How To Automate Code Review For PRs In Your Open-source Project With Github Actions

In today's fast-paced development environment, ensuring code quality and consistency is essential to the success of any open-source project. However, manual code reviews can be time-consuming, error-prone, and may lead to inconsistencies, especially when dealing with large PRs.

Fortunately, automating code review with GitHub Actions Checkout can significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the review process. In this article, we will explore how to automate code review for PRs in your open-source project using GitHub Actions Checkout and Watermelon-context-action which will take your code review process to the next level.

What is GitHub Actions?

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GitHub Actions is a powerful feature that enables developers to automate tasks related to code reviews, such as testing, linting, and deployment. With GitHub Actions, you can automate code review for PRs in your open-source project, making the process faster and more efficient.
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What is Watermelon Context Action?

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Watermelon Context Action is a GitHub action created by the Watermelon team to assist in enhancing the code review process in GitHub repositories. It allows teams to index and retrieve relevant information about Pull Requests (PRs), Jira tickets, and Slack message threads, making it easier to quickly understand the context of new changes and provide valuable feedback.
With Watermelon Context Action, developers can save time and avoid the frustration of having to manually search for related information across different platforms. The action automatically gathers and organizes all the relevant information and presents it in a user-friendly format within the GitHub repository Pull Requests(PRs).
This action is particularly useful for teams working on large-scale projects with multiple contributors, where it can be challenging to keep track of changes and ensure that all feedback is considered. With Watermelon Context Action, teams can be confident that they have all the information they need to make informed decisions and provide effective feedback.

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Steps To Automating Code Review With GitHub Actions & Watermelon-context-action

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In this section, we will discuss the necessary steps for automating code review using GitHub Actions and the Watermelon Context Action.

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1. Set up a workflow

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The first step in automating code review for PRs in your open-source project is to set up a workflow. A workflow is a series of steps that are executed automatically in response to events in your repository, such as a new pull request being opened.
To set up a workflow, you need to create a YAML file in your repository's .github/workflows directory. This file contains the configuration for your workflow, including the events that trigger the workflow and the steps that are executed when the workflow is triggered.+

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2 . Configure the workflow

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Once you have set up a workflow, you need to configure it to automate code review for PRs in your open-source project. To do this, you can use the GitHub Actions Checkout feature to fetch the latest code changes from the pull request and run automated tests and linting scripts.
GitHub Actions allows you to use the pull_request event to trigger your workflow when a new pull request is opened. When this event is triggered, GitHub Actions Checkout fetches the latest code changes from the pull request and makes them available in the workflow.
You can then use the checkout action to check out the pull request branch and run your automated tests and linting scripts. This action enables you to use the latest code changes from the pull request in your workflow, ensuring that all code changes are thoroughly tested and validated before they are merged into the main branch.
In the image below you will see a workflow for code review which runs on the main branch for pull requests. It uses actions such as checkout, setup Python, install dependencies, and run code linter using Pylint.

3. Integrate Watermelon Context Action

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So far, we have discussed setting up a workflow, configuring it, and even saw an example workflow that uses actions checkout, setup Python, install dependencies, and run code linter using Pylint. The Watermelon team has taken this to the next level. By integrating the Watermelon Context Action, you can avoid setting up GitHub Actions yourself and get all these functionalities out of the box.
To integrate, you need to create a watermelon.yml file in .github/workflows/. Then, copy and paste the following snippet into your file:

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After this, you can start by logging in to Watermelon. You will be asked to give us read access to your GitHub organization, and optionally, to your Jira and Slack teams.

4. Making a Pull Request

After integrating Watermelon Context Action into your codebase, you'll probably want to see how it indexes everything out of the box. To do this, push your code to GitHub and create a pull request.

In the image below, you can see an example of how Watermelon Context Action indexes and presents the relevant information for new pull requests (PRs), Jira tickets, Slack message threads, and also summarizes them using WatermelonAI.

If we take a look at the comment generated by Watermelon's Action in the pull request, we can observe that it not only lists the related PRs, Jira tickets, and commits, but also provides valuable insights about the business logic behind the changes. In this case, we can see that the focus of the changes is on updating the user experience by improving the walkthroughs and ensuring that dates are displayed correctly. Additionally, the comment mentions that the changes involve merging branch 'dev' of the GitHub repository, transforming Unix time, and creating a new landing page for PH users. This level of detail and context helps reviewers quickly understand the purpose and impact of the changes, which can lead to more precise and relevant feedback.

Moreover, by providing this context, Watermelon Context Action also contributes to a better user experience for reviewers, who no longer need to spend time figuring out what the changes are about or what impact they may have. This can lead to faster and more effective reviews, as well as increased alignment between technical changes and business requirements.

Conclusion

Automating code review with GitHub Actions and Watermelon Context Action can significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the code review process. It helps ensure that code changes meet required standards and align with the project's goals. By automating tasks such as testing, linting, and deployment, developers can focus on coding, and the system takes care of the rest. With the Watermelon Context Action, indexing the most pertinent PRs, Jira tickets, and Slack message threads for new PRs is possible. The integration of Watermelon Context Action makes it even more efficient by avoiding the need to set up GitHub Actions Checkout manually. All in all, automating code review can help improve code quality, reduce manual effort, and increase the project's success.