The Rise of Agentic Coding
In recent years, we’ve seen an evolution from traditional software engineering to agentic coding—where autonomous AI agents can generate, modify, and deploy code with minimal human oversight. These AI systems can spin up microservices, refactor APIs, or integrate third-party libraries in seconds. While this has accelerated innovation, it has also introduced a new layer of complexity into application security.
Each automated code generation introduces potential risks:
- Unverified open-source dependencies
- Outdated libraries with known vulnerabilities
- Hidden transitive packages that evade manual review
The challenge isn’t just what AI can build—it’s what it pulls in behind the scenes.
Why SBOMs Are the New Security Baseline
A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a formal record of all components, libraries, and dependencies that make up a software application. Think of it as an ingredient list for your software.
In the age of agentic coding, an SBOM is critical for:
- Transparency: Knowing exactly which components and versions are in use.
- Vulnerability Management: Quickly identifying when a known CVE affects your environment.
- Compliance: Aligning with mandates like U.S. Executive Order 14028 and NIST SP 800-218, which require SBOMs for federal software.
- AI Governance: Auditing the provenance and trustworthiness of AI-selected components.
Without an SBOM, your organization risks operating a “black box” system where even developers can’t confidently describe what’s running in production.
