Practical linting for agent context files

As more and more developers are adding agent context files, skills, AI PR review, and other AI indicators to their repos I noticed the same questions coming up: How do I test these files? How do I know my updates are meaningful? How do I measure impact? Your agent treats a context file like the truth so drift and inconsistency over time can introduce unexpected behavior. The non-deterministic nature of agents can feel intimidating, but before you even get to writing behavioral checks there are some simple automatic and deterministic things you can do that are already familiar. How agent context linting is different Traditional linting might check syntax and style answering the question "Is this valid JavaScript?" but linting for your context files is answering different questions. Some examples could be: Is this guidance specific enough for a model to follow? Are the file references up to date? Are my rules and terminology consistent throughout context files? Basic Structural Checks Qu