Built a Wizard App to Create Code Review Guidelines for Your Company or Team
Source: Dev.to
Why Code Review Guidelines Matter
Code review guidelines represent a shared understanding of how reviews should be conducted within a team or organization. Without them, common problems arise:
- Unclear perspectives to use when reviewing
- Review perspectives vary from person to person
- Review criteria change depending on mood or circumstances
Establishing clear guidelines prevents this inconsistency.
Helpful Resource
A useful reference when creating your own guidelines is the Code Review Developer Guide | google‑eng‑practices‑ja, published by Google. Note that the original repository has been archived (GitHub archive), so it may not reflect the latest practices.
About Code Review Guideline Creator
Code Review Guideline Creator is a web application that lets you build custom code review guidelines in a wizard‑based format, using Google’s guidelines as a foundation.
Technologies Used
- Cloudflare Workers
- React Router
- Tailwind CSS
The source code is open source under the MIT License: goofmint/review-guideline-creator
Types of Guidelines You Can Create
With the creator you can generate two kinds of guidelines:
- For reviewers – what reviewers should focus on during reviews.
- For reviewees – what authors should consider before submitting a pull request.
About the Wizard
The wizard guides you through a series of questions (about 60 in total). Default values are provided wherever possible. The questions are stored in Markdown files, which the wizard loads and displays.
By editing these files you can customize the wizard itself.
Data Storage
No data is stored on the server. Progress is saved in SessionStorage, allowing the state to be restored on page reload. There is no authentication mechanism.
Supported Languages
- Default: English
- Additional: Japanese (built‑in)
You can add more languages by providing new wizard files.
AI Code Review
Google’s guidelines do not cover AI‑assisted reviews, so dedicated sections have been added. You can define how AI tools (e.g., CodeRabbit) should be handled for both reviewers and reviewees.
About the Generated Output
The completed guidelines can be downloaded as Markdown or PDF files. Because the output mirrors the raw answers, it may be a bit hard to read.
To improve readability, the app also provides a prompt for LLMs. Copy this prompt into tools like ChatGPT or Claude to generate a cleaner, more readable coding guideline.
Summary
Having well‑defined code review guidelines reduces stress for newcomers, helps authors prepare mentally before submitting pull requests, and boosts team productivity and psychological safety. Give the Code Review Guideline Creator a try!