Reticle Docs: verification for AI coding agents

reticle gate is what makes verification unavoidable. It computes the affected flows, looks for a passing artifact for each, and fails the command if any is missing. An agent that edits a covered file cannot call itself finished without re-verifying.

npx @reticlehq/server gate [--since <ref>] [--accept-coverage] [--hook] [file...]

Arguments and flags

Argument	Type	Default	What it does
`file...`	strings, positional	none	Explicit changed files
`--since <ref>`	string	`HEAD` when no files are given	Also include files git reports as changed since this ref
`--accept-coverage`	boolean	off	Accept today’s coverage levels as the new best before judging. Use it when a drop was intended, such as a control you removed on purpose. The run reports what it accepted as `coverageAccepted`
`--hook`	boolean	off	For an agent’s Stop hook. A failure or a known regression also prints a short prose summary for a human; exit `2` (no saved flows) prints nothing extra. A refused platform credential does not fail the gate in this mode

In hook mode only, setting RETICLE_SKIP_GATE turns a failing gate into exit 0 and prints that the change is unverified.

What blocks and what does not

Category	Blocking	Why
`uncovered`	Yes	An affected flow with no passing artifact
`downgraded`	Yes	A flow whose assertions were weakened since its last passing run. A green bought by weakening the test is the gaming move this exists to stop
`deletedCoverage`	Yes	A flow that covered a changed file and has since vanished. Coverage deleted, not satisfied
`unflowed`	Yes	A changed interactive component that no saved flow drives. Only once the project has saved flows, so a first day never blocks
`coverageRegressed`	Yes	A coverage level fell below the best it has reached: something new appeared that nothing covers. Cover it, or accept the drop with `--accept-coverage`
`unexecuted`	Yes	A changed file the browser loaded during a drive and never ran a function of
`coverageStale`	No	A changed file whose code coverage was taken before its last edit. Its counts describe the old code, so `unexecuted` cannot judge it either way. Take coverage again after driving the change to measure it
`quarantined`	No	Flows the flake ledger has quarantined. Surfaced, never blocking, because one unexplained flake that blocks a merge destroys trust in the red

What it prints

One reticle_gate line. Real capture from this repository, with the flow lists trimmed for length:

{
  "t": "2026-08-15T18:42:58.434Z",
  "event": "reticle_gate",
  "pass": false,
  "uncovered": ["WEB-flow", "deploy-journey", "verify-route", "verify-500"],
  "quarantined": ["asserted-demo", "blast-radius-compose", "drift-demo", "qa2-flow"],
  "coverage": { "pct": 0, "covered": 0, "total": 47 }
}

downgraded, deletedCoverage, unflowed, coverageRegressed, unexecuted, coverageStale and coverageAccepted appear only when they are non-empty, flowsWithoutSources only when it is true, and none was present in that run. The coverage categories need a coverage ledger, which a project gets from reticle_verify { action: "crawl", exhaustive: true } or reticle_verify { action: "coverage", app: true }; without one they never fire. The CLI prints this as a single line of JSON; it is pretty-printed here to be readable.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Every affected, non-flaky flow has a passing artifact, nothing was weakened or deleted, and coverage held
`1`	Something is uncovered, downgraded, deleted, unflowed, unexecuted, or coverage fell. Also `1` on any internal fault, and, outside `--hook`, when the linked platform refused the project’s credential: the gate fails closed
`2`	No saved flows, so nothing was checked. This is not a failure of the change: the gate says how to record one
`3`	The linked project’s dashboard knows a flow that passed before and is broken now, the same code `reticle runs regression` exits with. Checked only when the repo is linked; offline, it changes nothing

Measured on this repository, npx @reticlehq/server gate --since HEAD~1 exited 1 with the output above: 0 of 47 flows covered, 39 uncovered and 8 quarantined.

Worked example

- run: npx @reticlehq/server verify http://localhost:4173
- run: npx @reticlehq/server gate --since ${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }}

Wiring this into CI

Where the gate sits relative to build, verify, and merge.

Tools

Beyond the loop

CLI commands

Packages

Grammar

Long form

reticle gate

Arguments and flags

What blocks and what does not

What it prints

Exit codes

Worked example

Wiring this into CI

​Arguments and flags

​What blocks and what does not

​What it prints

​Exit codes

​Worked example

Wiring this into CI

Arguments and flags

What blocks and what does not

What it prints

Exit codes

Worked example