How to Control AI Coding Agents Before They Push Code or Deploy to Production

Concrete coding-agent scenario

Consider an agent that fixes a runtime error, edits code, runs tests, prepares a commit, and then attempts a protected-branch push or production deployment. That last step is where runtime authorization belongs.

1. AI coding agent fixes a runtime error
2. Edits code and runs tests
3. Prepares a commit
4. Attempts protected-branch push or production deployment
5. BobSentry evaluates the action
6. ALLOW / REQUIRE_APPROVAL / BLOCK
7. The command proceeds, waits for authorization, or stops
8. Signed decision evidence is created

Example action names you can model include code.commit, git.push, git.force_push, deployment.preview, deployment.production, database.migration.production, infrastructure.apply, security_controls.disable, and secrets.rotate.

Where authorization sits

The authorization boundary must appear before the external system changes—before the push, deploy, migration, or apply runs. Editor guidance alone is not that boundary.

Learn the product model on Product and the broader definition on What is BobSentry?.

Illustrative decision patterns

These are example policy patterns for discussion, not universal defaults for every organization.

Metadata-only evaluate example

Send normalized action metadata. Do not include source-code contents, complete diffs, .env files, secrets, access tokens, customer records, or unfiltered terminal output.

{
  "agent_id": "coding-agent-bobsentry-dev",
  "action": "deployment.production",
  "target": "bobsentry-production",
  "context": {
    "repository": "bobsentry",
    "branch": "main",
    "tests_passed": true,
    "protected_branch": true,
    "environment": "production",
    "change_risk": "high"
  }
}

For a sandbox walkthrough, see Developers. Coding-agent scope patterns are also described on Dev Guard.

Practical enforcement patterns

BobSentry does not currently ship an official Cursor integration, Git hook package, deployment gate, MCP gateway, or native IDE interception. Harder enforcement belongs in infrastructure you control.

A practical enforcement pattern is to place the BobSentry authorization check in a Git pre-push hook, CI required check, deployment wrapper, infrastructure pipeline, or protected tool gateway.

What BobSentry does and does not prove

BobSentry authorizes whether an action may proceed and can preserve signed decision evidence for the requested action, policy evaluation, decision outcome, and authorization state.

BobSentry does not prove that Git accepted the push, that the deployment finished successfully, or that the downstream system applied the change. Record execution outcomes separately.

For the metadata boundary and evidence model, see Security.

Failure-mode considerations

Decide explicitly how the integration behaves on timeout, evaluate errors, queued approval, or missing approvers. Fail-open may suit low-risk internal automation. Production deploys and destructive migrations usually need stricter fail-closed behavior. There is no single correct mode for every action class.

FAQ