VALIDATION-GATES

A set of checks to run before declaring coding work finished, committing changes, or merging a pull request. It checks both whether the code runs and whether it solves the user's actual problem.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to verify builds, type checks, tests, edge cases, and other applicable evidence before completing, committing, or merging work.
Why use it?
A successful build or passing tests alone can miss production failures, such as a database migration that works only on an already-prepared database.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/qwickapps/ai-sdlc-workflows/validation-gates
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/qwickapps/ai-sdlc-workflows

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 1,228 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,228 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.01228 $0.01228
Opus 5 $0.00614 $0.00614
Sonnet 5 $0.00246 $0.00246
Haiku 4.5 $0.00123 $0.00123

Measured yesterday against content hash 632ba052e39d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

VALIDATION-GATES scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

cursor/.cursor/rules/VALIDATION-GATES.mdc · 214 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 214 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Validation Gates

When to apply: Before marking ANY task as complete, before committing code, before merging PRs.


Core Principle

Code that compiles and passes tests is NOT automatically complete. Validation must prove the user's actual problem is solved.

Migration failure example:

  • ❌ "Migrations load successfully" → Code runs but fails in production
  • ✅ "Migrations execute successfully on clean database" → Actual problem solved

Reference: See COMMON-PATTERNS.md for evidence requirements, checklist usage, and gate decision logic.


Mandatory Validation Checklist

Before marking work complete or creating commits, verify ALL applicable gates:

1. Compilation/Build Gate

Required for: All code changes

  • Code compiles without errors (dev build)
  • Production build succeeds (if different)
  • TypeScript type checks pass (if applicable)
  • No critical warnings

Commands: npm run build, npm run build:prod, tsc --noEmit

Do NOT proceed if: Build fails or critical warnings appear


2. Unit Test Gate

Required for: Code with testable logic

  • All existing unit tests pass
  • New tests written for new code/fixes
  • Edge cases covered
  • Test coverage maintained/improved

Commands: npm run test, npm run test:coverage

Do NOT proceed if: Tests fail or coverage drops significantly

Note: Passing tests prove logic works in isolation, NOT end-to-end system functionality.


3. Integration Test Gate

Required for: Multi-component features, database changes, API changes

  • Integration tests pass
  • Database migrations execute on CLEAN database
  • Migrations are idempotent (can run twice safely)
  • API contracts maintained or versioned

Commands: npm run test:integration, npm run migrate

Critical for migrations:

  • Test on clean database (not manually-modified dev DB)
  • Verify idempotency
  • Test rollback if applicable

Do NOT proceed if: Integration tests fail or migrations fail on clean database

Read the full file on GitHub · 214 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 214 lines · 1,228 tokens per session scan A 632ba052e39d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

VALIDATION-GATES is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository qwickapps/ai-sdlc-workflows (2 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,228 tokens to every session, about $0.0061 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.