Rules in markdown vs rules in CI: what I measured in my own repositories

Description and use

The article explains how the author used rebar to move rules from markdown to CI, achieving 100% compliance and blocking non‑compliant PRs.

Problem

AI coding agents often ignore written standards, leading to hardcoded values, missing stack components, and incomplete documentation.

Outcome

After integrating rebar, rule compliance rose from near zero to 100% for enforced rules. AI co-author trailers decreased, and CI failures prevented merges that violated governance.

Workflow

• 1. Install Node 22+. 2. Run npx github:Navesz/rebar . to format and run gate rules. 3. Run npx -p github:Navesz/rebar rebar-security . for security checks. 4. Ensure CI workflow includes rebar checks as required checks. 5. Monitor CI logs for rule compliance and adjust rules as needed.

Evidence

The short version, as the README puts it: a rule written in markdown has close to zero compliance, and a rule in CI has 100%.

Source

rebar-check · prumo ✓ editorconfig has .editorconfig ✗ dependabot automated dependency updates no dependabot, no renovate ✓ ci has CI ✓ ci-gates CI reaches the verification the repository declares – typecheck has a typecheck script no TypeScript here 11 of 13 · 1 not applicable

Source