Constraining a coding agent with four repository-owned levers
Overview
Ian Johnson, writing on the Tessl Blog, says a coding agent given a ticket with no charter passed 1 of 8 checks, while the same ticket with a four-part charter passed 8 of 8.
He says the charter works through four levers the repository controls: instructions in CLAUDE.md, path-scoped rules, capability files, and hooks that can refuse a write. Johnson notes that one check, whether the access logic is correct for the feature, still requires a human reviewer. The 1-of-8 and 8-of-8 results are Johnson's own reported figures; the post does not describe the checks or the sample size.
Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 12, 8:53 AM ET
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- Tessl BlogOfficialPickHow to constrain a coding agent using only files you own
AIIan Johnson says a coding agent given one ticket without a charter passed 1 of 8 checks, while the same ticket with a four-part charter passed 8 of 8. He describes four levers under the repository's control: instructions in CLAUDE.md, path-scoped rules, capability files, and hooks that can refuse a write. He notes that one check, whether the access logic is correct for the feature, still needs a human reviewer.
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