LangGraph Code Review

When reviewing LangGraph code, check for these categories of issues.

Critical Issues

1. State Mutation Instead of Return

# BAD - mutates state directly
def my_node(state: State) -> None:
    state["messages"].append(new_message)  # Mutation!

# GOOD - returns partial update
def my_node(state: State) -> dict:
    return {"messages": [new_message]}  # Let reducer handle it

2. Missing Reducer for List Fields

# BAD - no reducer, each node overwrites
class State(TypedDict):
    messages: list  # Will be overwritten, not appended!

# GOOD - reducer appends
class State(TypedDict):
    messages: Annotated[list, operator.add]
    # Or use add_messages for chat:
    messages: Annotated[list, add_messages]

3. Wrong Return Type from Conditional Edge

# BAD - returns invalid node name
def router(state) -> str:
    return "nonexistent_node"  # Runtime error!

# GOOD - use Literal type hint for safety
def router(state) -> Literal["agent", "tools", "__end__"]:
    if condition:
        return "agent"
    return END  # Use constant, not string

4. Missing Checkpointer for Interrupts

# BAD - interrupt without checkpointer
def my_node(state):
    answer = interrupt("question")  # Will fail!
    return {"answer": answer}

graph = builder.compile()  # No checkpointer!

# GOOD - checkpointer required for interrupts
graph = builder.compile(checkpointer=InMemorySaver())

5. Forgetting Thread ID with Checkpointer

# BAD - no thread_id
graph.invoke({"messages": [...]})  # Error with checkpointer!

# GOOD - always provide thread_id
config = {"configurable": {"thread_id": "user-123"}}
graph.invoke({"messages": [...]}, config)

State Schema Issues

6. Using add_messages Without Message Types

# BAD - add_messages expects message-like objects
class State(TypedDict):
    messages: Annotated[list, add_messages]

def node(state):
    return {"messages": ["plain string"]}  # May fail!

# GOOD - use proper message types or tuples
def node(state):
    return {"messages": [("assistant", "response")]}
    # Or: [AIMessage(content="response")]

7. Returning Full State Instead of Partial

# BAD - returns entire state (may reset other fields)
def my_node(state: State) -> State:
    return {
        "counter": state["counter"] + 1,
        "messages": state["messages"],  # Unnecessary!
        "other": state["other"]          # Unnecessary!
    }

# GOOD - return only changed fields
def my_node(state: State) -> dict:
    return {"counter": state["counter"] + 1}

8. Pydantic State Without Annotations

# BAD - Pydantic model without reducer loses append behavior
class State(BaseModel):
    messages: list  # No reducer!

# GOOD - use Annotated even with Pydantic
class State(BaseModel):
    messages: Annotated[list, add_messages]

Graph Structure Issues

9. Missing Entry Point

# BAD - no edge from START
builder.add_node("process", process_fn)
builder.add_edge("process", END)
graph = builder.compile()  # Error: no entrypoint!

# GOOD - connect START
builder.add_edge(START, "process")

10. Unreachable Nodes

# BAD - orphan node
builder.add_node("main", main_fn)
builder.add_node("orphan", orphan_fn)  # Never reached!
builder.add_edge(START, "main")
builder.add_edge("main", END)

# Check with visualization
print(graph.get_graph().draw_mermaid())

11. Conditional Edge Without All Paths

# BAD - missing path in conditional
def router(state) -> Literal["a", "b", "c"]:
    ...

builder.add_conditional_edges("node", router, {"a": "a", "b": "b"})
# "c" path missing!

# GOOD - include all possible returns
builder.add_conditional_edges("node", router, {"a": "a", "b": "b", "c": "c"})
# Or omit path_map to use return values as node names

12. Command Without destinations

# BAD - Command return without destinations (breaks visualization)
def dynamic(state) -> Command[Literal["next", "__end__"]]:
    return Command(goto="next")

builder.add_node("dynamic", dynamic)  # Graph viz won't show edges

# GOOD - declare destinations
builder.add_node("dynamic"