After a long day of coding, you run a programming mistake detector (PMD) to check your code’s health. The results come back with 27,000 violations. At that point, it’s not even clear where to start, or which of those issues actually matter. Seems familiar?
This is a situation we see a lot and while we’ve heard this come up in client engagements, we also don’t doubt it’s happened to our own in-house Devs as well. Static analysis tools are good at catching patterns, but they often generate more noise than signal. Developers are left sorting through thousands of findings, trying to separate real performance risks from low-impact warnings, all while keeping projects moving forward.
That’s exactly why we kept coming back to ApexGuru after it became generally available in 2024. Not because it finds more issues, but because it helps teams refocus on the ones that actually matter. It acts as a practical filter and, just as importantly, provides direction on where to go next, so effort is spent improving org health rather than chasing every possible warning.
This article looks at how ApexGuru works, why developers trust it, and how it differs from traditional static analysis tools. It’s a friendly reminder that code health can be manageable when teams focus on what really matters.
So, what is ApexGuru?
Working with ApexGuru, teams can see which parts of their Apex code are causing trouble and where improvements will make the biggest difference. Accessible through Salesforce’s Scale Center, ApexGuru surfaces its insights alongside broader performance and experience views, helping teams understand code health in context rather than in isolation. It can flag:
- Code smells
- Security vulnerabilities
- Optimization opportunities
- Improvements in code quality and developer productivity
- Recommend fixes
Once it’s turned on, ApexGuru Insights runs on a weekly basis, providing a regular snapshot of your code health. Each run scans your code and compares results to past scans, showing progress over time. The reports rank issues from critical to low priority, giving developers a clear roadmap, highlighting what’s most urgent, what’s improving, and what’s next.
Why do Developers love it?
Checking code health can be one of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of a developer’s day. If you’ve been in the game for a while now, you’ve felt this pain. Running scans, sorting through thousands of findings, and trying to figure out which issues actually matter can quickly eat into time that could be spent building features or improving performance. This is where ApexGuru Insights becomes practical for teams dealing with overwhelming code findings:
- Faster code reviews because issues are flagged automatically
- Better code quality with fewer bugs and security risks caught early
- Less technical debt resulting in cleaner, easier-to-maintain code
- Easier onboarding because new developers can see standards and problem areas clearly from day one
In our experience, the difference becomes clear in how teams can focus on the issues that truly matter, instead of getting lost in thousands of low-priority warnings.
Comparing ApexGuru with Traditional Static Analysis Tools
We’ve seen teams spend hours digging through thousands of low-priority findings just to figure out what actually matters. Standard static analysis tools catch the obvious issues, like a SOQL query inside a loop, but they often miss the hidden problems that appear when code interacts across methods. That means a query buried in a method that’s called inside a loop can go undetected, leaving developers stuck trying to separate signal from noise.
Example: List<String> results = new List<String>(); for (String idVal : recordIds) { results.add(HelperClass.fetchValueById(idVal)); } |
ApexGuru Insights approaches this differently. It follows how code actually executes across methods and classes, uncovering hidden performance, security, and maintainability issues that traditional tools often miss. In one org we looked at, a PMD scan produced over 27,000 findings. The same org scanned with ApexGuru Insights highlighted a much smaller, actionable set: 11 code violations, 51 SOQL/DML violations, 7 expensive methods, and 15 unused classes. It also flags issues that affect Salesforce governor limits and overall org performance. That way, developer effort is spent on fixes that actually move the org forward, not chasing noise.
Why It Matters for the Business
Focusing on the right issues doesn’t just make life easier for individual developers. When teams can cut through the noise, they spend their time on changes that actually improve speed, reliability, and security. Systems run more smoothly, developer effort goes where it matters, and the org avoids accumulating unnecessary technical debt.
Most tools leave teams with more questions than answers. ApexGuru Insights narrows the focus to the issues that matter most and gives clear guidance on what to address next. If you want to see what that could look like for your team, let’s chat.