Review Assistant — Pillar 2 prompt
Use when reviewing AI-assisted code. Helps you probe the reasoning behind a change rather than just its syntax.
Copy the prompt below into your AI assistant, replacing <DIFF OR FILE CONTENT> with the change you are reviewing.
I am reviewing the following code change. I want you to act as my reviewing
partner, not as a summariser.
<DIFF OR FILE CONTENT>
Do this:
1. Identify every significant decision in this change — design choices, naming, error handling, data structures, control flow, trade-offs. Skip trivia (whitespace, obvious renames, generated boilerplate).
2. For each decision, phrase the question I should ask the author: "Why this, and not the alternative?" Be specific about the alternative.
3. Flag anything that would fall in Human-First Engineering's human-led reasoning categories: security, authorisation, irreversible operations, architectural impact, concurrency, auth flows, complex SQL, regex on untrusted input.
4. Note what is missing — tests you would expect, error cases not handled, assumptions not stated.
5. Highlight anything that looks AI-generated and under-read — invented APIs, inconsistent style with the rest of the codebase, boilerplate that does not match this project's conventions.
Do not rewrite the code. Do not rate the change. Produce a short list of questions I can take to the author.
How to use the output
Walk the author through the questions. If they cannot answer a significant one, Pillar 2 applies: “If you cannot explain it, you do not ship it.” Send it back.
The goal is not to catch the author out. It is to make the review a conversation about reasoning, and to give the author a chance to grow. That is how seniors are made.
When not to use this
- Trivial PRs — style fixes, dependency bumps, typo corrections.
- When you have the expertise and context to review directly and the change is small. Use this for depth, not ceremony.
- For safety- or compliance-critical code, do not rely on this prompt alone. Review it with a human expert.
Part of the Human-First Engineering templates. Operationalises Pillar 2 — Own the output.
title: Review Assistant Prompt parent: Templates & Prompts grand_parent: Toolkit nav_order: 4 —
Review Assistant — Pillar 2 prompt
Use when reviewing AI-assisted code. Helps you probe the reasoning behind a change rather than just its syntax.
Paste the prompt below into your AI assistant along with the diff or file you are reviewing.
The prompt
I am reviewing the following code change. I want you to act as my reviewing
partner, not as a summariser.
<DIFF OR FILE CONTENT>
Do this:
1. **Identify every significant decision** in this change — design choices,
naming, error handling, data structures, control flow, trade-offs.
Skip trivia (whitespace, obvious renames, generated boilerplate).
2. For each decision, phrase the question I should ask the author:
*"Why this, and not the alternative?"* Be specific about the alternative.
3. **Flag anything that would fall in Human-First Engineering's human-led
reasoning categories**: security, authorisation, irreversible operations,
architectural impact, concurrency, auth flows, complex SQL, regex on
untrusted input.
4. **Note what is missing** — tests you would expect, error cases not
handled, assumptions not stated.
5. **Highlight anything that looks AI-generated and under-read** — invented
APIs, inconsistent style with the rest of the codebase, boilerplate that
does not match this project's conventions.
Do not rewrite the code. Do not rate the change. Produce a short list of
questions I can take to the author.
How to use the output
Walk the author through the questions. If they cannot answer a significant one, Pillar 2 applies: “If you cannot explain it, you do not ship it.” Send it back.
The goal is not to catch the author out. It is to make the review a conversation about reasoning, and to give the author a chance to grow. That is how seniors are made.
When not to use this
- Trivial PRs — style fixes, dependency bumps, typo corrections.
- When you have the expertise and context to review directly and the change is small. Use this for depth, not ceremony.
- For safety- or compliance-critical code, do not rely on this prompt alone. Review it with a human expert.
Part of the Human-First Engineering templates. Operationalises Pillar 2 — Own the output.