The Validate Phase: How I Catch AI Code Issues Before They Reach My Tests

Series context: This is a deep-dive follow-up to How I Automate Parts of My SDLC with AI Agents . If you haven't read that post, the short version: I built an agentic dev workflow (ADW) that automates my full development cycle: Plan → Build → Validate → Test → Review → Document. This post focuses on the Validate phase. Why Validation Is the Most Underrated Phase The elephant in the room: AI-generated code is fast but imperfect Linters and static analysis exist for human written code why would AI-written code get a free pass? Without a validate phase, imperfections land directly in your test agent (or worse, in review) The validate phase is the quality gate that makes the rest of the pipeline trustworthy Quick recap of where it sits in the pipeline: Plan → Build → [Validate ×3] → [Test ×3] → Review → Document ↑ You are here What Validation Is NOT (Scope Clarity) Not running unit tests that is the Test Agent's job (separate agent, separate concerns) Not running the application No externa