Code Review SOP.
A fast code-review standard that protects correctness, security, maintainability, and shared context without creating a pull-request graveyard.
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Operating standard
Control without the corporate sludge.
Owner
The change author owns readiness; the assigned reviewer owns the review decision.
Response
First review within four working hours for normal changes and one hour for an agreed urgent change. Authors respond within one working day.
Metric
Median first-review time under four working hours with a declining escaped-defect rate.
If nobody owns the process, the founder owns every emergency.
Purpose
Catch meaningful defects and spread system knowledge while keeping changes small enough to review quickly.
When it applies
Use for all production code, infrastructure, migrations, security rules, automation, and material configuration changes before merge.
Do not start blind.
Trigger to outcome. No meeting required.
- 01
Keep the change focused and split unrelated work before requesting review.
- 02
Self-review the diff and remove debug code, secrets, dead code, and accidental files.
- 03
Write what changed, why, how it was tested, risk, and any deployment notes.
- 04
Request a reviewer who understands the affected area and a security reviewer when required.
- 05
Review behavior, edge cases, data handling, tests, readability, operations, and rollback risk.
- 06
Label feedback as blocking, required clarification, or optional improvement.
- 07
Resolve or explicitly discuss every blocking comment; rerun checks after material changes.
- 08
Obtain approval, merge using the team strategy, and monitor the associated release.
Authority must be explicit.
Know when to stop.
If review is blocked by disagreement, request a short written decision from the technical owner. Security or data concerns cannot be overridden only to meet a release date.
If it is not recorded, it did not happen.
Make the generic parts real.
How teams break the process.
Reviewing style while missing behavior and risk
Sending enormous changes that nobody can reason about
Approving because tests pass without reading the change
Related startup SOPs.
Make the process executable.
Download it, assign the real owners, set the thresholds, and test it with someone who did not write it.