Boffin stops AI coding agents from renovating your codebase

a desk with a laptop and a potted plant on it

You ask for a 15-line fix. The agent comes back with a 500-line renovation. Boffin (npm: boffinit) exists to prevent that.

It’s a staff-engineer control layer for AI coding agents. Before an edit, it routes the architectural constraints relevant to the specific file being touched. After the edit, it requires verification proportional to the size of the change. The comparison to a static AGENTS.md is intentional: a repo-wide rules block treats every file the same. Boffin does not.

‍ What the case studies show

Three guided refactors on real open-source codebases are published as reproducible case studies:

  • DuckDB (C++): +17 / -17 lines; 2,104 assertions across 8 test files passed; continuation and recovery paths preserved.
  • FastAPI (Python): +16 / -33 lines; 49 tests passed; no public API change.
  • LangChain (Python): sync/async boundary preserved; 4 tests passed.

The developer notes these are reproducible case studies, not a controlled A/B benchmark.

️ Supported agents and profiles

One npm package covers Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Three cleanup profiles are available: lite (smallest useful change), full (balanced default), and max (strongest cleanup pressure). Every profile keeps the same correctness floor: trust-boundary validation, data-loss prevention, security, and accessibility requirements all stay on regardless of profile. There is no off profile.

lines of HTML codes

Worth noting

Boffin does not sandbox processes, filter shell commands, or restrict filesystem or network access. It guides architectural decisions in generated code. It also does not replace your tests or your review process. It tells the agent which contracts deserve attention before the edit lands. Requires Node.js 18 or newer. MIT licensed. Constraint packs are GPG-signed and readable before install.

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