CodeRabbit brings free AI reviews into VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf
May 2025 product note: CodeRabbit ships IDE reviews as a lightweight pre-PR pass, with fuller PR reviews still recommended for production.
Source: Free AI code reviews in VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf — CodeRabbit
CodeRabbit’s IDE extension announcement makes the pre-PR vs PR-review split explicit: free, lightweight reviews in the editor to catch bugs before a PR exists, and a heavier PR reviewer with more context for production workflows.
Why it matters for code review
Shift-left review changes the metrics. IDE reviews optimize for speed and early catch; PR reviews optimize for codebase context and merge gating. Treat them as different products even when they share a brand.