[Bitbucket] Automatically assign code owners as pull request reviewers

[Bitbucket] Automatically assign code owners as pull request reviewers

As your team and product portfolio expand, expertise in various areas of your code base may become distributed among different team members or across teams. This can pose challenges when determining the most suitable individuals to assign as reviewers for pull requests.

To address this challenge, Bitbucket Cloud now offers a solution: You can designate suggested reviewers for specific areas of the code base by incorporating a code owners configuration file into your repository. This file comprises rules outlining which individuals own specific paths or patterns within your repository. Leveraging these rules, Bitbucket can automatically assign reviewers to a pull request based on the files being modified.

When initiating a new pull request, Bitbucket automatically scans for the presence of a CODEOWNERS file in the .bitbucket directory of the repository. Upon discovery, each rule within this file is compared to the diff of the pull request. For every matching rule, the associated users are automatically suggested as reviewers.

Default reviewers for specific file paths or patterns

The code owners syntax provides the flexibility to designate individuals, groups, or custom-defined teams as default reviewers for specific file paths or patterns. When utilizing groups and teams, you can specify the number of reviewers to select and define the selection criteria. Here are some examples of how this syntax can be used:

.bitbucket/CODEOWNERS

                            # .bitbucket/CODEOWNERS
                    
                            # Default reviewers for files not matching patterns below
                            *      shubham@example.com verma@example.com
                    
                            # Choose all members of a workspace group
                            *.js   @workspace-idk/frontenders:all
                    
                            # Choose group members tagged on the fewest open PRs
                            *.py   @workspace-be/backenders:least_busy(2)
                    
                            # Choose randomly from a custom team (defined in teams.yaml)
                            *.tf   @teams/sre-leads:random(2)
                          

Are you ready to witness code owners in action?

Just add a CODEOWNERS file to the .bitbucket directory within your repository, and then create a new pull request.

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Conclusion:

In conclusion, implementing the automatic assignment of code owners as pull request reviewers offers a streamlined approach to managing code reviews in your development workflow. By leveraging code owners configuration files, teams can ensure that the most knowledgeable individuals or teams are automatically suggested as reviewers for specific areas of the code base. This not only saves time and effort in identifying suitable reviewers but also promotes a more efficient and collaborative review process. With this feature, Bitbucket Cloud provides teams with the tools they need to maintain code quality and facilitate smoother code review workflows.

Related Keywords:

Enhancing Code Review Efficiency: The Power of Automatically Assigned Code Owners

Streamlining Pull Request Reviews: Automating Reviewer Assignments with Code Owners

Efficient Code Collaboration: Harnessing Code Owners for Automated Reviewer Assignments

Optimizing Code Review Processes: Leveraging Automated Reviewer Assignments via Code Owners

Empowering Teams: The Role of Automatically Assigned Code Owners in Pull Request Reviews