How To: Review PRs Like A Senior Dev

Learn how to prompt Warp’s AI to review pull requests like an experienced engineer — focusing on structure, red flags, and clarity

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1

Intro

This tutorial teaches you how to use Warp to make pull-request reviews faster and smarter. Instead of relying on AI summaries, you’ll prompt Warp to generate an index and priority list, guiding your review order while flagging risky sections.

Although this example focuses on large PRs, the same workflow applies to code reviews, design docs, or feature diffs.

2

The Problem

Large PRs are difficult to parse. AI summaries gloss over nuance and may miss subtle issues — you need structured, prioritized insight instead.

3

The Prompt

Use this in Warp’s AI input:

Prompt

## Prompt: Structured PR Review Format

> Review this pull request and format your response for rapid scanning by a busy maintainer. Follow the structure below.

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### 1. 🚨 Risk Assessment

**Overall Risk:** 🔴 HIGH | 🟠 MEDIUM | 🟢 LOW  
**Complexity:** [Simple | Moderate | Complex | Very Complex]  
**Blast Radius:** [Isolated | Module-wide | System-wide | External APIs affected]  
**Requires Immediate Review:** [YES / NO – why]

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### 2. 🔍 Critical Issues  
_If none, write “None found” and skip to the next section._

#### 1. [CRITICAL ISSUE TITLE]  
**File:** `path/to/file.js:L125`  
**Impact:** Data loss / Security hole / System crash  
**Fix:**  
// Quick code fix example here

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### 3. ⚠️ Concerns  
_Should discuss or fix before merge. If none, write “None found.”_  

**Examples:**  
- [PERFORMANCE] Unindexed query on large table  
- [SECURITY] Missing input sanitization in login form  

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### 4. 🎯 Maintainer Decision Guide  

**Merge confidence:** [0–100]%  
- □ Safe to merge after fixing blockers  
- □ Needs architecture discussion first  
- □ Requires performance testing  
- □ Get security team review  
- □ Author should split into smaller PRs  

**Time to properly review:** ~[X] minutes  
**Recommended reviewer expertise:** [Backend | Security | Database | Frontend]  

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### 5. 🧭 Formatting Rules  

- Use emoji headers for instant visual recognition  
- Keep sections short; if empty, say “None found”  
- Blockers get full detail, everything else stays concise  
- Include code examples only for blockers  
- Bold key impact/risk words  
- Use consistent prefixes like [SECURITY], [PERFORMANCE], [LOGIC] for easy scanning  
- If PR is genuinely fine, end with: ✅ “This PR is safe to merge as-is.”