O'Reilly Radar: review agent-written code by evidence and blast radius, not diff size
Overview
O'Reilly Radar argues that reviewers of agent-generated code should check agreed behavior, test evidence, and blast radius rather than reading every changed line.
The article illustrates this with a fictional refund service, where a small diff adds payment retries that could cause duplicate refunds. It recommends tracing changed behavior in both directions between requirements and implementation, and confirming that tests exercise the agreed boundaries.
Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 16, 7:18 AM ET
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- O'Reilly RadarBlogCode review after code gets cheap: evidence and blast radius matter more than diff size
AIO'Reilly Radar argues that reviewing agent-generated code should rely on agreed behavior, evidence, and blast-radius checks rather than reading every changed line. Using a fictional refund-service example, the article says a small diff can add payment retries that risk duplicate refunds. It recommends tracing changed behavior in both directions between requirements and implementation, and checking that tests observe the agreed boundaries.
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