Peter Ma

Posted on Mar 28 • Edited on Mar 30

Aegis v1.3: Quality Guardrails for AI-Assisted Development — Testing Standards with Code Examples

#ai #agentskill #coding #opensource

AI writes code at 100x speed. But without guardrails, it also breaks things at 100x speed.

The Problem Gets Worse at Scale

If you've used AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI), you've probably noticed:

Frontend agent assumes one API format, backend agent implements another. Integration day is a bloodbath.
Mock-based tests give false confidence. Both sides "pass" their tests. Neither works with the other.
Contracts drift silently. Agent A adds a field, Agent B doesn't know, Agent C picks a random default.

These problems get exponentially worse when agents work in separate workspaces.

Aegis: Five Layers of Defense

Aegis is an open-source AgentSkill that enforces structured quality at every phase:

Layer 0: Automated Guardrails  ← lint, type-check, format (pre-commit + CI)
Layer 1: Design                ← Design Brief before any code
Layer 2: Contract              ← OpenAPI spec + shared types + error codes
Layer 3: Implementation        ← Code against contract, not freestyle
Layer 4: Verification          ← Contract tests → Integration → E2E
Layer 5: PM                    ← Gap tracking, quality gates

What's New in v1.3: Production-Ready Testing Standards

🧪 Frontend Testing Standard

Aegis now mandates a concrete frontend testing stack with copy-paste-ready patterns:

Vitest + React Testing Library + MSW (or framework equivalents)
API client tests: normal / error / auth for every function
Data hooks tests: loading / success / error states
Component render tests for key UI components
MSW handlers must import types from contracts/ — no ad-hoc mock data

// MSW handlers use contract types — not ad-hoc data
import type { Product } from '../../contracts/shared-types';

const mockProducts: Product[] = [
  { id: 'prod_1', name: 'Basic', price: 999, currency: 'usd', interval: 'month' },
];

export const handlers = [
  http.get('/api/products', () => HttpResponse.json(mockProducts)),
];

🔌 Backend HTTP E2E Standard

Every API endpoint gets real HTTP tests — no mocking your own services:

func TestCreateProduct(t *testing.T) {
    db := setupTestDB(t)
    srv := httptest.NewServer(NewRouter(db))

    // Happy path
    resp, _ := http.Post(srv.URL+/api/products, application/json,
        strings.NewReader(\`{name:Pro,price:2999}\`))
    require.Equal(t, 201, resp.StatusCode)

    // Mutation verification: GET the created resource
    resp, _ = http.Get(srv.URL + /api/products/ + created.ID)
    require.Equal(t, 200, resp.StatusCode)

    // Bad request → 400, Auth failure → 401
}

Coverage matrix per endpoint: 200 / 400 / 404 / 401 / mutation verification.

Language-specific tools included: Go, TypeScript, Python, Rust, Java.

📋 Test Strategy = Design Artifact

Full-stack features now require a complete testing strategy in the Design Brief before code begins. The template includes structured tables for endpoint coverage.

🌐 Cross-Workspace Intelligence (from v1.1)

Aegis auto-detects your workspace architecture and adjusts the contract strategy:

Monorepo → contracts inside the project
Split Workspace → asks you to clarify
Cross-Agent → dedicated contract repository

Quick Start

# ClawHub
npx clawhub install aegis-quality-guardian

# Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/skill-forge-ai/aegis.git
cp -r aegis/cc-skill ~/.claude/skills/aegis

# Initialize a project
bash ~/.claude/skills/aegis/scripts/init-project.sh /path/to/project

What's Included

5-phase workflow with workspace detection
8 templates (Design Brief with testing matrix, CLAUDE.md, OpenAPI spec, etc.)
6 scripts (project init, guardrails, contract validation, type generation)
3 reference guides with concrete code examples
Works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenClaw

GitHub: skill-forge-ai/aegis
ClawHub: npx clawhub install aegis-quality-guardian\
Release: v1.3.1

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