alt Hacker NewsGating integration behind code review is futile. I (and many other engineers) already automated it. My agent responds to review requests and reviews as me. Company policies enforcing human code review are futile.
I think all these platforms chasing code review are doomed. My LLM doesn't need any of this tooling.
We should be reviewing the actual working software. Systems that make it easy and instant to demo any proposed change are what is needed. Code (and specs) are going to fade into obscurity. PR review has already shifted towards validating the product (working software) over the process (code).
The future of software production is more like Replit – not GitHub.
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This entire article is about the fact that the codebase deteriorates over time when you work this way. If they are correct, it will take longer and longer to develop PRs, and more and more cycles to QA them. Eventually the code will be unsalvageable and it might get there before anyone notices a problem. I don’t know if they are right but I know codebases can get there with humans at the helm - and the humans can adapt and learn.
This is not a certain fate but it sure looks likely and is a serious risk. Some software is so low stakes that you can get away with it I’m sure - there are always trade offs.
> Code (and specs) are going to fade into obscurity
I'm always skeptical when I read absolute statements like this.
Especially about specs. They drive and document how the software should work, behave, and under which conditions. In the same moment you write a prompt in natural language, you are writing a spec.
Why should they disappear?
For the same reasoning, we could no longer need books or manuals or documents (is it valuable to keep around that doc about F-22 specs?).
>I (and many other engineers) already automated it. My agent responds to review requests and reviews as me. Company policies enforcing human code review are futile.
This is also known as being a terrible engineer. If a company enforces human review and someone deliberately tries to circumvent this with an LLM, I'd fire that person in an instant
The reason for human code review is:
1. So *you* understand what's going on, not the LLM, and people can ask you questions about it
2. Because LLMs are not that good at code review
It seems weird to brag about literally not doing your job. It sounds like you could be replaced with a python script, what value do you bring?
What's your job as an "engineer" in this post-automated world?
QA?
> We should be reviewing the actual working software. Systems that make it easy and instant to demo any proposed change are what is needed.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!" -- Edsger W. Dijkstra
> We should be reviewing the actual working software. Systems that make it easy and instant to demo any proposed change are what is needed.
You’re arguing for experiment over logical proof or reasoning. That’s qualitatively a very different thing, and the former is no adequate replacement for the latter.
Entropy is not your friend.
> We should be reviewing the actual working software. Systems that make it easy and instant to demo any proposed change are what is needed. Code (and specs) are going to fade into obscurity. PR review has already shifted towards validating the product (working software) over the process (code).
Ok, sure, if your software can be easily exhaustively re-tested on every change.
But in that case, why were you ever doing PR's in the first place? Cargo cult?
Wow, good to know. Can you tell me what company you work for so I can make sure it's not part of my stack?