Scott and Wes talk with GitHub’s Sarah Vessels about the ins and outs of code reviews, their critical role in collaborative development, and tips for making your reviews more effective.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:59 What is a code review?
- How to review code effectively: A GitHub staff engineer’s philosophy
04:18 Strategies for an effective code review processes
06:59 Should you test and fix in the same pull request?
07:57 How to ask for code reviews
12:12 Feature flags and their role in code management
20:03 Who should do code reviews?
23:34 Should you review your own code?
25:04 Brought to you by Sentry.io
25:29 Code comments vs pull requests
27:35 Dealing with egos in the code review process
30:18 What automations are essential?
- project-pull-mover
34:35 Underutilized tools
- GitHub Protips: Tips, tricks, hacks, and secrets from Sarah Vessels
36:25 Commit strategies and squash
39:30 GitHub’s branching system
41:14 Git gone wrong
42:30 What is the correct way to merge into main?
43:47 What was it like working on GitHub Sponsors?
- GitHub Sponsors
- thanks.dev
46:58 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Sarah: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

Shameless Plugs

Sarah: https://github.com/sponsors

Hit us up on Socials!

Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Luke (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)

The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

Luke Emphasizes Jesus' Humanity

The AI-powered Podcast Player