Reviewing Pull Requests Using Git Diff and Surrounding Code Context

A guide recommends beginning a code review with the local git diff and then examining definitions, callers, and imports around each change rather than judging lines in isolation. It explains that a desktop tool opens the project structure first, then displays files in source, full comparison, or changes-only views with highlighted edits. The approach ties every finding to reproducible evidence, including static checks, tests, and schema drift, and treats model-only claims as hypotheses until verified. The article cautions that static analysis can miss dynamic loading, framework entry points, and external consumers, so unreferenced files are not automatically safe to delete. It suggests reviewing the changes-only view first, then heavily referenced files and their callers to gauge the blast radius before judging individual lines.