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Best practices

Rolling out to your team

Introduce HeyDeer in stages, and let it gate merges only once your team trusts its results.

Stages

  1. Try it on a few pull requests. A new workspace starts with Manual only. Comment @heydeer review on a handful of recent pull requests of different kinds, and compare the findings with your reviewers’.
  2. Fill the gaps you saw. Add only what those reviews showed you need: conventions, rules that must always hold, and priorities. See Where each rule belongs.
  3. Turn on automatic reviews. Start with Once per PR on one or two repositories, then move to On every push with a Maximum automatic reviews per PR and set the organization schedule. See Automatic reviews.
  4. Publish the check without gating on it. By default, the HeyDeer Review check passes even when the review finds issues. Keep it that way while the team gets used to the findings.
  5. Require the check once the team trusts it. Make HeyDeer Review a required check in your GitHub branch rules, then turn on Fail the check when issues are found. A revision that is not reviewed automatically then waits for @heydeer review. See The HeyDeer Review check.
  6. Decide on automatic approval. It is off by default. If you turn it on, start with Simple changes only and dismiss stale approvals in your branch rules. See Automatic approval.
  7. Set up notifications and spending controls. Add a workspace email for credit and trial notices, and turn on auto-reload with a usage limit. See Notifications and Auto-reload and usage limits.
  8. Tell the team how to work with HeyDeer. Share the PR comment commands, how to decline a finding with a reply, and how to write pull requests that review well.

Checklist

  • Reviewed a few real pull requests with Manual only
  • Added AGENTS.md, checks, or instructions for what those reviews missed
  • Marked generated files and filtered out bot pull requests
  • Turned on Once per PR, then On every push with a review limit
  • Published the HeyDeer Review check without failing on issues
  • Decided whether to require the check and fail it on issues
  • Decided on automatic approval
  • Set a notification email, auto-reload, and a usage limit
  • Shared the commands and how to decline a finding

After a few weeks, reread recent reviews, move misplaced rules, and remove rules that change nothing.