Aviator

What is Aviator?

Aviator is an AI-powered developer experience infrastructure designed to streamline the code review and merging process. It provides tools inspired by Google's practices to help engineering teams scale their workflows for creating, reviewing, testing, and merging code changes efficiently in large repositories.

Top Features:

• FlexReview Teams: replaces GitHub CODEOWNERS with intelligent reviewer suggestions based on domain expertise.
• MergeQueue: manages parallel queues to keep builds green while handling thousands of PRs at scale.
• Stacked PRs: breaks down large changes into smaller, manageable PRs that stack on each other.
• Flaky Test Suppression: automatically detects and handles flaky tests to prevent false build failures.
• Aviator Agents: LLM-based framework that performs large-scale code migrations in repositories.

Use Cases:

• Monorepo Management: merge into large repositories without interfering with other developers' work.
• Code Review Optimization: get smarter reviewer assignments based on expertise and code complexity.
• Build Stabilization: eliminate broken builds caused by flaky tests or incompatible changes.
• Deployment Tracking: monitor which changes are in which environments across your services.
• Cross-PR Dependencies: manage interdependent code changes without breaking functionality.

Who Can Use Aviator?

• Engineering Teams at Scale: teams with 15+ developers working on shared codebases benefit most.
• Monorepo Maintainers: anyone managing large repositories with multiple contributors and frequent changes.
• DevOps Professionals: people responsible for build stability and deployment pipeline health.
• Engineering Leaders: managers looking to improve team productivity and reduce merge bottlenecks.

Pricing

• Runbooks Hobby (Free): 20k credits/mo, max 10 tasks/mo, 1 repo.
• Runbooks Pro ($10/month): 10k credits, rollover, parallel tasks, email support. Most popular.
• MergeQueue Free ($0/user/month): Free under 15 users, stack-aware queue.
• MergeQueue Pro ($12/user/month): Mid-size teams, APIs, email support. Most popular.
• Releases Pro ($8/user/month): Mid-size teams, changelogs, rollbacks. Most popular.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• CI Tool Agnostic: works with any CI platform you currently use in your workflow.
• Automated Rebasing: handles branch updates automatically, reducing manual intervention.
• Free Tier Available: teams under 15 developers can use the platform at no cost.
• Enterprise Ready: includes SOC2 Type II compliance and SAML authentication for large organizations.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: requires time to understand and implement the various components effectively.
• GitHub Focus: primary integration appears to be with GitHub, limiting users of other platforms.
• Pricing Structure: cost information isn't clearly presented for teams over 15 developers.
• Feature Complexity: many overlapping features might confuse new users about what to implement first.

FAQs:

1) How does Aviator handle flaky tests?

Aviator's TestDeck proactively detects flaky tests and automatically reruns them using smart rules you can configure.

2) Can Aviator work with repositories other than GitHub?

The documentation primarily mentions GitHub integration, but Aviator claims to connect with any source-control system.

3) What size team benefits most from Aviator?

While free for teams under 15 developers, Aviator provides the most value for larger teams with complex workflows.

4) Does Aviator require changes to existing CI pipelines?

No, Aviator is CI-agnostic and plugs into your existing CI tools without requiring significant changes.

5) How does the stacked PR feature help with code reviews?

It breaks large changes into smaller, related PRs that can be reviewed independently, making reviews faster and more focused.