A nonblocking issue is a code-review concern that does not prevent a pull request from being approved or integrated under the team’s agreed policy. Teams decide this boundary together because severity and tolerance vary. section 3.3.3 section 4.2.3
Common nonblocking issues include:
- Personal style preferences that differ from the team’s established coding style. section 3.3.3
- Minor formatting discrepancies, such as inconsistent spacing or indentation. section 3.3.3
- Documentation typos or minor inconsistencies. section 3.3.3
- Optional features, minor refactors, or unrelated improvements that can be handled separately. section 3.3.3
Turn recurring judgments into policy
A reviewer may record a spacing inconsistency or suggest a small refactor without withholding approval. A missing core behavior should follow the team’s blocking-issue rules instead. Document such examples in the Team Working Agreement, revisit ambiguous cases in retrospectives, and distinguish withholding approval from rejecting a pull request. section 3.3.3 section 4.2.3
Figure 3.3 Blocking vs. nonblocking issues
Use the blocking-versus-nonblocking comparison to classify review comments consistently. section 3.3.3
