Critical Gate

Critical Gate brings repository-aware diff integrity checks into VS Code.

It is not a generic AI code reviewer. It is a local diagnostics surface for checking whether an agent-produced diff stays inside the requested task, repository conventions, API surface, tests, dependencies, and expected blast radius.

Features

• Use the Critical Gate Activity Bar view to run checks, inspect the latest run, review changed files, browse the native Analysis tree, and revisit recent gate runs.
• Initialize the opened repository from the Critical Gate panel, with a choice between installing the package dependency or writing setup files only.
• Run Critical Gate from the Command Palette with Critical Gate: Run Check.
• Show the full run report in the Critical Gate output channel.
• See the highest-value latest-run signal in the VS Code status bar, including scope score, unexpected clusters, missing companions, or clean pass state.
• Show findings in the Problems panel with file, line, severity, and detector context.
• Open evidence locations from diagnostics.
• Copy repair guidance for Codex or another coding agent.
• Restore the last report and recent run history after reloading VS Code, clearly marked as historical until the next run.
• Optionally refresh diagnostics on file save.

Requirements

The extension bundles the Critical Gate analyzer, so Marketplace users do not need to clone or build the critical-gate repository.

The opened workspace must be a local git repository. Configure criticalGate.cliPath only when you want to test a custom local Critical Gate CLI build.

Initialize A Repository

Open the Critical Gate Activity Bar view and choose Initialize, or run Critical Gate: Initialize Repository from the Command Palette.

The initializer can install critical-gate with the detected package manager, then add observe-only policy, package scripts, durable evidence export files, advisory GitHub workflow, and managed AGENTS.md instructions.

Settings

• criticalGate.task: task intent passed to Critical Gate.
• criticalGate.base: optional git base ref or SHA.
• criticalGate.cliPath: optional path to a custom Critical Gate CLI. Empty uses the bundled analyzer.
• criticalGate.refreshMode: manual or onSave.
• criticalGate.refreshDebounceMs: debounce for save-triggered checks.

Status

This extension is a local diagnostics and run-visibility surface for Critical Gate. The CLI remains the source of truth for detector behavior and output schemas.