codeArbiter

Open-source governance and hard gates for AI coding agents across Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Pi.

codeArbiter is a repository-owned governance layer for tests, reviews, security checks, decisions, and durable project context. You decide. codeArbiter enforces.

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Install it globally. It stays dormant until a repository explicitly opts in.

Agentic coding, with a record

codeArbiter is for teams and power users who let coding agents do consequential work and need more than “the model said it passed.” Every request enters a named lane. The lane defines the evidence it must produce, the reviewers it must dispatch, and the conditions that stop it.

This repository contains four sibling plugins:

• ca for Claude Code, ca-codex for Codex CLI, and ca-pi for Pi are the three governance hosts.
• ca-sandbox is the isolated local-Codespace infrastructure plugin.

The three governance hosts are generated from one shared surface and use one checked-in .codearbiter/ project store. A repository can move between hosts without losing its specs, plans, ADRs, tasks, decisions, or audit history.

codeArbiter will not:

• write feature code before the required failing test exists;
• commit on a red suite or outside the commit gate;
• resolve a [CONFIRM-NN] question by guessing;
• silently reconcile a conflict between the rules, the docs, and the code; or
• push directly to the default branch or merge without the user.

The gates scale to the work. A prose edit takes the small docs lane. A security-sensitive feature takes the full spec, test-first, review, and PR path.

The Codex path was live-verified on Codex CLI 0.144.1 with trusted SessionStart injection and a real [H-03] PreToolUse block. The dated Claude Code + Codex evidence separates continuously verified packaging from the live checks that require a model-backed turn.

See it catch something

The landing page includes a faithful replay of a shipped hook invocation. It invokes the real pre-bash.py guard, records the source digest, proves the blocked command never ran, and preserves the exact stderr and audit effect. It does not pretend that a direct hook replay proves host discovery or trust.

The operating loop looks like this:

you      /ca:fix the statusline keeps running the old version after an update

arbiter  route to the regression-test-first fix lane
         failing test -> minimal fix -> focused proof -> full verification

you      /ca:commit
arbiter  permission -> branch -> tests -> behavioral proof -> diff review
         selective stage -> commit

you      /ca:pr
arbiter  reviewer fleet challenges the exact diff
         BLOCK findings are resolved before the draft PR can advance

The user owns the decision. The repository keeps the evidence.

Get running

Choose the adapter for the coding host you already use. The host chooser covers stability, command syntax, trust, and platform differences.