Sourcery

What is Sourcery? Your AI-Powered Pair Programmer

Sourcery is a game-changing AI coding assistant developed by Sourcery AI, designed to help developers write better code, faster. Think of it as an expert pair programmer that works right inside your editor, constantly analyzing your Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript code to offer intelligent refactoring suggestions. Its primary mission isn’t just to write code for you, but to elevate the quality, readability, and maintainability of the code you’ve already written, making your entire codebase cleaner and more efficient.

Core Capabilities: Beyond Simple Code Completion

While many AI tools focus on generating new content, Sourcery specializes in the domain of code intelligence and enhancement. It doesn’t generate images or videos; its canvas is your source code. Its key capabilities include:

• Intelligent Code Refactoring: Sourcery automatically scans your code for opportunities to improve. It can simplify complex logic, remove redundant code, and apply best practices with a single click.
• Automated Code Review: Integrated with GitHub, Sourcery acts like an automated team member, reviewing pull requests and leaving comments with suggestions to maintain high code quality across your team.
• On-Demand Code Generation: Need a unit test for a function? Or perhaps a clear docstring? Simply ask Sourcery, and it will generate high-quality, relevant code snippets for you.
• Duplicate Code Detection: It helps you keep your code DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) by identifying and helping you consolidate duplicated code blocks.

Key Features That Make Sourcery Stand Out

Sourcery is packed with powerful features to seamlessly integrate into your workflow:

• Seamless IDE Integration: Works directly within your favorite editors, including VS Code, PyCharm, Vim, and Sublime Text, providing real-time feedback as you type.
• GitHub Bot: The Sourcery GitHub bot automates code reviews, ensuring consistent quality standards are met before any code is merged.
• Customizable Rules: Tailor Sourcery’s suggestions to match your team’s specific coding style and standards by creating your own custom rules.
• Whole-Project Analysis: Go beyond single files. Sourcery can scan your entire repository to find and fix issues on a larger scale.
• Learning Tool: Each suggestion comes with an explanation, helping junior developers learn best practices and improve their skills on the job.

Sourcery Pricing Plans

Sourcery offers a flexible pricing structure to suit everyone from hobbyists to large enterprises.

Free Plan

Price: $0

• Ideal for students, hobbyists, and open-source projects.
• Includes core refactoring suggestions in the IDE.
• Free for public repositories on GitHub.

Pro Plan

Price: ~$10 per month

• Perfect for individual professional developers.
• Includes all Free features plus:
• Support for private repositories.
• Advanced refactoring capabilities.
• Duplicate code detection.

Teams Plan

Price: ~$25 per user/month

• Designed for professional development teams.
• Includes all Pro features plus:
• Centralized billing and management.
• Shared team-wide configuration and custom rules.
• Priority support.

Who is Sourcery For?

Sourcery is a must-have tool for a wide range of tech professionals:

• Python, JavaScript & TypeScript Developers: The core audience who will benefit from daily code quality improvements.
• Software Engineering Teams: Teams looking to enforce consistent coding standards and streamline code reviews.
• Data Scientists: Professionals who write Python for analysis and modeling and want to improve the robustness of their code.
• Engineering Managers: Leaders who want to boost team productivity and improve the overall health of their codebase.
• Open Source Contributors: Individuals who want to ensure their contributions are of the highest quality.

Sourcery Alternatives & Comparisons

How does Sourcery stack up against other popular AI coding tools?

Sourcery vs. GitHub Copilot

This is a classic “better together” scenario. GitHub Copilot excels at generating new code from comments and context (autocompletion). Sourcery excels at analyzing and improving existing code. Use Copilot to write the first draft, and Sourcery to clean it up and perfect it.

Sourcery vs. SonarLint

SonarLint is primarily a static analysis tool focused on finding bugs, security vulnerabilities, and “code smells.” Sourcery is more focused on improving code structure, readability, and applying best practices through refactoring. While there is some overlap, SonarLint is your security guard, while Sourcery is your style and structure coach.

Sourcery vs. Tabnine

Similar to Copilot, Tabnine is an AI code completion tool that predicts and suggests your next lines of code. It focuses on accelerating the writing process. Sourcery, on the other hand, focuses on the refining process, making it a distinct and valuable addition to any developer’s toolkit.