News

CodeRabbit Adds Free AI Code Reviews Inside VS Code

• By John K. Waters
• May 16, 2025

CodeRabbit has released a new integration that brings its AI-based code review system directly into Visual Studio Code, along with support for the Cursor and Windsurf IDEs. The extension allows developers to access real-time, in-editor code reviews at no cost, offering a secondary review layer alongside existing Git-based workflows.

The move is intended to embed AI support earlier in the development lifecycle. Previously, CodeRabbit operated primarily on GitHub pull requests. Now, developers can receive AI feedback while coding, with the IDE-based reviews targeted at individual contributors and Git-based reviews handling team-level coordination before merge.

Automation Targets Code Review Bottleneck
As AI-generated code becomes more widespread, traditional manual review methods are proving insufficient to scale with faster development cycles. CodeRabbit's system operates by analyzing the developer's code in context—including repository structure, file dependencies, and organizational practices—using a combination of static analysis and large language models.

The IDE plugin functions as a lightweight companion during coding sessions. It uses Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) analysis, historical pull request data, and optionally, metadata from tools like Jira or Linear, to produce contextual feedback. CodeRabbit also supports reinforcement learning via its chat interface, allowing teams to refine review behavior over time.

In contrast to linters or static analyzers, the system is designed to interpret broader patterns, including coding style consistency, potential security violations, and behavioral implications of changes across modules.

Adoption and Scale
CodeRabbit is currently the most installed AI code review app on the GitHub Marketplace, with usage reported across 5,000 paid organizations and over 70,000 open-source projects. The company claims its AI systems cut manual review time in half and detect roughly twice as many defects as traditional manual reviews, based on internal benchmarks.

A study cited in the announcement from SmartBear suggests that developers review only about 400 lines of code per day manually. CodeRabbit aims to address this limitation with its dual-layer approach—surfacing bugs and inconsistencies early in the IDE and again before code is merged.

Contextual Reasoning and Extensibility
Unlike AI code generation tools that act as autocomplete systems, CodeRabbit focuses exclusively on review. Its models incorporate multiple inputs: source control metadata, project history, external documentation, and even dynamic data from real-time web sources when enabled.

The Git integration layer continues to serve as the formal checkpoint before deployment. Meanwhile, the IDE layer is designed for asynchronous, per-developer feedback, allowing for early correction without delaying the team-level pipeline.

CodeRabbit's system also supports customizable rules via AST templates, and its code graph engine enables cross-file analysis, a feature especially useful in large monorepos or domain-specific architectures.

Availability
The CodeRabbit plugin is available now on Visual Studio Code, with IDE reviews offered for free under rate limits. Git-based reviews remain part of the company's paid offerings for teams.