Use Depot CI in coding agent loops

Depot CI is built for programmatic use, so it's a natural fit for AI coding agents. Instead of the usual push-wait-guess cycle, an agent can run CI locally, read the failure, fix the code, and rerun, all in a closed loop from your terminal.

This guide provides an example of how to set up that loop. The guide covers Claude Code and Cursor, but the pattern works for any agent with shell access.

The agent loop

You're working with an agent on a task, and you want to make sure CI passes before moving on or pushing your changes.

No human needs to approve each step. You tell the agent to fix CI, and the agent iterates until it's done.

For a raw narrative version of this pattern, see the blog post The End of push-wait-guess CI.

Why the CLI works well for agents

Most coding agents already have a shell. The Depot CLI gives them CI without any HTTP plumbing. depot ci run tests workflows against your local working tree without requiring a commit or push. That's what makes the agent loop work: the agent can edit code and rerun CI in a tight loop without polluting the git history or waiting on long-running CI in GitHub.

• depot ci run starts a run against your local working tree. Use --job to scope to specific jobs for faster iteration. The CLI resolves job dependencies automatically.
• depot ci status shows the full run hierarchy, workflows, jobs, and attempts with their statuses.
• depot ci logs fetches the log output for a failed job so the agent can read the error and fix it.
• depot ci ssh connects directly to a running sandbox via the Depot API, giving you (or the agent) an interactive shell on the runner. To keep a sandbox alive at the right moment, use depot ci run --ssh-after-step <n> to inject a tmate debug pause after a specific step, then connect with depot ci ssh or the tmate connection string from the logs.

Prerequisites

• Complete the Depot CI quickstart.
• Run depot login or set DEPOT_TOKEN so the agent can authenticate.
• An AI coding agent with shell access (such as Claude Code or Cursor).

Install the Depot skills

Install Depot skills to teach your agent how to get started with Depot and use all the Depot CLI commands for Depot CI.

To install Depot skills with skills.sh, run npx skills add depot/skills.

Set up the fix CI loop command

With the skills installed, create a command that tells the agent to use them, defines the loop, and sets the boundaries for what the agent can do autonomously.

The example command for this guide is /fix-ci.

Add a markdown file that defines the command to your repo. For example, in .claude/commands/ or .cursor/commands/.

Example fix-ci.md:

Fix a Depot CI workflow, run, or job until it is green.

### Before you start

Invoke the `depot-ci` skill to load the full CLI reference. Then drive the debug loop.

### Inputs

Accept any of:

- a workflow path (for example, `.depot/workflows/ci.yml`)
- a run ID, job ID, or attempt ID
- a target job name (for example, `build`)
- a natural-language goal (for example, "make the test job pass")

If the request is ambiguous, ask for the narrowest useful target.

### The Loop

1. **Run** the workflow against local changes, scoped to the smallest useful job.
2. **Check status** and **read logs** for failed jobs.
3. If logs aren't enough, connect to the running sandbox with **`depot ci ssh`**, or **rerun with `--ssh-after-step`** to pause at a specific step first.
4. **Fix locally** based on what you found.
5. **Rerun.** Repeat until green.

### Autonomy

The agent may: run workflows, inspect status/logs, SSH into runners, edit local files, and rerun until green.

Ask before: changing secrets or vars, altering deploy or release behavior, opening a PR, or large refactors beyond the immediate fix.

### When done, report

- what was targeted
- what was wrong
- what changed
- proof of green (or the exact remaining blocker)

The key ingredients are the same for any agent: install the skill so the agent has the CLI reference, then give it a command or prompt that describes the run-status-logs-ssh loop and the autonomy boundaries.

Give the agent permission to run the loop

For the agent to iterate autonomously, it needs permission to run depot commands without prompting. How you configure permissions depends on your agent. Here are some examples.

Claude Code permissions

Add a permission rule to .claude/settings.json to allow any Depot command:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Bash(depot *)"]
  }
}

Cursor permissions

Add a permission rule to <project>/.cursor/cli.json to allow any Depot command:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Shell(depot)"]
  }
}

Run the agent loop

Type /fix-ci .depot/workflows/ci.yml (for example) in your agent chat and watch the agent take over. You can adjust your custom command using the tips in the following section.

Tips for customizing your agent loop

Iteration limits

Cap the number of CI attempts so the agent doesn't loop forever on a fundamentally broken build. Three to five attempts is a reasonable default.

Log truncation

CI logs can be long. If your agent has a limited context window, truncate logs to the last N lines or extract just the error output. Most failures surface near the end of the log.

Polling

depot ci status returns immediately. It doesn't block until the run finishes. Agents will naturally poll by calling the status command in a loop. This works fine in practice.

Human approval gates

If the agent shouldn't take certain actions autonomously, configure your agent's permission model to require approval for those commands. The /fix-ci command definition in the example includes suggested boundaries: the agent can run workflows, read logs, SSH in, and edit code, but should ask before changing secrets, deploying, or opening PRs.

Untracked files aren't patched

depot ci run only includes tracked files in the local patch. If you've added a new file, use git add before running the agent, or add that step to your agent loop.

What's next

The pattern in this guide is one way to implement a coding agent loop that uses Depot CI to iterate locally. Experiment with skills or sub agents or a mixture of these to create patterns that work for you. You can create more custom commands for managing or monitoring workflows with Depot CI. Learn more about the Depot CI CLI commands that your agents can use.