How to evaluate coding agent security tools: a buyer's checklist

This note is for a buyer who has a shortlist and a few vendor calls booked. It turns our seven scoring criteria into questions to ask, and lists what each vendor already states on its public pages, so the call can start from the gaps. Facts come from vendor pages reviewed in September 2026; the scores behind them are on the ranking.

1. Which of your assistants does the tool name?

Write down every assistant in use: editor plugins, terminal agents and any coding agent that opens pull requests. Then check each vendor's own pages. In our AI Coding Assistant Coverage Census, Cursor is named by 8 of 9 vendors, Claude Code by 7, GitHub Copilot by 7, Windsurf by 5, OpenAI Codex by 3 and Kiro by 2. A "Not named" entry means the vendor's page does not list the assistant, not that the product cannot work with it, so ask for the documentation page that does.

2. Does it act on the agent, or only on the code?

This is the widest gap between products, and it carries 30% of our score. Controls that act on the agent include discovery of assistants, models and MCP servers, policy on commands and installs, and guidance sent before code is written.

• Legit Security: VibeGuard 2.0, launched on 3 August 2026, discovers coding agents on the developer endpoint and blocks dangerous operations.
• Endor Labs: AURI inventories coding agents, models, MCP servers and skills and applies policy at the moment of action.
• Snyk: Evo Agentic Development Security can evaluate, steer or block risky agent activity. It needs an Enterprise subscription.
• OX Security: VibeSec reads the developer's prompt and sends security guidance to the agent before code is generated.
• Cycode: IDE guardrails intercept secrets, prompts and tool calls, and the AI-BOM tracks rule files, MCP servers and AI API keys.
• Aikido Security and GitHub Advanced Security focus on the code. GitHub's built-in checks cover its own Copilot coding agent.

The question to ask: show me the policy that blocks a command, and where it is enforced.

3. Where does enforcement happen?

The same control means different things at different points, so ask the vendor to name the point. The developer endpoint (VibeGuard 2.0) covers several assistants at once. The IDE is where Cycode's guardrails and Aikido's plugin work. A hook inside one agent covers that agent: Semgrep Guardian fires on every file write in Claude Code, Cursor and Windsurf. The pull request is where GitHub code scanning and Copilot Autofix act. Also ask what happens when a developer switches the control off; VibeGuard 2.0 lists anti-tampering among its features.

4. What happens to a secret before the prompt leaves the machine?

Ask for the exact point where a key is caught. Cycode's AI Guardrails, launched on 17 February 2026, intercept secrets in prompts, file reads and MCP tool calls before they leave the IDE. Legit VibeGuard blocks API keys, tokens and passwords from being shared with AI systems, and Legit's secrets scanning also covers Jira, Confluence, Slack and developers' personal GitHub accounts. Snyk Secrets, generally available since 4 August 2026, adds prevention gates across coding agents, IDEs, PRs and CI/CD. On GitHub, push protection blocks pushes that contain secrets, and a ruleset rule in public preview since 9 September 2026 blocks merges while secret scanning alerts are open. Our lesson on secrets from the IDE to the merge puts these in order.

5. Can it stop a bad package at install time?

Agents add dependencies quickly, and a check at pull request comes after an install script has already run. Aikido Safe Chain blocks malware at package install. Endor Labs has a package firewall and, since 9 September 2026, a Threat Center for malicious packages. OX VibeSec's Dependency Vetting, announced the same day, blocks known-malicious packages an agent tries to install. Semgrep Guardian blocks malicious dependencies before install, and a Malware Firewall for Semgrep Supply Chain is in private beta. npm v12 also changes the defaults; see our note on npm v12 install scripts.

6. How does it decide what to fix first?

Agent-written code raises the number of findings, so ask how the tool ranks them. Endor Labs reports on reachable code paths across dependencies, containers and first-party code. Apiiro connects code to runtime through its Software Architecture Graph and Risk Graph. Cycode's AI Exploitability Agent confirms whether a CVE is reachable. Legit scores risk by business criticality, compliance, GenAI use, APIs and internet exposure. Ask to see one real finding with the evidence behind its rank.

7. What can you price before the first call?

Where only a unit is published, ask for the price at your committer count and whether agent controls sit in the same plan. Snyk's coding agent security, for example, is in Enterprise only, not in the $25 Team plan.

The checklist to send vendors

1. Which of our assistants do you name as supported, and on which page?
2. Which controls act on the agent itself, and which only on the code?
3. Where is each control enforced, and can a developer switch it off?
4. At which point is a secret caught before it reaches a model?
5. Do you check packages at install time, and in which ecosystems?
6. How is a finding ranked, and can you show the evidence for one?
7. How are findings from our existing scanners handled?
8. What is the price at our committer count, and which plan includes agent controls?

Our scores follow the same questions. How we rate has the weights, and the full comparison has each vendor's scores side by side.

Sources

1. Legit Security: VibeGuard 2.0 press release legitsecurity.com
2. Legit Security: VibeGuard legitsecurity.com
3. Legit Security: secret scanning legitsecurity.com
4. Legit Security: ASPM platform legitsecurity.com
5. Endor Labs: homepage endorlabs.com
6. Endor Labs: Threat Center and Package Firewall endorlabs.com
7. Snyk: Evo Agentic Development Security snyk.io
8. Snyk: plans snyk.io
9. Snyk: Evo Continuous Offensive Security and Snyk Secrets snyk.io
10. Cycode: AI security cycode.com
11. Cycode: AI Guardrails cycode.com
12. Cycode: homepage cycode.com
13. Semgrep: Guardian semgrep.dev
14. Semgrep: malware detection and response semgrep.dev
15. OX Security: VibeSec docs docs.ox.security
16. OX Security: Dependency Vetting ox.security
17. Aikido Security: homepage aikido.dev
18. Apiiro: homepage apiiro.com
19. GitHub: block pull requests with exposed secrets github.blog
20. GitHub: Advanced Security github.com
21. Legit Security: pricing legitsecurity.com
22. Endor Labs: pricing endorlabs.com
23. Cycode: pricing cycode.com
24. Semgrep: pricing semgrep.dev
25. OX Security: pricing ox.security
26. Aikido Security: pricing aikido.dev

Related on this site

• Best AI code security tools
• Full comparison and Coverage Census
• How we rate
• How to secure code written by Copilot, Cursor and Claude Code