Normal vs. Deep Review Mode in BugViper

Compare BugViper’s Normal and Deep review modes. Normal is fast with one generalist agent; Deep runs three specialized agents in parallel for thorough analysis.

BugViper offers two review modes that give you control over the trade-off between speed and depth. Both modes build a full call graph, score files by blast radius, and run a verifier pass — the difference is in how many agents review your code and how thoroughly each batch is analyzed. You can set a default for your repository and override it at any time using a comment on the PR.

Normal Mode

Normal mode routes all file batches through a single generalist agent that understands bugs, security issues, and performance concerns in one pass.

How it works:

• Your PR’s changed files are grouped into up to 4 batches using Louvain community detection.
• Each batch is reviewed sequentially by one generalist agent.
• The agent has access to the call graph, blast radius scores, and the PR diff for full context.
• Findings go through the verifier pass and dedup before being posted.

Best for:

• Everyday pull requests with moderate scope
• Fast feedback loops where speed matters
• Smaller PRs where a single agent can hold all the context
• Teams that want consistent, low-latency reviews on every commit

Normal mode is the default configuration for new repositories.

Deep Mode

Deep mode replaces the single generalist with three specialized sub-agents that run in parallel, each inside its own isolated E2B sandbox. Every batch is examined from three distinct angles simultaneously.

The three sub-agents:

Agent	Focus
Bug Correctness	Logic errors, incorrect assumptions, edge cases, off-by-one errors, null handling
Security	Injection risks, authentication flaws, insecure data handling, dependency vulnerabilities
Performance	Inefficient algorithms, unnecessary allocations, blocking I/O, N+1 query patterns

How it works:

• Your PR’s changed files are grouped into 2 batches.
• Each batch is sent to all 3 sub-agents simultaneously in parallel E2B containers.
• All findings are collected, verified against the diff, and deduped before posting.

Best for:

• Critical infrastructure changes
• Security-sensitive code (auth, payments, data access)
• Performance-critical paths
• Large refactors where a single agent might miss cross-cutting concerns
• Pre-release or pre-merge reviews on important branches

Mode Comparison

Feature	Normal	Deep
Agents	1 generalist	3 specialists (Bug, Security, Performance)
Batches	4	2
Speed	Fast	Slower (parallel agents offset cost)
Depth	Broad coverage in a single pass	Deeper per-domain analysis
Sandbox isolation	Single E2B sandbox	One E2B sandbox per sub-agent per batch
Use case	Everyday PRs, fast feedback	Critical changes, security reviews, large refactors

How to Trigger Each Mode

BugViper uses the review mode configured for your repository by default. You can change your default mode from the BugViper dashboard under repository settings.

To trigger a review from a PR comment, use:

@bugviper full review

This always uses your configured default mode. The @bugviper review command also respects the same default and is useful for incremental reviews as you push new commits.

Not sure which to use? Start with Normal mode for most PRs — it catches the majority of real issues with minimal latency. Switch to Deep mode when you’re merging into a protected branch, touching authentication or payment logic, or making a change that affects a high blast-radius module. You can always re-run in Deep mode by commenting again after a Normal review.