Unblocked AI Tool Transforms Developer Code Understanding and Collaboration

Every developer has a unique coding style, which often makes understanding someone else’s codebase challenging despite established best practices and documentation. To address this, Dennis Pilarinos created Unblocked, an AI-powered assistant that answers contextual questions about code, helping developers quickly grasp complex codebases.

Dennis Pilarinos brings extensive experience from his leadership roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, including work on Azure, AWS, and Xcode Cloud. He also founded Buddybuild, a continuous integration platform acquired by Apple, underscoring his deep expertise in developer tools.

Unblocked integrates seamlessly with development environments and collaboration tools such as Slack, Jira, Confluence, Google Drive, and Notion. It leverages company codebases and associated knowledge to answer questions like “Where do we define user metrics?” or identify the developer responsible for specific code changes, facilitating faster problem-solving and knowledge sharing.

The platform includes admin controls for easy adoption by system administrators and is expanding integrations with tools like Cursor and Lovable to enhance code explainability. Beyond answering questions, Unblocked is developing features like Autonomous CI triage to support developers in testing code across scenarios, further boosting productivity.

Companies such as Drata, AppDirect, Big Cartel, and TravelPerk rely on Unblocked. For example, engineers at Drata reported saving 1-2 hours weekly, highlighting the tool’s tangible impact on developer efficiency.

Unblocked recently secured $20 million in Series A funding led by B Capital and Radical Ventures, bringing total funding to $30 million. Investors recognize the growing need for tools that help developers understand AI-generated code, which is becoming increasingly common.

Rob Toews of Radical Ventures emphasizes that as AI writes more software, understanding the origin and rationale behind code changes will be critical. Unblocked aims to fill this gap, much like AI-powered tools that help enterprises analyze vast data troves, making complex codebases accessible and manageable.

Why Unblocked Matters for Modern Software Development

In today’s fast-evolving software landscape, developers face increasing complexity from diverse coding styles, distributed teams, and AI-generated code. Unblocked addresses these challenges by:

• Providing instant, contextual answers about code to reduce onboarding time and debugging effort.
• Integrating with popular collaboration and development tools to centralize knowledge and streamline workflows.
• Supporting continuous integration and testing processes to improve code quality and deployment speed.

By enabling developers to understand and collaborate on code more effectively, Unblocked helps organizations accelerate innovation and reduce costly errors, especially as AI-generated code becomes more prevalent.