guard-skills
FreeFree, open-source quality gates that catch AI coding agent failures.
By Tanmay Verma, Founder · Last verified 05 Jul 2026
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Added 7d ago
69/100MonitorIn short
guard-skills — Free, open-source quality gates that catch AI coding agent failures. Best for Developers using AI coding agents who want to maintain code quality, Teams adopting AI-generated code but needing guardrails against common failure modes, WordPress and WooCommerce developers ensuring AI outputs follow platform best practices. Free to use.
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Editorial Verdict
Best for
Developers using AI coding agents who want to maintain code qualityTeams adopting AI-generated code but needing guardrails against common failure modesWordPress and WooCommerce developers ensuring AI outputs follow platform best practicesDevOps engineers integrating automated quality checks in agent workflows
Not ideal for
Non-developers or users without an AI coding agentTeams already using manual code review as primary quality gateProjects that need real-time runtime monitoring or performance profilingLarge enterprises requiring dedicated SLAs or enterprise support
Essential for any team relying on AI coding agents. Lightweight, free, and laser-focused on AI failure modes — catches issues general linters miss. Install before you trust your agent's output.
Skip guard-skills if Skip Guard Skills if you don't use an AI coding agent like Claude Code or Cursor, or if you already have a comprehensive code quality pipeline that catches AI-specific issues.
Compare with: guard-skills vs Continue, guard-skills vs Warp, guard-skills vs MetaGPT
Last verified: July 2026
Viability Score
69/100
MonitorHow likely is guard-skills to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
momentum
55
funding runway
40
website health
90
wrapper dependency
100
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Clean code guard — hallucinated API detection
- Test guard — validates tests are real and meaningful
- Docs guard — ensures documentation accuracy and consistency
- WordPress guard — platform-specific AI mistakes
- WooCommerce guard — extension-specific issues
- Quality gates integrate into agent workflows automatically
- Open source — inspect and customize guard logic
- Supports Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini, Cline, AMP, Antigravity, ClawdBot
- Install via npx skills add amElnagdy/guard-skills
- Install-count telemetry per skill
- 6.4K total installs across all skills
- Routine security audits by Vercel
- Free forever — no paid tiers
About guard-skills
FreeIntermediateNo APICLI
Guard Skills is a free, open-source collection of five reusable agent skills that act as quality gates for AI-generated code. Designed for developers using agents like Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot, these skills automatically detect common AI failure modes — hallucinated APIs, ghost tests, overly verbose comments, documentation drift — before they become issues. The suite includes clean-code-guard (1.8K installs), test-guard (1.6K), docs-guard (1.5K), wp-guard (742), and woo-guard (739). Installed via `npx skills add amElnagdy/guard-skills`, these guards integrate into existing agent workflows without disruption. They are hosted on skills.sh, have 6.4K total installs, and are routinely security-audited by Vercel. Unlike general linters like ESLint or SonarQube, Guard Skills focuses specifically on AI output patterns. All skills are free and open source on GitHub.
Behind the Verdict
Guard Skills nails a specific pain: AI agents confidently producing code that looks right but is wrong. Each guard is lean — clean-code-guard sniffs hallucinated API calls, test-guard validates that tests actually test something, docs-guard prevents stale comments, and the WordPress/WooCommerce guards catch platform-specific gotchas. Install is a single npx command, and the skills run automatically within your agent workflow. We'd reach for this when onboarding AI coding agents in a project that has any semblance of quality standards. Where it bites: the guards are only as good as their rules — they won't catch novel failure modes not in their detection set. Also, they are agent-specific; if you use a non-listed agent, you're out of luck. Compared to something like ESLint, Guard Skills is less configurable but far more targeted at AI behavior. Real-world caveat: the 6.4K installs are across all skills; individual adoption (especially for the platform-specific guards) is still modest. For the price (free), it's a no-lose addition to your agent config.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas guard-skills actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Solo developer using Cursor to generate feature code
You ask Cursor to write a new API endpoint. After the agent finishes, clean-code-guard automatically detects that a function call references an API that doesn't exist.
Outcome: The guard surfaces the hallucinated API before you commit, saving you from a broken build.
WordPress plugin developer using Claude Code
Claude Code generates a custom post type registration. wp-guard catches that the code uses an outdated WordPress function that's been deprecated.
Outcome: The guard flags the deprecated pattern, letting you fix it before the plugin goes live.
Team lead reviewing AI-generated tests on GitHub Copilot
A developer's Copilot session produces test files. test-guard flags several tests that don't actually assert any behavior — they're placeholders.
Outcome: The team catches ghost tests early, ensuring real test coverage.
Use Cases
- Install Guard Skills to automatically check AI-generated code for hallucinated function names and APIs
- Use test-guard to ensure AI-written unit tests actually run and assert real behaviors
- Add docs-guard to your agent workflow to catch documentation that describes features not in the code
- Apply WordPress and WooCommerce guards when building plugins or themes with an AI agent
Limitations
- The guards are rule-based and may not catch all AI-specific issues; they complement but do not replace human review.
- Installation requires the skills CLI and a compatible AI agent.
- No API, dashboard, or custom rule creation is available outside modifying the open source code.
as of 2026-07-01
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Annual total
Free
Over 12 months
Effective monthly
Free
Billed monthly
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published guard-skills tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Any developer or team using AI coding agents who wants free, open-source guardrails against AI failure modes.
What this tier adds
All five skills are available at no cost — no paid upgrades exist.
Integrations
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where guard-skills's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Guard Skills is entirely free, making it an easy first step for any team — from solo devs to large enterprises — that wants to add AI-specific guardrails without any budget approval. Unlike paid tools like SonarQube or CodeRabbit, there's zero cost to try it.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of guard-skills — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Install Guard Skills in under a minute: run `npx skills add amElnagdy/guard-skills` in your terminal. The skills are immediately available to your AI agent on the next run. No configuration needed.
Resources & Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
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