LGTM
Abbreviation · Hacker Culture
Definitions
Looks Good To Me — the standard code review approval phrase, ranging in sincerity from 'I carefully reviewed every line' to 'I glanced at the diff for three seconds while eating lunch.'
In plain English: An approval comment on a code review meaning 'this looks fine to me' — though the thoroughness of the review may vary wildly.
Origin Story
Four letters that stand between your code and production
**LGTM** — "Looks Good To Me" — is the universal stamp of approval in code review culture. Its origins trace to the early days of collaborative software development at companies like Google, where mandatory code reviews required at least one reviewer to formally approve a change before it could be merged.
At Google, the internal code review tool (originally Mondrian, later Critique) formalized the LGTM as an official approval status. But the abbreviation quickly spread beyond Google through open-source culture, GitHub pull requests, and developer blogs. By the 2010s, it was universal across the industry.
LGTM has developed its own subculture. There are LGTM image generators that create approval GIFs, and the term has acquired subtle shades of meaning. A bare "LGTM" can mean anything from genuine thorough approval to "I glanced at this for 30 seconds and it's probably fine." Experienced developers learn to read the difference.
Coined by: Google engineering culture (popularized)
Context: Google code review process, early 2000s
Fun fact: There's an informal industry joke that LGTM actually stands for 'Let's Get This Merged' — reflecting the reality that some reviewers approve changes more quickly than they probably should.