---
title: "Fix lint before the push reaches CI"
description: "Run the fast lint checks locally, with cached results, so a branch reaches CI already clean."
url: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-before-the-push
canonicalUrl: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-before-the-push
---

# Fix lint before the push reaches CI

Run the fast lint checks locally, with cached results, so a branch reaches CI already clean.

## How to choose an approach

This technique currently has one documented company example. Validate its prerequisites, tradeoffs and original CI environment against your repository before adapting it.

- **[Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe#lint-before-the-push)**: Use it when Pull requests regularly spend a CI round on formatting or lint failures that a local run would have caught. Check before adopting: The local pass is a fast first filter; CI still runs the complete lint and test suites as the required gate.

## Apply this technique

````text
Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Fix lint before the push reaches CI.

Run the fast lint checks locally, with cached results, so a branch reaches CI already clean.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-before-the-push.md

Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence.
Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured.
Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo.
Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES.
Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch.
Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge.
````

## How Stripe used this technique

Read what Stripe changed and follow the original sources.

### Stripe: Fix lint before the push reaches CI

Stripe enforces the checks CI would flag as early as the editor and the push. Pre-push hooks fix the most common lint issues, and a background daemon caches lint results for the change, so fixes usually arrive in under a second. Its coding agents run a subset of linters locally and loop on them before pushing a branch.

Evidence: Company-reported result or observation

Stripe’s background daemon caches lint results so developers usually get lint fixes in well under a second on a push. ([Source](https://stripe.dev/blog/minions-stripes-one-shot-end-to-end-coding-agents-part-2))

Use it when: Pull requests regularly spend a CI round on formatting or lint failures that a local run would have caught.

Before applying it: The local pass is a fast first filter; CI still runs the complete lint and test suites as the required gate.

[Read more in the Stripe playbook](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe#lint-before-the-push)

[Primary source](https://stripe.dev/blog/minions-stripes-one-shot-end-to-end-coding-agents-part-2)

## CI optimization is continuous work.

Apply this technique yourself, or use StarSling Runners for faster GitHub Actions and optional agent-driven optimization PRs, which teams on eligible paid plans can turn on.

[Get self-improving CI](https://starsling.dev/products/runners)

## Company Playbooks

### [Anthropic](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/anthropic)

Run only affected tests

### [DoorDash](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/doordash)

Run build and test in parallel, sharded across CI agents

### [Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear)

Benchmark the same job on faster hardware

### [Mastra](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/mastra)

StarSling runners for the slowest test workflow

### [OpenAI](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/openai)

Rank CI fixes by the minutes they save

### [Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp)

Move a CPU-bound test suite to a faster CPU

### [Shopify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/shopify)

Let an agent iterate against one CI metric

### [Spotify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/spotify)

Build arm64 on native arm64 runners

### [Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe)

Run only the tests a change can reach

### [Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber)

Build the merge-queue speculations most likely to be needed