AI coding agent guardrails

Guide the repair before a late gate forces it.

Hooks and CI are necessary, but they arrive after an agent has built on top of early drift. Assura adds bounded project signals during the working loop and reserves hard failure for configured merge policy.

assura review · advisory
$ assura review
Project status: fail
Compared with origin/main

Branch    1 file | +3/-0 lines | 1 commit
Worktree  1 modified | 1 untracked | +2/-0

Needs attention
! apps/web/src/   file naming   1 violation

Next  assura check --format agent .

While editing

Return bounded advisory context in the agent loop without blocking the current change.

Before commit

Show branch, worktree, structure, and changed-path findings while the repair is still focused.

Before merge

Use the authoritative Check gate for serious configured policy that should not land.

01

Late gates distort repairs

When a commit is already blocked, the shortest path to green can become a broad refactor that breaks context and leaves technical debt.

02

Bound the feedback

Agent-facing output prioritizes a small number of repairable findings and points to deeper commands instead of dumping every observation.

03

Use branch and worktree context

Review separates committed branch changes from dirty worktree state so agents can see what this task introduced.

04

Keep human decisions visible

Onboarding reports inactive capabilities and unresolved project choices instead of pretending unchecked behavior passed.

Agent setup

Start with one agent instruction.

Give this prompt to the coding agent already working in your project. It installs Assura, establishes a broad baseline, verifies the setup, and leaves unresolved project decisions visible.

Recommended Agent prompt
Install Assura in this repository and set it up for agent-ready checks.
If assura is not installed, run:
ASSURA_INSTALL=https://assura.dev/install.sh
curl -fsSL "$ASSURA_INSTALL" | sh

Then run:
assura agent onboard . --agent auto --format json
assura check --format json .

Read .assura/onboarding/agent-next.md, summarize what is active, what is inactive, and what questions need human answers before adding project-specific rules.
Manual install curl -fsSL https://assura.dev/install.sh | sh