What High Trust Code Review Looks Like

In this closing section, we focus on the importance of building and operating within a high-trust engineering team. Trust is not just a feel-good concept—it directly affects our productivity and velocity when shipping code.

• We prioritize speed and trust in code review. When we trust our teammates, we don’t block diffs unnecessarily. Instead, we approve with minor suggestions, knowing the author will follow through responsibly.
• We use “accept with nits” to keep things moving. For small, straightforward changes—like renaming variables—we leave a “nit” comment but still approve the diff to avoid introducing unnecessary delay.
• We avoid slowing each other down over trivial issues. Each extra cycle of “request changes” can delay code by 1–2 days. We conserve team momentum by trusting competent authors to resolve minor feedback themselves.
• We treat time as our most precious resource. Code review should add value without becoming a bottleneck. High-trust practices help us operate with both quality and speed.
• We maintain expectations through communication. Even when approving with nits, we clarify, “Please address before landing,” so everyone stays aligned on expectations without blocking forward motion.