Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai is a computer scientist and co-founder of Gitar, an AI code-review company acquired by Sonar in May 2026. His work spans language runtimes, developer infrastructure and checking the software that AI agents produce.[1][3]
Start with Welcoming Gitar to Sonar →
X · aadltaba Career
Compilers and language runtimes
A 2012 University of Illinois speaker biography places Adl-Tabatabai on Facebook’s HipHop compiler team after research leadership at Intel Labs. The talk explains two approaches to improving PHP performance: compiling PHP into C++ and using a virtual machine with just-in-time compilation. This is a recurring concern in his career: developers need convenient ways to write software, but the resulting programs must still execute efficiently and reliably. The same biography records a computer science doctorate at Carnegie Mellon and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering at UCLA.[3]
Developer infrastructure at scale
Sonar’s acquisition announcement identifies him as a veteran of Uber, Google and Meta and says he and Gitar co-founder Gautam Korlam helped build Uber’s centralized developer platform. The company then carried that experience into Gitar. Sonar acquired the business on May 21, 2026 and said the founders would join to lead continued development of the platform. The announcement identifies him as Gitar’s CEO at the time of the transaction.[1]
Contributions
Gitar addresses the review and repair work that follows code generation. Sonar describes a system that reads code context, identifies issues, proposes fixes and iterates against checks. The planned combination pairs that agent-driven review with SonarQube’s analysis of syntax, control flow and dependencies. Those layers answer different questions: an agent can reason about a change and attempt a repair, while repeatable analysis checks specified rules across the codebase.[2][1]
Tools, writing & talks
Writing, research & talks
Start here
Welcoming Gitar to Sonarsonarsource.comExplains how Gitar’s code review and repair work fits Sonar’s verification platform.
Begin with Sonar’s explanation of the review bottleneck. No compiler background is needed; the HipHop abstract is a short historical follow-up for readers familiar with programming languages.
Gitar co-founder and platform leader discussed by acquiring company.[2]Sonar's Gitar co-founder describes agentic validation for AI-heavy codebases: low-noise PR review, CI failure and flaky-test analysis, autofix, rule-based auto-merge, and pairing agents with static program analysis.
Catalog workOriginal sourceA Sonar and McKinsey panel argues teams that get returns from agents change process, tooling and roles together. It outlines how trust grows from AI code review to automated merges and the critical-thinking skills engineers need.
Catalog workOriginal source- HipHop: High-Performance PHPi2pc.cs.illinois.edu
Talk abstract on compiling PHP to C++ and using a just-in-time virtual machine.
Speaker.[3]
