Intermediate · 6 min read
Reviewing a pull request well
Test it locally, comment usefully, approve or request changes — and receive a review without suffering.
Get the PR on your machine
Reading the diff isn't always enough: run it. With the GitHub CLI or with plain Git (the PR number is in its URL).
$ gh pr checkout 123# or: git fetch origin pull/123/head:pr-123 && git switch pr-123
What to look at
Does it do what the description says? Edge cases, errors, security (secrets, user input), tests, names that explain themselves. Style issues: let the linter handle them.
Comment like a human
Ask questions (“what happens if…?”), explain why, and say what blocks (must fix) and what's optional (nit:). GitHub's “Suggestion” lets the author apply your fix in one click.
See what changed since your last review
After a force push, range-diff compares the old and new version of the branch, commit by commit.
$ git range-diff origin/main old-head new-head
Receiving a review
Comments are about the code, not about you. Answer each one, push fixes as new commits during review, and re-request a review when done.