Your AI agents are building on code that changed. Neo catches it before the edit published: false

Description and use

Neo blocks stale and incompatible edits, requiring code to be refreshed before applying changes, thereby reducing errors and rework.

Problem

AI coding agents edit code based on a stale view, causing broken edits that surface only after tests or merges, incurring double effort.

Outcome

Neo prevents agents from applying edits to stale or incompatible code, reducing wasted generation and cleanup effort.

Workflow

• Clone Neo repository
• Install Neo hooks into target repo
• Commit hook files
• Set NEO_DEVELOPER and start Claude Code
• Verify Neo is active via /hooks
• Run demo or real edits
• Neo records intent, locks files, blocks stale edits, and logs actions

Evidence

Neo is a set of hooks for Claude Code. Before and after each read, edit, shell command and prompt, it: Records intent. Takes a lock on the file being edited, so a second developer or agent can’t edit it at the same time. Blocks stale edits. Blocks edits to broken code.

Source

The demo is a small Python project: a price() function and a total() function that calls it. A previous developer changed price() to require a tax_rate and left the caller broken.

Source

You need git, Python 3, and Claude Code. The steps below use the command line, and they work in any git repo.

Source