Working with AI coding agents¶
Last updated: 2026-09-16
AI coding agents do not reliably follow written rules. Coast Standards turns the rules into scripts, so the agent gets a verdict in seconds while the code is still in front of it.
What the agent sees¶
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Session start | A summary: platform, number of enforced rules, baseline counts and deadlines, and what will refuse it |
| After each file it saves | The scanner's findings for that file |
| Before each commit | The scanner on the staged changes. Any failure blocks the commit. |
Always, in CLAUDE.md |
A block the installer keeps current: where the rules are, the enforced count, and the files it must not edit |
What the agent is blocked from doing¶
These are refused in every permission mode:
| Action | Why |
|---|---|
| Editing the files that define the checks | An agent must not change its own guard-rails |
Running cd somewhere && … chains |
A chained cd hides where a command ran; use absolute paths |
| Changing cloud infrastructure (Fly, Cloudflare, Terraform, AWS, GitHub secrets and rulesets) | It must ask you first. Read-only commands still work. |
Skipping hooks (--no-verify) or force-pushing |
That turns the checks off or rewrites history |
| Ending its turn with unpushed commits | Every commit is pushed in the same session |
A person can switch individual session hooks off in .coast/config.json. See Options.
When the agent is refused¶
It should say what was refused and stop. If it thinks the check is wrong, it should name the check and the reason. A person can then set the check aside with a dated entry. See When a check stops you.
Setup¶
- Run the installer. It writes the hooks into
.claude/settings.jsonand keeps your other settings in that file. - Start Claude Code at the project root. The hooks load at session start.
disableAllHooks: true in your personal Claude Code settings does not turn these hooks off. The project file sets it to false, which takes priority.
The install skill¶
Each release includes one skill folder, skills/adopt-coast-standards/. It tells an agent how to fetch a release, dry-run the installer, ask you the few real questions, and then install or upgrade.
- Copy the folder into
~/.claude/skills/(all projects) or your project's.claude/skills/. - Ask the agent to adopt or upgrade Coast Standards.
The skill contains nothing else. The rules, checks and hooks live in your project, where the agent reads them.