Isolate Controversial Changes
CHANGE-ISOLATE-CONTROVERSIAL-CHANGES
Summary
Put risky or contentious moves in their own review unit when they can stand alone. This lets reviewers approve, reject, or revise the decision without incidental cleanup attached.
Rule
Isolate controversial changes.
Why
Formatting, renames, API breaks, dependency changes, unsafe code, large rewrites, and behavior changes all invite different review questions. Putting a controversial move in its own change lets reviewers evaluate that decision without also approving incidental cleanup.
Helps
- Keeps contentious decisions explicit and makes reverting or revising them cheaper.
Limits
Do not split a change so much that the intermediate state is misleading or impossible to validate. Isolate the controversy when it can stand as its own decision.
Agent Instruction
Isolate controversial changes because formatting, renames, API breaks, dependency changes, unsafe code,
large rewrites, and behavior changes all invite different review questions.Mechanisms
Supported by separate jj changes, clear descriptions, PR labels, ADR links, focused tests, and review notes that name the controversial part.