A fresh take on pull-request iteration for the era of AI-generated code.
Pull-request workflows haven't evolved to match how code is written today. Developers use AI-assisted coding more often than not, and the DevOps market keeps pouring resources into code generation efficiency. Code review tools haven't seen a significant change in 20 years. The human reviewer is still the one accountable for a larger volume of code they didn't write themselves. There is a high cost to this. Developers are frustrated, code quality suffers, and pull requests sit waiting while the work built on top of them can't move forward.
We started from our own lived problem as developers working in teams, and then decided to validate it. We followed discussions on public developer forums, published articles that provoke reactions and pull feedback, and finally started direct conversations with real users. Each stage was validated enough to justify the next.
"What I really want when I'm reading source code is to hover over a line and ask 'why was this done this way?' That reasoning almost never makes it into the docs but it's exactly what lives in the review discussion."
An honest look at the structures and design shifts that transformed a complex set of developer workflows into an intuitive code-hosting experience.
Before jumping into screens, I mapped out the product's page structure to have a clearer view of how the users would navigate. I organised flows for logged-out users, logged-in users, and repository settings. The page structure has grown since then, but this initial version already helped us understand how many steps a developer needs to start collaborating on the platform.
On my early designs I stacked conversation and code vertically, not so different than GitHub. I realised reviewers need discussion context visible alongside the code they're reviewing, without the need to switch tabs. This led to a two-column layout that mirrors how developers actually work. It's a simple decision, but it makes their work much more effective while reviewing code.
The sidebar navigation evolved from a feature-heavy list to a focused set of core actions. I decided to remove cognitive load and prioritize what developers access most frequently. We made it usable but wanted to delight users too! So we did a redesign few months ago keeping consistency with our brand, namely the light polkadot background.
"In every review tool I've used, I never know what order to review files in. As the author, I just want to float the important files to the top so reviewers look there first."
What shipped is live at lubeno.dev, where developers host and review code today. Git repositories work exactly as they always have, while Jujutsu users get the full velocity benefit through the same visual interface.