cellfence

AI coding agents do not need more prompts. They need enforceable architectural boundaries.

CellFence turns architectural intent into deterministic CLI and CI checks for TypeScript and JavaScript repositories edited by parallel coding agents and humans: cell ownership, declared dependencies, public entry points, resource contracts, and one-way growth ratchets.

Sixty seconds

npm install --save-dev cellfence
npx cellfence init                              # writes cellfence.manifest.json
mkdir -p src/example
echo 'export const example = 1;' > src/example/public.ts
npx cellfence check

CellFence check passed.

When a cell imports another cell's internals instead of its declared public entry:

CellFence check failed.
[error] CELLFENCE_PRIVATE_IMPORT src/reporting/bad.ts: reporting imports private implementation from parser

Commands

npx cellfence init
npx cellfence check [--changed --base origin/main] [--json]
npx cellfence context --cell <id> [--json|--format agents-md]
npx cellfence context --auto-allocate --task "task text" [--json]
npx cellfence install --target agents-md --file AGENTS.md [--check|--uninstall]
npx cellfence serve --mcp
npx cellfence graph [--format mermaid|--json]
npx cellfence claim create --agent <id> --cell <id> --ttl 2h
npx cellfence claim check --agent <id>
npx cellfence baseline create|check|update
npx cellfence evidence check --evidence resource-evidence.json
npx cellfence waivers list|request

Exit codes: 0 no violations · 1 governance violations · 2 configuration or manifest error · 3 internal tool error.

For coding agents

context --format agents-md emits a per-cell contract (owned paths, allowed imports, allowed resources, guidance) ready to pass into an agent's context. install writes a checksumed managed block into AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, and install --check fails when that block drifts or unmanaged CellFence instructions appear outside it.

MCP-capable agents can run cellfence serve --mcp and call get_cell_context, check_change, create_claim, and explain_finding over stdio. check and baseline check remain the deterministic completion signal.

Learn more

Full documentation, comparison with adjacent tools, ratchet design, and threat model: https://github.com/pushnanashi2/CellFence#readme

Requires Node.js ≥ 20. License: Apache-2.0.