Skip to main content

Practice feedback

Hephaestus uses an AI model to review eligible work against the practices of your workspace. It records observations before it decides whether feedback would help you. The model can be wrong, so you decide what to do with feedback: fix the work, ask why, or disagree. Respond to feedback gives the steps.

Observations​

An observation says Met, Not met, Does not apply, or Could not determine. Not met lists the problems and their evidence. Each problem has its own severity: Critical, Major, Minor, or Trivial. An open question explains what the evidence could not settle. It is never sent as feedback.

If Hephaestus cannot capture the evidence it needs, it records no observation. Withheld means that the review stopped feedback before delivery and recorded why. It does not mean that your work failed a practice.

What Hephaestus can and cannot do​

An AI model writes every observation and every piece of feedback, and it can be wrong. Each comment says so in its footer.

Hephaestus can:

  • Check your work against the practices that your workspace chose.
  • Quote the lines or text that each problem rests on. It sends no feedback for a practice if a quote does not match the reviewed work.
  • Say when the evidence is not enough. Then the observation says Could not determine.

Hephaestus cannot:

  • Prove that a problem matters. A matching quote shows where the problem is, not that the claim about it is right.
  • Find every problem. Met means that the review found the practice met in the evidence it read.
  • See context that the practice does not read, such as a decision your team made in a meeting.
  • Decide for you. Merge decisions stay with your reviewers.

When feedback is wrong, disagree in Hephaestus. A workspace admin can also mark the observation incorrect.

Where feedback appears​

  • On the work: a summary, line note, or file note about your current change.
  • On your Practice profile: private guidance about a pattern across your work.
  • In conversation: private feedback that Hephaestus can show when it fits your conversation.

Feedback on the work waits until your pull request or merge request is ready for review. While it is a draft, feedback goes only to your Practice profile and your conversation. When you mark it ready, Hephaestus reviews it again and can comment on it. After the work is merged or closed, Hephaestus comments on it only if your workspace turns on Post feedback after merge. Private feedback on your Practice profile and in conversation can arrive either way.

On GitLab, a line note opens a discussion on the reviewed diff lines. If GitLab cannot place it on the diff, Hephaestus opens an overview discussion that links to the reviewed code.

Mentions, issue references, and links in feedback appear as code. Thus, a comment notifies no one and runs no GitLab quick action.

Feedback about your reviewing stays on your own Practice profile or in your conversation. It does not address the work of another author as yours.

To stop comments on the work that you author, turn off Comments on your work in User settings.

Feedback mode​

The feedback mode of your workspace decides when feedback reaches you:

  • Off keeps observations and sends no feedback, on the work, on practice pages, or in conversation.
  • Approve first (the default) keeps feedback on the work until a workspace admin approves it. Feedback on practice pages and in conversations needs no approval.
  • Automatic sends feedback without waiting for approval.

Workspace admins can set a different mode for a practice group or a single practice. Set up your workspace explains where they choose it.

Corrections by workspace admins​

A workspace admin can mark an observation incorrect when it was wrong when made. The observation stays in history with the reason and stops supporting new feedback. Hephaestus edits each comment that rests on that observation in GitHub or GitLab to say that the feedback was withdrawn. Your other comments stay as they are. If GitHub or GitLab cannot make that edit, the posted words stay visible.

If the admin removes the mark, Hephaestus checks again whether the observation can support feedback. It then puts the original words back in the same comments and does not post them again.

A workspace admin can accept an observation to remove it from open-problem lists. Acceptance does not change the outcome or claim that you fixed the work. It does not override an incorrect mark.

A workspace admin can withdraw a card on your Practice profile whose words were wrong. Its observations stay unchanged. Restoring the card reverses the withdrawal if the card can be shown, and keeps your earlier response.

Troubleshooting​

No comment appeared on your work​

A review can record observations without sending a comment. Check these causes:

  • The feedback mode is Approve first, and a workspace admin has not approved the feedback.
  • The feedback mode is Off.
  • You turned off Comments on your work.
  • Hephaestus could not capture the evidence, so it recorded no observation.
  • The review withheld the feedback. Observations explains what that means.
  • The work is a draft, or it was merged or closed. Where feedback appears explains why.

No review ran on your work​

When no review can run on your work, your Practice profile names the reason. Find the message below. If you are a workspace admin, the message links to the setting that changes it.

"Hephaestus does not review your work here"​

You chose No AI. Select Change your AI choice.

"Choose your AI to get reviews"​

The workspace reviews your work only after you choose which AI may handle it. Select Choose your AI.

"Practice reviews are not set up for your AI choice yet"​

The workspace has no review model that fits your AI choice. Ask a workspace admin to add one, or select Your AI choice to change it.

"Reviews here start only on request"​

The workspace does not review work by itself. Select Request a review on Activity, and request a review of eligible work.

"Practice reviews are off here"​

The workspace turned practice reviews off. Ask a workspace admin.

"Your work is outside the review scope"​

A workspace admin chose whose work the workspace reviews, and your work is not in it. Ask a workspace admin.

"Hephaestus cannot match your work to you here yet"​

The workspace cannot match your work to your membership. In User settings, connect the account that the workspace uses, or ask a workspace admin.

"No practice here reviews your work yet"​

No practice in the workspace reviews the work of the person who did it. Ask a workspace admin.

"Reviews are paused in this workspace"​

The workspace is inactive. Ask a workspace admin to make it active again.