A team facing a large rise in merged pull requests and better overall product quality found review throughput becoming a bottleneck: median review time rose from about 33 to 77 minutes even as merges per engineer increased roughly fourfold (with some teams and individuals rising far more) and incidents fell substantially. To scale review without losing knowledge transfer, error prevention, anti-abuse controls, or compliance, the team created a narrow, experiment-driven policy called small-change that shifts many routine checks into automated verification and centralized harnesses while reserving human attention for higher-risk work.
Eligibility for small-change is enforced by a CI check and limited by concrete rules: under 1,000 lines, no p1/p2 flags from the ai-code-review bot, author has 10+ prior merges in the affected service(s), impacts fewer than N services (N=1 on frontend, N=3 on backend), excludes shared libs, and can be tuned per-repo via a .small_change file. Slack reacji mark status; automated harness skills (review-small-change approves or ignores without commenting; review-pr-cluster surfaces thematic issues) speed approval and avoid “meat proxy” noisy reviews. Rollout took a couple days; about 10% of changes currently qualify and typically get fast approval. Success hinges on expanding verifications, avoiding false comfort from proxy reviews, and winning cultural buy-in as the team iterates the system.
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Natural language programming is criticized for not reducing the complexity and care needed in coding, as machines still require precise instructions. Switching to native language interfaces would likely increase the workload for both humans and machines, rather than simplifying programming tasks. (cs.utexas.edu)
Jank is a Clojure dialect that offers seamless C++ interop, allowing developers to include C++ code directly and leverage its features without boilerplate. It features a Clang-based JIT compiler, native build system, and is optimized for game development and native performance tasks. (jank-lang.org)
Impossible Machines is a prototype that allows users to declaratively program physical mechanisms by describing desired outcomes. It generates mechanisms based on user instructions, enabling interactive design of physical systems. (impossiblemachines.xyz)
Zig uses two main approaches for polymorphism: runtime interfaces with dynamic dispatch and compile-time duck typing for static polymorphism. These methods offer different tradeoffs in performance and safety, with Zig emphasizing simplicity and compile-time checks over complex abstractions. (axelmagn.com)
AI can automate simple coding tasks, but it cannot replace the decision-making and understanding that software engineers provide. Building software still fundamentally involves determining what to create, which remains a complex human challenge. (thelastsoftwareengineer.substack.com)
CATT 0.2.1 is a testing tool for consumer agents and services, allowing for CI-based testing against Muse/Instinct-like systems. It performs service-side outcome checks and provides sealed evidence for MCP servers, apps, browsers, and APIs. (github.com)
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