🧠 Agent Fundamentals — Introduction to Early Test Generation Agents
Early AI offers multiple agents that automate the generation of unit tests across your codebase.
Each agent is optimized for a specific integration point — pull requests, commits, or folders — and can run in any CI/CD system.
This chapter introduces the available agents and explains when to use which.
It also consolidates all shared configuration topics such as token permissions, npm setup, SCM support, and performance tuning.
⚙️ What is an Agent?
An agent is a programmable entry point to Early AI's test generation engine.
It detects code changes or gaps in test coverage, generates high-quality unit tests using AI, and optionally commits the results.
You can think of agents as:
- 🧩 PR-focused: Run when code is reviewed
- 🔁 Commit-based: Run on every push
- 📦 Folder-based: Improve coverage for large areas of code
📚 Available Agents
| Agent | Trigger Type | Ideal For | Typical CI/CD |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub PR Agent | PR event | Auto-generating tests during code review | GitHub Actions |
| CLI PR Agent | PR event | PR-based workflows in Jenkins/CircleCI | Jenkins, CircleCI |
| CLI Commit Agent | Commit | Commit-based flows or push events | GitHub, Jenkins |
| CLI Repo Agent | Manual/Sched | Raising coverage across a folder | All CI/CD |
🧭 Need help choosing? See: When to Use Which Agent →
🔄 Shared Concepts
These topics are common across all agents and documented in detail in this section:
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| NPM Authentication | How to install the CLI from GitHub Packages using a classic NPM_TOKEN. |
| GitHub & SCM Tokens | What TOKEN is, which scopes are required, and how to support GitHub, Bitbucket, etc. |
| Supported SCM Providers | Which SCMs are supported and how to configure them (--scm-provider). |
| Concurrency & Performance | How to optimize MAX_CONCURRENCY and CI runtime. |
| Lint & Formatting Hooks | How to configure LINT_COMMAND and PRETTIER_COMMAND for compliant commits. |
| Memory Tuning | Preventing OOM errors with NODE_OPTIONS. |
🧩 What’s Next?
👉 Start with: When to Use Which Agent →
Then continue to the agent-specific section that fits your workflow.
Looking to skip straight to a shared concept? Use the left sidebar.