Add a checklist for self review in PR template [skip ci]

[jihoonson]

Description

Self-review is key to an efficient code review process. As the PR author, you have the most context on your own changes and are best positioned to catch bugs and issues before others begin reviewing. Catching problems early saves significant review time for the entire team.

This PR adds a checklist to the PR template encouraging authors to self-review before requesting reviews. It recommends using an AI tool alongside a manual review — reviewing with human eyes remains essential, as that is ultimately what reviewers do as well.

Checklists

• I have reviewed my PR using AI tools and by myself.
• This PR has added documentation for new or modified features or behaviors.
• This PR has added new tests or modified existing tests to cover new code paths.
  (Please explain in the PR description how the new code paths are tested, such as names of the new/existing tests that cover them.)
• Performance testing has been performed and its results are added in the PR description. Or, an issue has been filed with a link in the PR description.

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR adds a new "Readiness" section to the PR template that prompts authors to confirm they have reviewed their changes using AI tools and manually before requesting review. The change is purely additive documentation with no code impact.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge — documentation-only change with no code or logic impact.

Single-file, purely additive template update. No code paths, GPU resources, or runtime behavior involved. No issues found.

No files require special attention.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md	Adds a "Readiness" section with a single self-review checklist item; purely additive, no logic or code involved.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[Author opens PR] --> B{Readiness checklist}
    B -->|AI review + self review done| C[Documentation checklist]
    B -->|Not done| Z[Complete self-review first]
    Z --> B
    C --> D[Testing checklist]
    D --> E[Performance checklist]
    E --> F[Request review from team]

Loading

_{Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "Merge branch 'main' of https://github.co..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[amahussein]

I'd like to propose we hold off on adding this checkbox. Reviewing our own code is a baseline expectation for opening a PR, and adding 'obvious' steps to the template often leads to checklist fatigue. If we want to encourage AI tool usage, maybe we could add a note to our CONTRIBUTING.md instead of making it a mandatory PR checkbox? What do you think?

[jihoonson]

I'd like to propose we hold off on adding this checkbox. Reviewing our own code is a baseline expectation for opening a PR, and adding 'obvious' steps to the template often leads to checklist fatigue. If we want to encourage AI tool usage, maybe we could add a note to our CONTRIBUTING.md instead of making it a mandatory PR checkbox? What do you think?

I understand your concern, but this is to encourage the "manual" review in addition to using AI tools. Also I'm not quite sure how obvious the self review is compared to other checklists. I don't think the existing ones are not obvious. As you said, self-review is a baseline expectation and I think the checklist should remind of those baseline expectations.

[wjxiz1992]

I had a similar change in https://github.com/NVIDIA/spark-rapids/pull/14458/changes#diff-18813c86948efc57e661623d7ba48ff94325c9b5421ec9177f724922dd553a35R40. I agree with @jihoonson for this. And I think this could get merged earlier than mine, so I'll remove this change in my PR.

[jihoonson]

@amahussein have you had a chance to look at the new comments?

[amahussein]

@amahussein have you had a chance to look at the new comments?

I still lean toward the view that this adds unnecessary friction to the template, but I’ve made my case. I’ll step aside on this one—if another maintainer sees the value and wants to approve/merge, I won't object.

[jihoonson]

I don't really think this adds a friction. It rather helps ourselves to get everyone on the same page when the PR is ready for review. Updating docs, adding functionality tests, and running performance tests for new features are the baseline expectations. Yet we have them as checklists in the template because it helps us to remember them. Self-review is no different.

[jihoonson]

There is rather a growing concern on self-review as now we have AI assistants write most of code. We should set a clear expectation that every code written by AI assistants should be reviewed by the author.