Incremental Re-reviews
When you push a new commit to a pull request Codity has already reviewed, Codity doesn't always start over from scratch. It looks at what changed since the last review and decides whether a full re-review is actually needed.
Overview
| Situation | What Codity does |
|---|---|
| You only touched code related to findings Codity already flagged | Posts a short incremental summary — no full re-review, no new workflow diagram |
| You made changes outside the previously flagged areas | Reviews the new/changed areas as usual, on top of the incremental summary |
| You didn't change any reviewable code (e.g. only pushed a merge commit) | Skips re-review entirely |
This keeps re-reviews fast and avoids repeating comments on code you haven't touched.
How It Works
After a new commit, Codity compares the diff against its previous findings on the PR:
- Targeted fix — every changed line maps to a location Codity previously flagged. Codity checks whether each flagged issue was actually fixed, then posts a summary. No full review runs, and no workflow diagram is posted.
- Unrelated or additional changes — some changed lines fall outside previously flagged areas. Codity reports that new changes were found and reviews those areas normally, while still summarizing the status of prior findings.
- No relevant changes — nothing in the diff is reviewable (for example, a no-op merge commit). Codity does not re-review.
Example Comment
Re-review (incremental since a1b2c3d) - 5 previously flagged issue(s) tracked; 3 touched by this update.
Fixed 3 issues
Open 2 issues
Still-open issues:
- payments/charge.rb:25 - missing idempotency key on retry
- billing/service.rb:45 - unhandled currency rounding case
New 2 issues in changed areas
Merge Status: Ready pending open issues
- Fixed issues are findings whose flagged code was changed in a way that resolves the issue.
- Open issues are findings whose flagged code is unchanged, or was touched but not resolved.
- New issues only appear when the commit includes changes outside the previously flagged areas.
Why This Matters
- Faster feedback — you get a status update on your fixes instead of waiting for a full review to re-run.
- Less noise — Codity doesn't repeat comments on code you didn't touch.
- Still thorough — as soon as you introduce unrelated changes, those areas get a full review, so nothing new slips through.
Additional Resources
- Finding Acknowledgements — tell Codity a finding is intentional or deferred so it stops repeating it
- Auto Review Configuration — enable/disable automatic reviews
- Custom Review Instructions — control what Codity looks for