Looks good to me (LGTM)
20 Apr 2026
In this moment:
Ash Winter
A while back Ash Winter wrote about looks good to me culture (LGTM) and the feel good vibes stuck. In some senses, it perhaps shouldn't have appealed so much to me, especially as it can be looked at in frustration. It can be a real problem, when people say it LGTM without any additional or relevant context.
Good communication is at the heart of quality, and using it 'looks good to me' can be a quality signal, if done well.
According to Ash Winter, Looks Good To Me is a shorthand sign-off, written in full or abbreviated as LGTM, or sometimes left entirely blank, used to approve software artefacts such as bugs, tickets, and pull requests. It appears across roles: testers, quality engineers, developers doing exploratory testing, and those conducting code reviews.
Good communication is at the heart of quality, and using it 'looks good to me' can be a quality signal, if done well.
According to Ash Winter, Looks Good To Me is a shorthand sign-off, written in full or abbreviated as LGTM, or sometimes left entirely blank, used to approve software artefacts such as bugs, tickets, and pull requests. It appears across roles: testers, quality engineers, developers doing exploratory testing, and those conducting code reviews.
The phrase signals approval, yet it runs the risk of creating breaking down when the testing activity that has not happened, or not communicated. Also, when we think of good communication, what looks good to one person may look quite different to someone with more context.
Personally, I love the idea of embedding LGTM culture into our day to day work
Some ideas around this include:
Personally, I love the idea of embedding LGTM culture into our day to day work
Some ideas around this include:
- Write notes that to tell a more complete story: what was tested, what was left out and why, and anything worth revisiting later.
- Notes can be superhelpful for future versions of ourselves, we can treat them like documentation.
- Encourage conversations around the releases. Within MoT we often discuss releases in Slack conversations. We often ask clarifying questions or jump into to do some quick live exploratory style testing.
- Sign off with a LGTM emoji react. We do this within the MoTaverse. And emoji react on it's own is not enough, always back it up with some further notes.
- This does not need to be only for code changes, it can be for design, content, and approval of any process.
What else would you add to this list?
Rosie Sherry
CEO & Founder at Ministry of Testing
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I've been working in the software testing and quality engineering space since the year 2000 whilst also combining it with my love for education and community. It turns out quality, community and education go nicely hand in hand.
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