Fresh-Eyes Review

Fresh-Eyes Review

Core Principle

"NO COMMIT WITHOUT FRESH-EYES REVIEW FIRST"

This represents a final quality gate executed after implementation completion, passing tests, and peer review. The discipline applies universally, even without explicit skill activation.

Key Distinctions

Fresh-eyes review differs fundamentally from testing and code review:

Critical insight: "100% test coverage and passing scenarios" can coexist with "critical bugs" waiting discovery.

Required Process

Step 1 - Announce Commitment

Explicitly declare: "Starting fresh-eyes review of [N] files. This will take 2-5 minutes."

This announcement creates accountability and reframes your mindset from implementation to audit.

Step 2 - Security Vulnerability Checklist

Review all touched files for security issues:

Example finding:

// Before: SQL injection vulnerability
const user = await db.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '${userId}'`);

// After: Parameterized query
const user = await db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1', [userId]);

Step 3 - Logic Error Checklist

Example finding:

// Before: Off-by-one in pagination
const hasMore = results.length < pageSize;

// After: Correct boundary
const hasMore = results.length === pageSize;

Step 4 - Business Rule Checklist

Example finding:

// Before: Tax calculation uses wrong rounding
const tax = price * 0.08;

// After: Proper currency rounding
const tax = Math.round(price * 0.08 * 100) / 100;

Step 5 - Performance Checklist

Step 6 - Fix Immediately

Address findings before declaring completion:

1. Make the fix
2. Add test covering the issue (if not present)
3. Re-run full test suite
4. Re-run linter/​type checker

Step 7 - Declare Results

Mandatory announcement:

Fresh-eyes complete. [N] issues found and fixed:
- [Brief description of each issue and fix]

Include this even for zero findings—it proves execution.

Time Commitment

Warning signs:

• Faster than 2 minutes suggests insufficient depth
• More than 5 minutes indicates scope creep—stay focused on the changed code

Resistance Patterns to Reject

The following rationalizations must be explicitly rejected:

These circumstances represent precisely when critical bugs escape into production.

Example Workflow

User: "I'm done implementing the auth feature, let me commit"
Assistant: [Triggers fresh-eyes-review skill]

Starting fresh-eyes review of 4 files. This will take 2-5 minutes.

[Reviews auth.ts for security]
- Found: Missing input validation on email field
- Fixed: Added email format validation

[Reviews handler.ts for logic]
- Found: Off-by-one error in pagination
- Fixed: Changed < to <= in boundary check

[Reviews db.ts for performance]
- No issues found

[Reviews api.ts for business rules]
- No issues found

Re-running tests... All tests pass

Fresh-eyes complete. 2 issues found and fixed.