Secure Agent Workflows

Practical patterns, templates, and threat models for secure AI-assisted software delivery.

This repository treats AI coding agents as semi-autonomous delivery participants, not smarter autocomplete. The goal is to help senior engineers, platform teams, AppSec teams, and mobile/client teams adopt coding agents without weakening delivery controls.

Who this is for

• Senior, staff, and principal engineers introducing agent-assisted delivery
• Platform teams defining paved paths for AI coding tools
• AppSec teams reviewing agent risk, credentials, evidence, and auditability
• Mobile/client teams using agents in React Native, iOS, Android, and Kotlin Multiplatform repositories

Core model

A secure agent workflow is a constrained delivery loop:

1. Define a bounded task
2. Provide curated repository context
3. Run the agent in a sandbox with scoped credentials
4. Require tests, evidence, and review notes
5. Apply normal SDLC gates
6. Preserve audit trails and rollback paths

Agents can accelerate work, but they also introduce new failure modes: over-broad changes, hidden dependency updates, credential exposure, generated code that bypasses architectural constraints, fabricated evidence, and insecure defaults. This repository gives teams reusable controls rather than generic advice.

Repository map

Path	Purpose
docs/secure-coding-agent-workflow.md	End-to-end secure agent workflow
docs/threat-model.md	Threat model for agent-assisted delivery
docs/task-risk-matrix.md	Risk tiers and required controls
docs/mobile-agent-safe-checklist.md	Mobile/client-specific guardrails
templates/	Drop-in repo templates for agent instructions and review controls
examples/	Example task and PR contracts
diagrams/secure-agent-workflow.mmd	Mermaid workflow diagram

Recommended adoption path

1. Copy templates/AGENTS.md into the target repository root
2. Add templates/SECURITY_INVARIANTS.md and adapt it to the system
3. Use docs/task-risk-matrix.md to classify agent tasks before execution
4. Require examples/agent-task-contract.md for medium/high-risk agent work
5. Add templates/REVIEW_CHECKLIST.md to PR review expectations
6. Move repeated controls into CI, pre-commit hooks, branch protection, and release gates

Good first use cases

• Test generation for well-scoped modules
• Documentation updates from existing code
• Dependency update preparation with human review
• Refactors constrained to one package or feature flag
• Static analysis finding remediation where the finding is already understood
• Mobile UI test scaffolding with explicit platform constraints

Avoid as first use cases

• Authentication, authorization, cryptography, payment, or privacy-sensitive rewrites
• Broad architecture migrations without a human-authored plan
• Release automation changes without rollback testing
• Mobile build/signing/provisioning changes using production credentials
• Large dependency upgrades with transitive supply-chain risk

Operating principles

• Bound the task before invoking the agent
• Provide only the context needed for the task
• Prefer read-only credentials by default
• Never expose production secrets to the agent runtime
• Treat agent output as untrusted until reviewed and tested
• Require evidence, not claims
• Make rollback boring
• Keep humans accountable for merge and release decisions

Status

Early public starter structure. Expect the templates to evolve as teams apply them to real repositories and CI/CD systems.