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arXiv · 2512.17540

SGCR: A Specification-Grounded Framework for Trustworthy LLM Code Review

Kai Wang·Bingcheng Mao·Shuai Jia·Yujie Ding·Dongming Han·Tianyi Ma·Bin Cao
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Abstract

Automating code review with Large Language Models (LLMs) shows immense promise, yet practical adoption is hampered by their lack of reliability, context-awareness, and control. To address this, we propose Specification-Grounded Code Review (SGCR), a framework that grounds LLMs in human-authored specifications to produce trustworthy and relevant feedback. SGCR features a novel dual-pathway architecture: an explicit path ensures deterministic compliance with predefined rules derived from these specifications, while an implicit path heuristically discovers and verifies issues beyond those rules. Deployed in a live industrial environment at HiThink Research, SGCR's suggestions achieved a 42% developer adoption rate-a 90.9% relative improvement over a baseline LLM (22%). Our work demonstrates that specification-grounding is a powerful paradigm for bridging the gap between the generative power of LLMs and the rigorous reliability demands of software engineering.

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Kai Wang, Bingcheng Mao, Shuai Jia, Yujie Ding, Dongming Han, Tianyi Ma, Bin Cao. 2025-12-19. SGCR: A Specification-Grounded Framework for Trustworthy LLM Code Review. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17540

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