Code Review Culture

On Solana, a missed has_one constraint can cost millions. Code review culture balances teaching juniors Sealevel patterns with unblocking shipping - high-signal comments on security and account semantics, low noise on formatting (rustfmt handles that).

Recipe

Quick-reference recipe card - copy-paste ready.

## Solana PR Review Checklist
- [ ] Account owner/signer/writable flags correct
- [ ] PDA seeds and bumps validated
- [ ] CPI program IDs hardcoded or allowlisted
- [ ] Arithmetic checked (no unchecked add)
- [ ] Tests: happy + attacker path (LiteSVM)
- [ ] IDL/client impact noted in PR description

When to reach for this:

• Onboarding reviewers new to Anchor
• Post-incident "how did this pass review?"
• Setting team SLAs and norms
• Scaling review load across time zones

Working Example

// GOOD review comment - specific, teaches, suggests fix
// "Attacker can pass foreign vault as `user_vault` - add:
//   constraint = user_vault.owner == user.key()
// See: sealevel attacks - account substitution"
 
// LOW-SIGNAL - avoid
// "Rename this variable to `amt`"

PR description template:

## Change
Add withdraw_v2 instruction
 
## Security notes
New CPI to Jupiter; program ID allowlisted in constants
 
## Test plan
- anchor test
- LiteSVM exploit replay #42 from audit

What this demonstrates:

• Security-first comment framing with reference material
• PR author surfaces CPI and test evidence upfront
• Reduces back-and-forth on account constraints

Deep Dive

Review SLAs

Roles

• Author owns tests and description
• Reviewer owns security checklist
• Tech lead breaks tie on architecture

Gotchas

• LGTM without reading #[account] - #1 failure mode. Fix: Mandatory account section review.
• Style nits blocking merge - Demoralizes; rustfmt/clippy in CI. Fix: [nit] prefix optional.
• Rubber-stamp reviews - Audit finds obvious bugs. Fix: Rotate reviewers; spot audits.
• Huge PRs - Nobody reviews deeply. Fix: 400-line guideline; split program/client.
• Review as gatekeeping - Juniors stop asking. Fix: Pair on first Sealevel PR.

Alternatives

FAQs

Related

• Running Design Reviews - pre-PR design
• Mentoring & Leveling - grow reviewers
• Sealevel Attacks Catalog - review reference

Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, anchor-lang 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, @solana/kit 7.0.0, Surfpool 0.12.0, and LiteSVM 0.6.x.