Developers often face challenges deciphering code written by others, even in organizations that have strict guidelines and documentation in place. Recognizing this complication, Dennis Pilarinos created Unblocked, an AI-driven assistant designed to answer in-depth questions about specific code sections.
Pilarinos is recognized for his expertise in shaping developer tools, with previous roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, and for launching Buddybuild, a remote team integration platform acquired by Apple. Frustrated by the tedious nature of seeking out information buried within codebases, Pilarinos sought a way to combine conversation history, documentation, and live code into a single system that delivers straightforward answers.
According to Pilarinos, as artificial intelligence-based programming becomes more ingrained in development processes, the difficulty of navigating unfamiliar code is expected to climb. Unblocked addresses these hurdles by working directly with popular work environments such as Slack, Jira, Notion, Confluence, and Google Drive, giving users a powerful way to pose questions like “Where are user metrics defined in our system?”
How Unblocked Streamlines Development
Developers can utilize Unblocked to identify contributors to specific modules and quickly connect with them to clarify questions. The platform features robust administrative controls, and the company is also exploring deeper integrations with services like Cursor and Lovable for enhanced interpretability of code.
In addition to its core Q and A capabilities, Unblocked is introducing new solutions that aid development efforts more proactively, such as the Autonomous CI Triage tool, which runs code through a variety of test scenarios for better reliability. Businesses like Drata, AppDirect, Big Cartel, and TravelPerk already use Unblocked, and Drata’s engineering team reports saving up to two hours each week thanks to the tool.
Recently, Unblocked secured twenty million dollars in Series A funding with backing from B Capital and Radical Ventures, increasing its total investment raised to thirty million dollars. Rob Toews of Radical Ventures believes that as AI-generated code becomes more common, tools like Unblocked will be critical for teams looking to understand the who, how, and why behind individual code changes.
Toews compared Unblocked’s role in making complex codebases manageable to how other platforms have helped companies unearth insights from vast stores of data. As artificial intelligence continues shaping the creation and management of software, AI-powered coding assistant aims to be a vital resource for development teams everywhere. Similar innovations can also be seen with Google’s AI coding assistant, which helps developers improve productivity and code quality.
