Deterministic Checkpoints For Non-Deterministic Agents: AI Hooks For Coding Agents

Session description

You can not predict what the AI will do, and that is the whole point. However, this presents some real security issues, as you can not guarantee the agent will not do anything destructive. Coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, and Copilot can read files, propose changes, run commands, and interact with project context, often across a messy workspace.

We can suggest behavior in prompts and Markdown files, but there is no guarantee an agent will follow it. What we need are deterministic controls around the agent's workflow.

Fortunately, these tools have started supporting AI hooks, which, just like Git Hooks, allow you to move your testing and controls into the tooling workflow. These are deterministic runs at the system level. We can leverage this to stop agents from taking actions or continuing if they find something dangerous.

Come to this session if you want to learn:

- Why AI coding tools like Cursor, Claude, and Copilot need guardrails beyond prompts and trust.

- How to use AI hooks, rules, and automated checks before agents edit files, run commands, or touch sensitive systems.

- How teams can reduce risk, improve consistency, and make safer contribution paths the default.