Automated Code Review Using Large Language Models with Symbolic Reasoning

Icoz B., BİRİCİK G.

9th International Symposium on Innovative Approaches in Smart Technologies, ISAS 2025, Gaziantep, Turkey, 27 - 28 June 2025, (Full Text) identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Doi Number: 10.1109/isas66241.2025.11101776
  • City: Gaziantep
  • Country: Turkey
  • Keywords: automated code review, code review, large language models, prompt techniques, symbolic reasoning
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Code review is one of the key processes in the software development lifecycle and is essential to maintain code quality. However, manual code review is subjective and time consuming. Given its rule-based nature, code review is well suited for automation. In recent years, significant efforts have been made to automate this process with the help of artificial intelligence. Recent developments in Large Language Models (LLMs) have also emerged as a promising tool in this area, but these models often lack the logical reasoning capabilities needed to fully understand and evaluate code. To overcome this limitation, this study proposes a hybrid approach that integrates symbolic reasoning techniques with LLMs to automate the code review process. We tested our approach using the CodexGlue dataset, comparing several models, including CodeT5, CodeBERT, and GraphCodeBERT, to assess the effectiveness of combining symbolic reasoning and prompting techniques with LLMs. Our results show that this approach improves the accuracy and efficiency of automated code review.