Agent Centric Development Cycle AC/DC
Agents don't make micro-commits. They work for hours and drop 40,000-line PRs, and the old verification model can't keep up. AC/DC is the framework that puts verification back in control — guiding agents with the right context, verifying everything they write, and fixing issues automatically. SonarQube is the independent trust and verification layer: agent-agnostic, and compatible with whatever generation tools your team uses.
A cycle built for how agents actually work
AC/DC runs at two levels. An inner loop sits inside each agentic reasoning step, and an outer loop at sandbox exit. Sonar covers all three stages, for every AI coding tool.
Inner loop
Per reasoning step · agent sandboxOuter loop
At sandbox exit · CI pipelineGuide. Verify. Solve.
Guide your agents with your standards and architecture context
Agents need the right and relevant context. Not too much, not too little. The Guide stage provides agents with guardrails and the most relevant context, standards, and architectural constraints so their output fits your organization's requirements.
Without the right context, agents produce code that is functionally correct but contextually wrong, violating your coding standards, style, or security posture. Sonar Vortex provides dynamic, task-relevant context at the start of every agentic session. Too little context means code that ignores your standards. Too much degrades model performance. The right context, dynamically selected, is the key.
Zero-trust, multi-layered verification.
Agents generate thousands of lines before stopping. At every checkpoint, inside the agent's inner loop and at sandbox exit, two complementary layers run together: SonarQube's deterministic mathematical analysis and Gitar's AI-native code review. Neither alone is sufficient. Together they cover the full surface.
Separate, deterministic, and fully auditable — every finding explained with its exact rule, location, and data flow.
SonarQube reasons across syntax, control and data flow, taint analysis, SCA, and architecture; Gitar adds AI-native review for the logic and behavioral bugs static analysis can't reach.
Industry leading false positive rate: 3.2%. Teams verify real issues, not noise.
Close the loop with automated remediation.
When verification fails, Sonar doesn't just report issues. It resolves them. The SonarQube Remediation Agent generates verified fixes, validates them against the same quality gate that failed, and opens a ready-to-merge pull request. No manual review cycle required.
The same workflow applies to existing backlogs. Teams with hundreds of accumulated security and quality findings can deploy the Remediation Agent to clear them systematically, turning a growing backlog into a continuously improving posture.
Get AC/DC running with your agents
Step-by-step guides for wiring AC/DC into your actual agent setup, organized by what you’re trying to accomplish, not by product.
Inject architecture context into Claude Code
Wire Sonar's context injection into Claude Code sessions. Your architecture, coding standards, and quality rules - available as MCP tool calls before the agent writes anything.
Inject architecture context into Codex CLI
Inject architecture, coding standards, and quality rules into Codex CLI before it generates a line of code — via MCP context injection.
Inject architecture context into GitHub Copilot
Wire Sonar’s context injection into GitHub Copilot sessions in VS Code. Your architecture, coding standards, and quality rules available before Copilot generates a line.
Verify code quality in your Claude Code agent loop
Put inner-loop verification to work. Run Sonar's analysis engine inside the agent’s reasoning cycle - every file, every step - not just at PR time.
Verify code quality in your Codex CLI agent loop
Run inner-loop verification in your Codex CLI workflow. Catching issues at the point of generation - not after the PR lands.
Verify code quality in your GitHub Copilot agent loop
Run inner-loop verification in GitHub Copilot in VS Code. Sonar’s analysis engine catches issues at the point of generation, before they compound.
Auto-fix PR issues when the quality gate fails
Wire automated remediation into your PR workflow. When the quality gate fails, verified fixes are generated, validated, and opened as a ready-to-merge PR - automatically.
Clear your security and quality backlog automatically
Put your existing issue backlog to work. Target accumulated findings - generating verified fixes and opening ready-to-merge PRs without manual review cycles.
Run the full AC/DC loop in the terminal
The complete Guide → Verify → Solve cycle without leaving the terminal. Agent generates; Sonar verifies; the loop repeats until the quality gate passes.
Connect Sonar to Claude Code via MCP
Make every Sonar capability available inside Claude Code as a native tool — architecture queries, quality gate checks, findings lookup, and more.
Install Sonar in Claude Code
Connect SonarQube to Claude Code so Sonar findings, quality gate status, and architecture context are available as native tools in every agent session.
Connect Sonar to Gemini Code Assist via MCP
Make every Sonar capability available inside Gemini Code Assist Agent Mode as native MCP tool calls. Architecture queries, quality gate checks, and findings lookups.
AC/DC for your agent, right now
Drop these files into your repo and your agent immediately understands the AC/DC workflow. Includes CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, and three agent skill files.
The full stack for agentic development
Sonar covers the full Agent Centric Development Cycle — including context injection, verification, and automated remediation — all as one integrated workflow.
Sonar Vortex
GADelivers project-specific context and constraints before the agent writes. Architecture, coding standards, and quality rules retrieved via semantic navigation and injected through SonarQube CLI or MCP Server.
Product pageSonarSweep
Private betaContext files embedded in the repo that travel with the codebase. Every agent picks them up automatically.
Product pageSonarQube
GADeterministic-first analysis across 40+ languages. The quality gate for all code, human- or agent-written.
SonarQube Advanced Security
GADeep security analysis with taint tracking, secrets detection, SCA, and IaC scanning.
Sonar Vortex
GARuns Sonar’s full analysis engine inside the agent’s inner loop. Every output verified before a PR exists — same depth as a full CI scan, in seconds.
SonarQube Architecture
GAVisualize and manage architecture. Tracks current vs intended structure, exposed to agents via MCP.
Gitar
NewAI code review that lives in your pull requests. Reviews code, diagnoses CI failures, generates fixes, and commits only when the build passes.
SonarQube MCP Server
GAExposes SonarQube as native MCP tools for Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.
SonarQube for IDE
formerly SonarLintGAReal-time Sonar analysis in VS Code, IntelliJ, and other IDEs as the agent writes code.
SonarQube CLI
GAUnified CLI for SonarQube capabilities, designed for agentic and CI/CD workflows.
SonarQube Remediation Agent
BetaGenerates verified fix PRs automatically when the quality gate fails.
Product pageAI CodeFix
GAOne-click fix suggestions in the IDE and PR. Fully on-premises in SonarQube Server 2026.2.
Product pageAC/DC in depth
Technical posts on building the Agent Centric Development Cycle into your workflow.
Introducing the Agent Centric Development Cycle (AC/DC)
The framework behind how Sonar thinks about agentic development: Guide, Verify, Solve. Why the inner loop and outer loop need different approaches, and why deterministic analysis remains the non-negotiable foundation.
Read articleSonarQube CLI: built for agentic workflows
The unified CLI for the full AC/DC loop. One tool for analysis, status checks, and issue queries — designed to live inside agentic pipelines, not just CI scripts.
Read post MCP ServerSonarQube MCP Server: Sonar as a native agent tool
How the SonarQube MCP Server exposes architecture queries, quality gate checks, and issue lookups as native tool calls — inside Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.
Read post Sonar VortexIntroducing Sonar Vortex
Context Augmentation and Agentic Analysis unified into a single GA product. Sonar Vortex operates inside the agent’s coding loop — delivering project-specific context before code is written and verifying every output in real time.
Read postThe Agent Centric Development Cycle
This ebook introduces the Agent Centric Development Cycle (AC/DC), a framework designed to help engineering teams harness agentic AI without compromising code quality, security, or maintainability. It's backed by data from Sonar's 2026 State of Code Developer Survey and independent academic research.
Download eBook