# Getting started

{% hint style="info" %}
Coming soon - I'll be putting together a short course on code review :)
{% endhint %}

## Why code review?

Before we dive into why, it's worth mentioning that this section is related to code review with the intent of finding security vulnerabilities and weaknesses within web applications. Not the typical peer review carried out be development teams. If you're interested in code review in general, this is a good place to start <https://about.gitlab.com/topics/version-control/what-is-code-review/>. From now on, we'll be looking at code review to support pentesting and security research activities.

There are many benefits to code review, and it's a skill that takes time to build. The main benefits are:

* Easily spot certain vulnerabilities or weaknesses
  * Hardcoded credentials
  * Weak encryption
  * Insecure libraries or dependencies
* Find hidden or complex vulnerabilities
* Find malicious code (e.g. backdoors)
* Achieve compliance


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://appsecexplained.gitbook.io/appsecexplained/code-review/getting-started.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.