Documentation

How RepoGates works, what it covers, and how to use it — in your browser and in the AI agents that are told to ask it first.

What RepoGates does

  • Scores every GitHub repository against 22 published checks and answers PASS, REVIEW or BLOCK with the findings — plus four dimension verdicts for what you are about to do with it.
  • Gates browser downloads that fail your policy — the Download ZIP button, release assets, raw files, Save-Link-As — before the file reaches your downloads folder.
  • Sees when an AI surface led you here (AgentBaiting, C22), because only code running in the browser at navigation time can.
  • Answers AI agents before they fetch: the MCP server judges the exact clone or install line (preflight), a package named on it — npm install express, pip install flask — resolved to the repository it declares; the Claude Code plugin's hook refuses a blocked line before it runs; the skill makes Claude.ai and Cowork ask first.
  • Reads the files on request: with your yes, a deep scan runs four engines over the repository in a sandbox.

What it does not do

  • It does not see git clone, package managers or curl — outside Claude Code with the RepoGates plugin, whose hook refuses a clone or install that names a blocked repository on the command line, before it runs. A browser extension cannot see other processes; that is structural, not a roadmap item.
  • The MCP server is a safe path an agent can be required to use, not enforcement: an agent that never calls it is not stopped, exactly as curl is not stopped. In Claude.ai and Cowork the skill is the same — advisory.
  • The hook sees Bash tool calls in that one client and nothing else: not Read, not MCP git tools, not another agent, not a human at a terminal. Edit and Write are read for one thing only — an API key about to be saved — checked on the machine and never sent; that guard asks, it never denies.
  • Direct dependencies named on the command line only; transitive dependencies and lockfiles are not resolved.
  • A PASS is not a guarantee: it means every check that could run, ran, and none fired.

Support

Questions, bug reports, false blocks, security disclosures and procurement all reach the same human: support@repogates.com. For a false block, include the owner/repo and the check names shown on the decision page — that is everything we need.

Related: Changelog: every release of every product · Privacy · Pricing · How we measured ourselves · Honest coverage.