GitHub defines
CODEOWNERS
config . However, its semantics is not expressive enough to capture the actual shape of code ownership. We define a new format to define ownership for the codebase. GitHub CODEOWNERS file GitHub's CODEOWNERS file uses the last-matching rule. When one file matches with multiple lines in the file, the last one takes the precedence and other entries are not in effect. For example, imagine that you have following
CODEOWNERS
file. Copy
# CODEOWNERS
src @acme-corp/engineering
src/ios @acme-corp/ios-eng
src/ios/auth @acme-corp/ios-auth-eng
src/ios/net @acme-corp/ios-net-eng
If you modify files in
src/ios/auth
and
src/ios/net
, your PR needs an approval from two teams due to the last-matching rule. However, based on the file paths, it could have had a reviewer from
@ios-eng
because all the files are under
src/ios
. The format allows you to put multiple teams on one line. By using this, you can put
@ios-eng
to all child directory entries to see if it can minimize the number of reviewers. This ends up in picking a reviewer from each team. For this reason, we see that
CODEOWNERS
not flexible enough. When using FlexReview with just the CODEOWNERS file, Aviator reviewer assignment should still work within the CODEOWNERS bounds. If there are multiple teams assigned on a single line, Aviator will only choose reviewers from the first team. Aviator OWNERS file and distributed aviator-config.yaml These optional owner configuration files enhance FlexReview's capabilities by providing more flexibility than the traditional CODEOWNERS file. To address the limitations of the CODEOWNERS file, we introduce two optional files:
.aviator/OWNERS
aviator-config.yaml
Aviator OWNERS file The
.aviator/OWNERS
file follows a similar format to GitHub's
CODEOWNERS
but allows only one team per line. However, ownership interpretation differs: Owners : All matching teams are considered owners of a file. Direct Owners : The team with the longest matching path. Indirect Owners : All other matching teams except the direct owner. Example: For a file under
src/ios/auth
, the ownership is: Owners:
@engineering
,
@ios-eng
,
@ios-auth-eng
Direct Owners:
@ios-auth-eng
Indirect Owners:
@engineering
,
@ios-eng
FlexReview recognizes ownership recursively based on directory structure. aviator-config.yaml The
aviator-config.yaml
file provides an alternative way to configure ownership with a structured format and can be placed in any directory within the repository. Example: The
paths
field is optional; if omitted, all files in the directory (recursively) belong to the specified team. Paths are interpreted relative to the directory containing
aviator-config.yaml
. Ownership follows the most specific path match, similar to
.aviator/OWNERS
. Choosing a Format For initial onboarding, we recommend starting with
.aviator/OWNERS
since it closely resembles GitHub's CODEOWNERS file, making adoption easier. Over time, you can transition to
aviator-config.yaml
files. This approach allows teams to manage their ownership independently and ensures ownership information moves along with the code when it is relocated. By leveraging these files, FlexReview provides a scalable and flexible way to define ownership in your repository. Common owners for cross-team code review When a PR modifies files owned by different direct owners, FlexReview tries to find a common owner . Let's say a PR modifies files under
src/ios/auth
and
src/ios/net
. The related owners are inferred as this: Owners:
@engineering
,
@ios-eng
,
@ios-auth-eng
,
@ios-net-eng
Direct Owners:
@ios-auth-eng
,
@ios-net-eng
Indirect Owners:
@engineering
,
@ios-eng
If there are more than one direct owner for a PR, FlexReview tries to find the common owner based on the file paths. In this case,
@ios-eng
is the common owner of both teams, and it will assign a reviewer from that team. Previous Read-Only Mode in FlexReview Next Reviewer suggestion and assignment Last updated 8 months ago Was this helpful?