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SWE-CI: Evaluating Agent Capabilities in Maintaining Codebases via CI (arxiv.org)
2 points by stepri 210 days ago | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A new test asks coding agents to keep a real project working as its requirements change over dozens of rounds, not fix one bug once. Built from 100 projects averaging 71 commits, it tracks whether tests pass to show how well agents maintain code.

Abstract · SWE-CI: Evaluating Agent Capabilities in Maintaining Codebases via Continuous Integration

Large language model (LLM)-powered agents have demonstrated strong capabilities in automating software engineering tasks such as static bug fixing. However, in the real world, the development of mature software is typically predicated on complex requirement changes and long-term feature iterations -- a process that static, one-shot repair paradigms fail to capture. To bridge this gap, we propose SWE-CI, the first repository-level benchmark built upon the Continuous Integration loop, aiming to shift the evaluation paradigm for code generation from static, short-term functional correctness toward dynamic, long-term maintainability. The key insight is simple: Maintainability can be revealed by tracking how functional correctness changes over time. The benchmark comprises 100 tasks, each deriving from a real-world code repository with a development history spanning an average of 233 days and 71 consecutive commits. SWE-CI requires agents to systematically resolve these tasks through dozens of rounds of analysis and coding iterations. SWE-CI provides valuable insights into how well agents can sustain code quality throughout long-term evolution.

Jialong Chen, Xander Xu, Hu Wei, Chuan Chen, Bing Zhao
arXiv:2603.03823 · cs.SE, cs.AI, cs.CL · submitted Mar 4, 2026 · updated Apr 1, 2026
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