are connected, not just created

Workflow:

1. Make changes
2. Run quality-code-review skill (this skill)
3. If architecture issues found → Use validate-architecture for details
4. Fix all issues
5. Run quality-code-review again
6. Commit when all checks pass

Language-Specific Adaptations

Python Projects

Additional checks:

• Type hints on all functions (mypy --strict)
• No mutable default arguments
• Proper init validation
• Use Protocol for interfaces
• Dataclasses for value objects

JavaScript/TypeScript Projects

Additional checks:

• TypeScript strict mode enabled
• No any types (use proper types)
• Proper error handling (no silent failures)
• ESLint rules passing
• Jest tests with 80%+ coverage

Go Projects

Additional checks:

• Error handling for all errors (no ignored err)
• Proper struct naming (exported vs unexported)
• Tests in _test.go files
• No global state (use dependency injection)

Rust Projects

Additional checks:

• No unwrap() in production code (handle Results)
• Proper error propagation with ?
• Clippy warnings addressed
• All tests passing

Expected Outcomes

All Checks Passing

## Code Review Report

### Passed Checks (8/8)
- ✅ Change Discovery: 3 files modified
- ✅ Architectural Review: No violations
- ✅ Code Quality: Clean code, no issues
- ✅ Test Coverage: 92% coverage
- ✅ Documentation: All APIs documented
- ✅ Anti-Patterns: None detected
- ✅ Quality Gates: All passing
- ✅ Report Generated: Review complete

### Summary
- **Status:** READY TO COMMIT
- **Changes:** 3 files, 150 lines added, 20 lines deleted
- **Test Coverage:** 92% (target 80%+)
- **Quality:** All gates passing

PROCEED WITH COMMIT

Checks Failing

## Code Review Report

### Passed Checks (5/8)
- ✅ Change Discovery: 5 files modified
- ✅ Architectural Review: No violations
- ✅ Documentation: Properly documented

### Failed Checks (3/8)
- ❌ Test Coverage: Only 45% coverage (target 80%+)
  - Missing tests for error scenarios
  - No integration tests
- ❌ Quality Gates: 3 mypy type errors
  - src/handlers.py:45 - Missing return type
  - src/models.py:12 - Incompatible types
- ❌ Anti-Patterns: 2 issues
  - God class detected: UserService (18 methods)
  - Duplicate code in parse_input() and validate_input()

### Summary
- **Status:** BLOCKED
- **Action Required:**
  1. Add tests for error scenarios (increase coverage to 80%+)
  2. Fix 3 mypy type errors
  3. Refactor UserService (split responsibilities)
  4. Extract common parsing logic to shared utility

DO NOT COMMIT - Fix issues first

Troubleshooting

Issue: Quality gates failing with many errors

Symptom: mypy/ruff/pytest show 10+ errors

Solution:

1. Fix one category at a time (start with type errors)
2. Run incremental checks: mypy src/module.py
3. Use ruff check --fix for auto-fixable issues
4. Prioritize test failures (may cascade from type issues)

Issue: Low test coverage but tests exist

Symptom: Coverage 40-60% despite writing tests

Solution:

• Check which lines aren't covered: pytest --cov=src --cov-report=html
• Open htmlcov/index.html to see missing lines
• Add tests for error branches and edge cases
• Test all public methods, not just happy path

Issue: Architecture violations unclear

Symptom: "Layer boundary violation detected" but unsure where

Solution:

• Use validate-architecture skill for detailed analysis
• Check import statements in flagged files
• Review ARCHITECTURE.md for project-specific rules
• Compare with existing code in same layer

Supporting Files

• [references/review-checklist.md](references/review-checklist.md) - Comprehensive checklists:

- Detailed language-specific checks (Python, JS/TS, Go, Rust) - Project-specific anti-pattern catalog - Security checklist (OWASP top 10) - Performance optimization checklist - Accessibility checklist (for UI code)

• [scripts/detectprojecttype.sh](scripts/detectprojecttype.sh) - Project detection script:

- Runs all quality gates - Generates coverage report - Checks git diff - Outputs structured report

Red Flags to Avoid

1. Skipping review before commits - Technical debt compounds
2. Ignoring quality gate failures - "I'll fix it later" never happens
3. Reviewing only happy path - Edge cases cause production bugs
4. Skipping test coverage check - Untested code will break
5. Approving own code without checklist - Systematic review catches issues
6. Committing with failing tests - Breaks CI/CD pipeline
7. Ignoring architectural violations - Erodes system design over time
8. Skipping documentation updates - Makes code unmaintainable
9. Accepting "good enough" code - Quality degrades incrementally
10. Not using automated tools - Manual review misses issues

Key principle: Systematic review catches issues before they reach production. 10 minutes of review saves hours of debugging.

Remember: Every commit is a checkpoint. Make each one clean, tested, and production-ready.