AI agent — An AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.
guardrails — The checks around a model that block bad inputs and outputs — filters, validators, and permission rules the model itself can't override.
Why it matters
If you're running coding agents at any scale, deterministic lint rules are a far more reliable steering mechanism than prompt-level instructions or CLAUDE.md conventions the AI agentAn AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.Full definition → may ignore; this post gives you the framing for turning tribal architectural knowledge into constraints an agent can't silently violate.
