StayFresh

February 2026

CI Automation with AI Agents

Integrating AI agents with continuous integration workflows.

Core Patterns

Pattern: Looping on CI

Let agents iterate until tests pass, with clear halting conditions.

# Good halting condition
"Keep iterating until lint and tests pass"

# Bad halting condition
"Keep iterating until it's done"

Pattern: Fix-CI Workflow

When CI fails, provide structured context for the agent to fix.

1. Agent receives: failed test output + relevant file paths
2. Agent diagnoses: root cause analysis
3. Agent proposes: fix with explanation
4. Agent verifies: run tests locally before push
5. Human reviews: if complex changes

Pattern: Review-and-Ship

For PRs that need minor fixes before merge.

1. Agent reads PR comments
2. Agent identifies required changes
3. Agent makes minimal fixes
4. Agent runs verification (tests, lint)
5. Agent updates PR summary if needed

Halting Conditions

Long-running agent loops need real halting conditions:

Oracles for Verification

Upgrade your oracles for effective grind-mode:

• Baseline: Typecheck and unit tests
• Better: Property-based tests for invariants
• Best: E2E + visual regression for UI changes

Subagent Patterns for CI

CI-Watcher Subagent

A background subagent that monitors CI status and reports back.

---
name: ci-watcher
description: Monitor CI status and report failures
is_background: true
model: fast
---

Watch the CI status for the current branch. When it completes:
- If passed: Report success
- If failed: Extract failure details and suggest fixes

Test-Runner Subagent

A focused subagent for running and debugging tests.

---
name: test-runner
description: Run tests and diagnose failures
readonly: true
model: inherit
---

Run the specified tests. For failures:
1. Show the failure output
2. Identify likely root cause
3. Suggest minimal fix

Integration Points

GitHub Actions

Cursor can interact with GitHub Actions through:

• gh run list - List recent runs
• gh run view - View run details
• gh run watch - Watch live run
• gh api - Direct API access

Bugbot Integration

Cursor's Bugbot provides automated PR review:

• Treat findings as triage queues, not auto-fix mandates
• Dismiss only with explicit rationale
• Use "Fix in Web" for quick patches
• Rerun after risky edits or rebases

Anti-Patterns

• Infinite loops: No halting condition leads to wasted compute
• Over-trusting: Agents can produce plausible-but-wrong fixes
• Missing verification: Skipping test runs before push
• Context pollution: Including entire CI logs instead of failures

Related Research

• Formal Verification with Agents - Property-based testing