Check-AI

Why it's ranked here

The tool is useful as a fast consistency check, especially because it covers many coding assistants without requiring teams to configure every one. Its verdict remains heuristic: file presence, regular expressions, dependency name matching, and weighted signals cannot prove that agents will work safely or effectively.

What's good

It has no runtime dependencies and uses Node built-ins for scanning and terminal presentation. One tree walk collects nested instruction, prompt, and skill files. Interactive, static, JSON, badge, and CI-friendly modes make the same audit useful locally and in automation.

Tradeoffs

Deep scanning stops after six directory levels and ignores most hidden directories, so valid material can escape detection. Documentation quality comes from keyword and formatting signals, not semantic evaluation. Dependency detection uses package names or substring searches. The CI gate exposes one fixed failure threshold rather than a configurable policy.

How to use it well

Use it when maintaining repositories where coding agents need clear instructions, repeatable commands, tests, and controlled context. Run it during setup, then keep its JSON output in CI or dashboards. Treat findings as a checklist for human judgment. It does not test agent task performance, code correctness, or security.

Observed

License

MIT

Primary language

JavaScript using ECMAScript modules

Packaging

Published as the check-ai npm package with a check-ai executable

Install surface

Runs directly through npx check-ai

Interface

Command-line tool with interactive terminal, static terminal, JSON, badge, and CI modes

Runtime dependencies

None declared; ESLint and Prettier are development dependencies only