# AI quality gates in CI/CD

Code regressions are caught by tests. AI regressions slip through unless you treat the eval as a test. The CI/CD-quality-gates use case wires Stratix evaluations into your pipeline so a prompt change that drops accuracy can't merge.

## The shape of the work

1. **Pick your gating evaluation.** A small, fast subset of your benchmarks and judges. Goal: meaningful signal in under 5 minutes.
2. **Add the eval as a CI step.** GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Buildkite — call the SDK or CLI with the eval config.
3. **Compare against baseline.** Stratix maintains an evaluation history. The CI step compares the new run to the most recent main-branch run.
4. **Fail the build on regression.** If any tracked dimension drops by more than your tolerance, fail.
5. **Annotate the PR.** Post the score table back to the PR for reviewer context.

## Why it works on Stratix

* **Evaluation history is built-in.** No need to roll your own diff infrastructure.
* **SDK and CLI both support CI.** Pick whichever feels native.
* **Compare-models lets you stage upgrades.** Switch the model in CI, verify scores, then promote.
* **GEPA-optimized judges keep gates honest.** Out-of-the-box judges flake; tuned ones don't.

## Tools you'll use

* [SDK: `client.evaluations.create()`](/4.1-general-use-cases/general.md)
* [CLI: `layerlens evaluate`](/4.1-general-use-cases/general.md)
* [Stratix Premium — Evaluations](/8.-evaluate-score-the-outputs/evaluations.md)

## Outcomes you should see

You'll know this is working when:

* **Zero AI regressions reach production** because the CI gate caught them.
* **CI gate run time stays under 5 minutes** even as the eval grows.
* **Tolerance is calibrated** — false-positive rate <5%, false-negative rate <2%.
* **Engineers cite the eval result in the PR description** as a matter of habit.

## Anti-patterns

* **5-hour CI evals.** If your team waits 5 hours for a merge gate, they'll ignore it. Pick a fast subset.
* **Whole-org tolerance.** Different repos have different quality bars. Set per-repo or per-feature tolerances.
* **No alerting on baseline drift.** If the baseline silently drops over 4 PRs, you never noticed because each PR was within tolerance. Watch the trend.

## Where to next

* [Tutorial: Wire CI/CD quality gates](/6.-build-wire-your-code/03-cicd-gates.md)
* [Workflow: Govern](/9.-improve-tune-the-system/workflow.md)
* [Cookbook: CI/CD recipes](/2.-get-started/all-cookbook-recipes.md)
* [Integrations: GitHub Actions](/4.1-general-use-cases/general.md)


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