Time to First Review Received
Pull Request Lifecycle
hours
Measures how long pull request authors wait to receive their first feedback.
💡 Like waiting for a reply to a work email, the longer you wait, the more context you lose and the harder it is to act on feedback quickly.
What It Measures
Measures how long pull request authors wait to receive their first feedback.
Why It Matters
Understanding how long authors wait for actionable reviews
Highlighting potential delays in the feedback loop
How It's Calculated
Calculates the median hours between PR creation and the first non-author action, excluding actions under 1 minute.
WEIGHTED_MEDIAN(hours(pr_created_at, first_non_author_action) WHERE action_duration > 1 minute)Concrete Example
If authors wait a median of 5 hours for first feedback, their workday can end before they receive any review comments, slowing the whole pipeline.
What Does a Healthy Score Look Like?
Lower is better, authors should not wait long for actionable feedback.
Healthy
Under 4 hours
Watch Out
4–12 hours
Needs Attention
Over 12 hours, authors are routinely waiting overnight for feedback
What Moves This Metric?
Goes up when…
High reviewer workload causing delays
Author submitting PRs just before end of day
Reviewers being in different time zones
Goes down when…
Reviewer SLAs and expectations being set explicitly
Authors giving advance notice to reviewers before submitting
Smaller PRs that are quicker to review
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