May 8, 2026 · Konuke
Security review checklist for AI dev tools and agents (pragmatic, not paranoid)
A security-first checklist for evaluating coding assistants, plugins, and agent workflows: data flows, secrets, supply chain, and what to log when things go wrong.
Security teams are not trying to stop AI adoption—they are trying to stop unbounded data egress and unowned automation. This checklist helps you produce evidence leadership can defend.
If you want a facilitated architecture and risk review, book a fit call or read the consulting offer.
1) Data classification (do this first)
- List repositories and systems by sensitivity (PII, regulated, confidential, public-internal).
- For each AI tool, document what content can be sent under each configuration (local, cloud, “enterprise”, etc.).
- Identify “gray areas”: tickets, incident threads, customer support exports, and CI logs.
2) Vendor and supply chain basics
- Capture the vendor’s data retention and training posture in writing (contract or vendor doc).
- List subprocessors relevant to your regions and customer contracts.
- Confirm how plugins/extensions are controlled (allowlist vs. free-for-all).
3) Secrets and credentials
- Confirm secrets are not embedded in prompts, scratch files, or “temporary” scripts.
- Ensure agent/CI environments use scoped tokens with minimal TTL where possible.
- Verify secret scanners still run on agent-assisted branches (they should).
4) Access control and identity
- Confirm SSO / account lifecycle policies cover AI tools (joiners/movers/leavers).
- Confirm role-based access aligns with what the tool can read (repos, wikis, tickets).
5) Logging and incident response
- Decide what you log when automation fails (model/tool version, template id, PR link—not raw secrets).
- Add a short runbook: “disable what, notify whom, preserve what evidence.”
6) Human-in-the-loop controls
- High-risk merges still require explicit human approval paths.
- “Auto-merge” features are explicitly evaluated (agents + auto-merge can compound risk).
Tie it back to delivery norms
Security controls only work if engineering norms make risk visible early. Pair this checklist with a PR review checklist for agent-assisted code and a phased rollout plan.
Printable starter
If you want a single artifact to walk a room through, start from the AI onboarding checklist.
Next step
If you want help turning this into an auditable decision memo and phased rollout, book a fit call.
Want this as a workshop or rollout plan?
Book a 30-minute fit call or send context via the form—we respond within one business day.