Question 1

What is Cortex and how does it help with AI coding agents?

Accepted Answer

Cortex is a verification-first daemon for Rust workspaces that acts as a pre-apply gate. It sandboxes and `cargo check`s edits proposed by AI coding agents (like Claude Code or Cursor) *before* they modify your actual filesystem, ensuring only compilable and correct code is applied.

Question 2

How does Cortex prevent hallucinated or broken AI code from landing?

Accepted Answer

When an AI agent proposes an edit, Cortex applies it to a temporary sandbox copy of your workspace. It then runs `cargo check`. If the code doesn't compile, Cortex feeds the compiler output back to the AI agent, allowing it to correct the errors and retry, up to 6 rounds. Only verified, compilable diffs are atomically applied to your project.

Question 3

Is Cortex compatible with all programming languages?

Accepted Answer

No, Cortex is specifically and strictly scoped to Rust projects. Its powerful verification capabilities rely heavily on the robust error detection of `cargo check`, which is not comparable to verification tools for other languages like Python or TypeScript. Multi-language support is explicitly out of scope.

Question 4

How can I integrate Cortex with my existing AI coding workflow?

Accepted Answer

Cortex provides a CLI for direct interaction and a Unix-socket daemon for background operation. For seamless integration with other AI coding tools, it ships with an MCP (Meta-Coding Protocol) server. This allows tools like Claude Code or Cursor to use Cortex's `verify_edit` and `apply_if_clean` functionalities.

Question 5

What happens if an AI agent's edit still doesn't compile after retries?

Accepted Answer

Cortex employs an automated retry loop, feeding compiler output back to the AI agent for up to 6 rounds. If, after these attempts, the proposed edit still fails to compile in the sandbox, the edit is ultimately rejected. This ensures that your filesystem remains untouched and stable, adhering to a 'fail-closed' principle.

Cortex

Client Configuration

System Overview

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