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How to gate pull requests on proven security bugs in CI (without the noise)

To gate pull requests on proven security bugs, have your coding agent verify the diff through the kernel, then add one deterministic CI step: redmirror-reflect audit. It reads the kernel's checkpoint and fails the build only when a finding is left un-grounded, using no model and no network. Every red build traces to a kernel verdict, not a guess, so there is no false-positive flood and teams keep the gate on.

How does a proof-based CI gate work?

It is two steps in your pipeline. First, your coding agent verifies the changed files: for each suspected bug it drives RedMirror Reflection's propose-then-gate loop, and the compiled kernel either grounds the finding with a concrete, replayable attack path or sends it back to revise. Grounded outcomes are checkpointed locally to .redmirror-reflect/session.jsonl. Second, a deterministic step, redmirror-reflect audit, reads that checkpoint and sets the build's exit code. The agent step is where the thinking happens; the audit step is a dumb, reproducible check over what the kernel already decided, which is why it belongs in CI.

Why won't teams disable this gate?

Security gates get ripped out when they cry wolf. In the Pixee / Black Duck 2025 DevSecOps Report, 71 to 91 percent of SAST findings are false positives and 22 percent of teams have disabled a security tool because of false-positive fatigue. This gate has nothing to flood a PR with: it reads only the kernel's checkpoint, runs no model, and makes no network call, so it cannot invent a warning. A red build is always a real, kernel-adjudicated result you can go look at.

CI gateWhat turns the build redNoise on a PRRisk teams disable it
Pattern SAST gate (Semgrep, SonarQube, CodeQL)Any rule match on the diff, proven or notHigh: style plus unproven warnings, many false positivesHigh: often set non-blocking or removed
LLM-review gateWhatever the model flags this runVariable and non-deterministic: plausible bugs it cannot backHigh: output changes run to run
RedMirror proof gate (redmirror-reflect audit)A finding the kernel adjudicated and your agent left un-groundedNone: reads only kernel verdicts, no model at the gateLow: deterministic, no flood

What exactly makes the build pass or fail?

The audit command is deterministic and takes no flags. It reads the kernel's local checkpoint and exits:

Because the outcome is a pure function of a checkpoint file, the same commit always produces the same verdict. No model runs at this step, so there is no run-to-run drift and no token spend on the gate.

How do you add it to CI?

Install and license the binary on the runner, print the step with init ci, and paste it after your agent's verify step.

# On the CI runner: install + license
curl -fsSL https://dist.redmirror.io/install.sh | sh
redmirror-reflect license activate <your-key>

# Print the pipeline step to add
redmirror-reflect init ci

init ci prints a ready-to-paste step. Run your coding agent on the diff first, then the gate:

# .github/workflows — run the agent, then gate on what it proved
- name: Verify the diff        # your agent verifies the changed files
  run: <your coding agent, headless>   # Claude Code / Cursor / codex / gemini / pi ...

- name: RedMirror Reflection gate
  run: redmirror-reflect audit  # exits 2 if any finding is left un-grounded

Any CI runner works: redmirror-reflect audit is a plain shell command, so GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, and Buildkite gate on its exit code the same way. Full per-system setup is in the docs.

When should you use it, and when not?

Use it as a required check on pull requests that touch reachable-state risk: authentication and authorization, payments and pricing, access control and multi-tenant boundaries, quotas and rate limits, and anything a coding agent generated near those. It is a strong fit precisely because it stays quiet until there is a kernel-decided reason not to. It is not a secrets scanner or a dependency-CVE scanner; keep those gates too. It also assumes a coding agent runs the verify step first: the agent is what proposes the claim the kernel then grounds, so a pipeline with no agent step has nothing for audit to check.

Frequently asked questions

How do I gate pull requests on proven security bugs?

Run your coding agent's verify flow on the changed files, then add one deterministic step to CI: redmirror-reflect audit. The agent proposes each suspected bug and the kernel either grounds it with a concrete, replayable attack path or sends it back to revise. The audit step reads the kernel's checkpoint and fails the build if any finding was left un-grounded, so only kernel-decided results can turn the build red.

Does the CI gate produce false positives?

No flood. The gate reads only the kernel's checkpoint, a record of verdicts the kernel reached, never a model's guess. It uses no model and no network, so it cannot invent warnings. A clean run, whether no bugs were found or every finding was grounded, exits zero and stays silent. That is why the gate is safe to make a required check.

What exactly makes the build fail?

redmirror-reflect audit exits 2 (build fails) when a finding was raised but left un-grounded, meaning its last gate outcome was revise, or when a coverage cell is still pending. It exits 0 (build passes) when there is nothing to check, or when every finding is grounded and every coverage cell is grounded or cleared. The check is deterministic: it reads a JSONL checkpoint and runs no model.

Does the gate need a model, API key, or network access in CI?

No. The audit step reads a local checkpoint file and exits on its contents. It uses no model, no API key, no network, and no tokens. The coding agent that ran before it needs a model, but the deterministic gate that decides the build's exit code does not.

Which CI systems does it work with?

Any CI runner that can run a shell command and gate on its exit code, including GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, and Buildkite. redmirror-reflect init ci prints a ready-to-paste GitHub Actions step; on other systems, run redmirror-reflect audit as a build step and let a non-zero exit fail the job.

Is it free?

There is a free 7-day trial, no card, then it is $4.99 per seat per month. It is a licensed binary, not open source; your code and your model stay on your own machines and CI runners.

Sources and related reading