Tessl Code Review: Catching 74% of Bugs Pre-Merge
Tessl Code Review is an AI-native code reviewer designed to address the critical bottleneck of trusting code generated by coding agents in a software factory. It functions as an automated GitHub app that runs specialized, customizable review rules (lenses) against Pull Requests (PRs). The system emphasizes self-improvement loops, allowing the review process to learn from the codebase and the team's specific best practices, thereby increasing defect detection rates (claiming up to 74% detection).
Key takeaways
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AI Code Review and the Software Factory
5:56
Building a 'software factory' requires more than just plumbing; it requires self-improvement loops that continuously refine the context and skills used by coding agents. Code review is positioned as a critical loop that feeds back into the factory to improve code quality before merging.
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Customization via Lenses and Globs
22:07
The system uses customizable 'lenses' (review rules) that can be tuned to specific domains (e.g., audio DSP) and restricted to specific file paths using globs. This allows for highly targeted reviews, even in large mono-repos.
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Local and CI Integration
23:50
Tessl Code Review can be run directly via the CLI (`Tessl code review give it the profile`) against local changes, enabling developers to catch defects before opening a PR, complementing its automated GitHub app integration.