An automated check is a machine-verifiable gate that agent output has to pass: the test suite, the type checker, the linter, the build. It either passes or it fails, with no opinion and no negotiation. That objectivity is exactly what makes it valuable.
The backbone of trusting an agent
An agent writes plausible code that may or may not work. Automated checks are how you find out without reading all of it. A green type check proves the types line up; a passing test proves the behaviour holds. None of that depends on the code looking right, which is the whole point, because looking right is precisely what a model is good at faking.
This matters most when you are running AFK. With no human watching each step, checks are the guardrail. An agent that must make the tests pass before it is done has a hard, honest signal to work against, and it will iterate against that signal far more reliably than against your vague sense of quality.
- Fast and deterministic: same input, same verdict, every time.
- They catch regressions the agent cannot talk its way around.
- They are only as good as your coverage. Untested code has no gate.
Related terms
Automated review
Automated review is putting a change through an AI reviewer before a person sees it, so a second agent flags likely bugs, missed edge cases, and smells. It catches the obvious cheaply, but it does not replace human judgment about whether the change is right.
Read definition →AFK
AFK means running an agent unattended for long stretches while you are away from the keyboard. It is only safe with strong guardrails and automated checks, since no human is watching each step.
Read definition →Human review
Human review is a person actually reading what an agent produced, understanding it, and taking responsibility for shipping it. It is the final quality gate that tests and automated review can support but never replace.
Read definition →