The agent touches surprise files
Reviewers expected a product-code change and got CI, package metadata, generated files, or local config too.
The offer
For a small engineering team already using coding agents in one repo. Pick the recurring agent-created change that keeps slowing review.
Best buyer: founder, CTO, head of engineering, DevEx lead, or senior engineering owner who can authorize a local repo audit.
Reviewers expected a product-code change and got CI, package metadata, generated files, or local config too.
The PR needs a clearer answer to "what ran?" and "why those commands?"
Dependency, migration, auth, billing, security, or production-facing edits need a named human approval point.
README guidance, agent files, CI behavior, and reviewer expectations point in different directions.
Each artifact below is tied to a repo operation: what was read locally, which ContractForge file represents the work, and how a reviewer or agent would use it. They are not customer proof or measured performance claims.
Read locally: contractforge audit records instruction sources such as AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and README.md.
Represented in: .contractforge/audit.md for the instruction gap and, if adopted, compiled AGENTS.md guidance.
AGENTS.md draft:
Final response must include files changed,
commands run, snapshot or benchmark notes,
skipped validation, and unresolved risks.
Review use: the agent final response is checked against this evidence list. Script or package-metadata prompts can also trigger preflight before the external agent command runs.
Read locally: the audit reviews AGENTS.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, README.md, and repo signals from contractforge init.
Represented in: agent.contract.yaml path scope and final-response fields.
agent.contract.yaml:
Allowed paths: lib/**, __tests__/**,
index.js, index.d.ts.
Forbidden: secrets, release credentials,
generated artifacts.
Review use: contractforge eval uses these paths for diff-scope checks, and forbidden secret-like paths are hard-blocked before agent invocation.
Read locally: contractforge audit records AGENTS.md and README.md; founder review identifies risky internals for this workflow.
Represented in: agent.contract.yaml recovery rules, compiled AGENTS.md, and the founder-reviewed memo.
AGENTS.md draft:
Run narrow pytest, make one focused repair,
stop after two failed attempts, and require
recorded approval for dependency or release changes.
Review use: dependency and release/package prompts map to known preflight patterns. Locking, hashing, and CLI internals stay as reviewer guidance unless encoded as forbidden paths or a later policy rule.
agent.contract.yaml starter file for the selected agent task.AGENTS.md draft for reviewer inspection.Production sandboxing, complete policy enforcement, compliance certification, application security review, model benchmarking, reliability lift measurement, productivity lift measurement, ongoing monitoring, and multi-repo governance require separate work.