Practice feedback
Hephaestus reviews eligible work against your workspace’s practices and records observations before it decides whether feedback would help you. Developers decide what to do with feedback: fix the work, ask why, or disagree. Merge decisions stay with your reviewers.
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 your work failed a practice.
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.
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.
Feedback on the work is plain text.
Formatting, links, images, HTML and comments in the feedback text appear exactly as written.
A name that starts with @ appears as code, and so does a reference such as #12 or !3.
A comment or its later edit therefore notifies no one and adds no link to another issue or merge request.
A line that starts with a slash runs no GitLab quick action.
A conversation link alone does not count as delivered feedback. Hephaestus must show the feedback to you. Feedback about your reviewing stays on your own practice pages or in your conversation. It does not address another author’s work as yours.
Feedback mode
Your workspace’s feedback mode 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. Workspace basics 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 asks GitHub or GitLab to correct an existing comment where the provider supports it. Otherwise, the posted words stay visible, and Hephaestus records the state of the correction. If the admin removes the mark later, Hephaestus checks again whether the observation can support feedback. It does not post an earlier confirmed comment 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 private card whose words were wrong. Its observations stay unchanged. Restoring the card reverses the withdrawal if the card can still be shown. A withdrawn card accepts no new response.
Respond to feedback
Replies and reactions on GitHub or GitLab do not save your answer in Hephaestus. Answer in Hephaestus instead. The footer of each Hephaestus comment says “Answer or disagree in Hephaestus.”
- Follow the Hephaestus link in that footer. Or open the card on your Practice profile.
- If you addressed the feedback, select I fixed this. If it does not apply to your work, select Does not fit my work.
- To disagree, select Disagree, enter what is wrong in this feedback, and select Send.
- Optional: Rate the feedback with Helpful or Not helpful.
The card shows your answer. Workspace admins can read your disagreement and inspect the observation. Your private card text and unrelated rating notes stay private. Other developers who follow the same link see only their own records.
Your answer and your rating stay separate, so removing a rating does not remove a disagreement. A disagreement does not change the observation or your standing by itself. When you undo a response, its current answer goes away, and its history stays.
Request another review
- On your Practice profile, select the review chip beside the title to open Reviews of your work.
- In the row of the work’s latest review, select Request another review.
- Once Hephaestus accepts the request, select View requested review to see how far the new review got.
You can also select Request review on eligible work in Activity or in the browser extension. A request follows your AI choice, the workspace’s review scope, and the access checks of the source.
The review you asked from keeps its own status. The new review keeps earlier observations in history. Of the reviews that can count, the one that Hephaestus recorded last counts, whoever started it. An older review cannot silently replace a newer one.
Stop comments on your work
- Open User settings.
- Under Practice feedback, turn off Comments on your work.
This stops new comments on issues, pull requests, and merge requests you author, in all your workspaces. Reviews can still record observations that workspace admins may inspect. It does not delete earlier comments or observations. Turn the setting on again to allow future comments. Your AI choice is a separate account-wide limit.
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 yet.
- 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.