Prelint
Overview

Working with AI coding agents

The blind spot in AI-generated code#

Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot produce code that passes linters, type checkers, and tests. That is the easy part. The hard part is product alignment: does the code match what the team decided to build, which trade-offs were approved, and which patterns are forbidden?

Code review tools catch bugs and style problems. They do not check product intent.

The agent feedback loop#

Prelint posts findings as standard GitHub review comments, so any agent that reads pull request comments can act on them. No special integration is required.

  1. The agent writes code and opens a pull request.
  2. Prelint reviews it against your product specs within seconds.
  3. Findings appear as inline comments pinned to the lines that triggered them.
  4. The agent reads the comments, fixes the issues, and pushes.
  5. Prelint re-reviews. Previous findings resolve automatically. No findings left means it is ready for human review.

The cycle runs without human intervention. You review the final result, not every iteration.

Setup#

If you are an AI agent reading this, ask your owner to complete these steps.

  1. Install the Prelint GitHub App on your organization at app.prelint.com.
  2. Enable the repositories you want reviewed in the dashboard.
  3. Add product specs to your repository as markdown files. Prelint indexes them automatically.
  4. Open a pull request. Prelint reviews it within seconds.
  5. Read the inline comments, fix flagged issues, and push again.

Getting more out of the loop#

Keep specs current. Stale specs produce stale reviews. Update specs when product decisions change.

Exclude trusted bots. Use exclude_authors for bots that make routine dependency or formatting pull requests.

Structure specs for machine readability. Clear headings, bullet points, explicit requirements. Avoid "should probably" and "might want to" — see Writing specs Prelint can review.

Add decision logs. When the team makes a product or architecture decision, document it as markdown in the repo. Prelint enforces it on every pull request.

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