Streamline the Code Review Process with AI in Azure DevOps

Code review is a fundamental part of the development process that ensures code quality, security, and functionality as expected. However, it can be time-consuming and repetitive, potentially leading to development bottlenecks.

GitHub currently supports AI integration to automate code reviews, but how do we handle this when using Azure DevOps?

OpenAI and Pipelines

By implementing a pipeline in Azure DevOps that triggers whenever a pull request (PR) is created or updated, we can leverage AI to automatically review code early in the process.

All files changed in the latest update or creation of a PR can be sent, along with a carefully crafted prompt, to Azure OpenAI via APIs. This provides quick feedback on the updated code that can then be analyzed.

Instructions can be given to OpenAI to categorize responses by different criteria, such as technologies used and other important aspects of the codebase. This allows us to filter and present feedback effectively.

With OpenAI and Azure DevOps APIs, we can now have AI comment directly within a PR, providing developers with insights and corrections before the manual review process begins.

Conclusion

The implementation of AI-based code review in Azure DevOps demonstrates how automation and AI can serve as valuable tools in the development process. Using AI to analyze code and provide quick and relevant feedback can improve code quality and save valuable time.

AI’s ability to quickly identify issues and offer insights based on best practices enables developers to work more efficiently. This is a great example of how AI can be used as an early-stage tool to modernize, ensure, and streamline the development process.