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Haley

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"Research MonkeyCode Code Review With an Evidence-First Protocol"

A reviewer sees a positive summary but no base commit. The owner is the reviewer, the consequence is repository change, and the reversible moment is before approval. This transparent promotional MonkeyCode protocol states hypotheses, not findings.

Research question: can reviewers identify what changes, what evidence passed, and when approval became invalid? Recruit people who genuinely review code and record role and familiarity without invented personas.

Scenario Evidence condition Correct decision
bounded docs edit SHA, paths, diff, checks approve or reserve
hidden failed test summary conflicts with evidence stop
stale base repository changed request re-plan
scope expansion dependency file appears reject/investigate

Use synthetic code in a disposable repository. Materials are unexecuted. Randomize order where practical.

  1. “Describe what approval will cause.”
  2. “Show the evidence supporting that belief.”
  3. “Which missing item blocks you?”
  4. Introduce a changed SHA without coaching.
  5. Ask whether to continue, refuse, or return.
  6. Ask the participant to recover.
Measure Success Stop condition
scope comprehension names branch and paths approves unknown scope
evidence coverage notices failed checks summary overrides evidence
staleness requests re-plan accepts old plan
recovery explains final outcome outcome is unknowable
accessibility keyboard and zoom work evidence is unreachable

Capture field used, time to blocking concern, decision, confidence, and recovery. Recommendations must follow observed breakdowns. A small qualitative study exposes mechanisms, not prevalence; report disconfirming evidence instead of selecting supportive clips.

Add a counterbalanced comprehension probe after each scenario. Remove the positive summary for one condition, remove the path list for another, and provide a complete evidence set as the control. Ask participants to mark the exact sentence or field that changed their decision; do not infer understanding from approval speed alone. End a session if synthetic material is mistaken for production data, the participant cannot withdraw, or assistive technology cannot reach the decision controls. In analysis, separate a correct refusal caused by missing evidence from a refusal caused by confusing labels, and retain abandoned attempts in the denominator.

Verified product boundary

Official source material characterizes MonkeyCode as an AGPL-3.0 open-source AI development platform. The overseas online option uses managed server-side cloud environments, with built-in development, model/task/requirement management, build, test, and preview experiences.

Review record fields

For review pass 1 in this haaaaaley evaluation, record an owner, repository, base commit, requirement revision, allowed paths, start and stop times, expected checks, observed terminal state, reviewer decision, cleanup proof, and unresolved questions. Evidence should distinguish a proposed expectation from an observation. Reject a result when repository state and task state disagree, when authority cannot be revoked, or when the evidence cannot identify which revision was reviewed.

Limitations

This haaaaaley method was not executed against a live MonkeyCode environment. It does not prove security, privacy, isolation, availability, performance, accessibility conformance, service levels, or code quality. Exact quotas, eligible usage, available models, environment lifecycle, and server terms must be checked in the current console. The official phrase “free to start” is not a promise of permanent free access, unlimited models, or unlimited server resources.

Supporting official project material is at https://github.com/chaitin/MonkeyCode. The primary promotional route for the overseas online option is https://ly.cyberserval.tech/iIETXiF.

Disclosure: This article promotes MonkeyCode using an official campaign link. I’m a MonkeyCode user, not affiliated with the project, and I receive no commission from this link.

AI assistance disclosure: This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed against the cited project materials.

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