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What to Check in AI-Generated Code: Verification Priorities by Code Type

Shiori
Shiori

What This Article Covers

Reviewing every line of AI-generated code becomes impractical as the volume grows. At the same time, accepting all of it without any review carries risk. This article presents verification priorities organized by code type, based on my own experience. Adjustments will be needed depending on the nature of your project.

Code Types and Verification Priority

Priority: High — External Service Connection Configuration

Code that includes API keys, credentials, or connection settings for external services requires verification every time.

Specifically, I check where API keys are stored and whether authentication is configured correctly. AI generally writes code with the right structure, but key handling can end up in unexpected places. In one case, an API key was written directly into a configuration file that was then included in a Git commit. Because external services are involved and problems can take significant time to resolve, this category is always the first to verify.

Priority: High — Logic That Modifies or Deletes Data

Processes that update a database, overwrite files, or remove records require verification before running.

I check whether conditions are set correctly — for example, whether something intended to apply only to a specific user is not accidentally applying to everyone — and whether a confirmation step exists before deletion. Since these operations are difficult or impossible to reverse after execution, they are a high priority for review.

Priority: Medium — Calculation and Transformation Logic

Numerical calculations, data format conversions, and aggregation logic get verified through sample cases.

AI usually gets the structure of these operations right, but checking how boundary values are handled — zero, empty, maximum — is a useful step. Verifying every possible combination is not realistic, so I test a small number of representative cases and likely edge cases.

Priority: Low — Display and Design Code

Code related to layout, styling, and visual presentation is primarily verified by viewing the rendered result.

I open the page and check whether it looks as intended. Checking the visual output is more efficient than reading the underlying code in detail for this category.

The Process I Follow

  • Before receiving code, I identify which category it falls into.
  • When API keys or credentials are involved, I check where they are stored and whether the file is excluded from version control.
  • For data modification logic, I read the conditions to confirm they apply within the intended scope.
  • For calculation logic, I run the code with representative values and check the output.
  • For display code, I open a browser and verify the rendered page.

Summary

Reviewing all AI-generated code in detail is not necessary, but adjusting the depth of review based on the scope of impact and the difficulty of reversing a change is a practical approach. Checking what affects external services or cannot be undone first, and applying lighter verification to lower-risk code, is the framework I have found most useful in practice.

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