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Why This Workflow Exists

Most teams don’t struggle to detect security vulnerabilities. They struggle to keep up with fixing them.
  • alerts pile up
  • critical issues linger
  • fixes get deferred behind feature work
  • security becomes reactive instead of routine
This guide shows how teams use cloud agents to automatically remediate high and critical Snyk vulnerabilities without introducing risk or losing control.
Who this is for? Full-stack teams without a dedicated AppSec or DevOps function who still need to ship securely.

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The Core Problem

Signal Overload

Snyk finds real issues, but teams can’t keep up with triage and fixes.

Context Switching

Security work interrupts feature delivery and breaks focus.

Manual Toil

Many fixes are repetitive, low-risk, and still handled manually.
The risk isn’t that vulnerabilities exist. The risk is that known high-severity issues remain unfixed.

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Why use an Agent? (vs. Snyk’s Native Auto-PRs)

Snyk has an excellent “Automatic Fix” feature that opens PRs to upgrade vulnerable dependencies. However, because Snyk cannot run your application’s build or test suite, these PRs often break the build and require human cleanup. Continue’s Cloud Agent sits on top of Snyk to complete the engineering work:
FeatureSnyk Native Auto-PRContinue Cloud Agent
The Fix”Bump lodash to v4.17.21""Analyze security issue and create PR with fix”
ContextVulnerability DatabaseVuln DB + Security Impact Analysis
IntelligenceDeterministic (Always bumps version)Reasoning: “Analyzes dependency risks” and suggests updates
ResultA PR that might break the buildA PR that is green and ready to merge
Snyk tells you what to upgrade. The Cloud Agent does the engineering work to make that upgrade safe.

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What Does the Cloud Agent Do?

A Snyk remediation cloud agent owns the handling of security issues, but not the final decision.

Inputs

  • High & critical Snyk vulnerability events
  • Repository context
  • Dependency graph and version constraints

Outputs

  • Draft or ready PR with remediation
  • Clear summary of risk and fix
The agent doesn’t silently change production code. It produces reviewable security PRs.

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How the Workflow Runs

1

Trigger

A new high or critical vulnerability is detected by Snyk
(event-driven) or during a scheduled scan.
2

Investigate

The agent investigates:
  • the vulnerable dependency
  • available remediation paths
  • breaking-change risk
3

Propose a Fix

The agent:
  • applies the minimal safe update
  • avoids unnecessary refactors
  • preserves existing behavior
4

Open a PR

A PR is created with:
  • a clear title
  • summary of the vulnerability
  • explanation of the fix
5

Human Review

A developer reviews and merges (or adjusts) the fix.

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The Agent Configuration

Continue’s Snyk Cloud Agent is built from these core components:

Triggers

Webhook: Snyk new vulnerability event

Tools (MCPs)

Snyk MCP: Fetch vulnerability details

Rules

GitHub CLI: Tells the agent how to create PRs
Remediation Prompt
A new Snyk vulnerability has been detected. Please investigate and resolve the issue. This should include the following steps:

**Step 1: Investigate the Issue**
Make sure you understand the vulnerability, the options for resolution, and what their consequences are.

**Step 2: Implement Fix**
- Focus on fixing the immediate issue identified
- Avoid overdoing it with error handling, cleaning up other problems, etc.
- Avoid making breaking changes
- Ensure the solution is robust and follows best practices.

**Step 3: Create Draft Pull Request**
Create a draft pull request with the following structure:

--
**PR Title:** [Snyk] <brief description of issue solved>

## Issue

**Snyk Link:** [<shortId>](<permalink>)
**Issue Type:** `<issue type>`
**Priority:** <priority>
**Summary:** <Two sentence summary of what caused the issue and how it was fixed>

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Governance: How This Stays Safe

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What This Replaces (and What It Doesn’t)

  • manual dependency bump PRs
  • repetitive vulnerability triage
  • security work that constantly interrupts feature delivery
  • security design reviews
  • architectural threat modeling
  • decisions about major upgrades or breaking changes

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Why Cloud Agents (Not Just CI or Scripts) for Automatic Security Remediation

Why Not Just CI?

CI can detect vulnerabilities,
but it can’t reason about fixes or propose patches.

Why Cloud Agents Work

Cloud agents:
  • interpret Snyk findings
  • choose appropriate fixes
  • produce PRs developers can review
CI enforces. Cloud agents respond.

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Security Benefits Teams See

Faster Remediation

High-severity issues are fixed days or weeks sooner.

Less Interruptions

Developers review PRs instead of context-switching to triage.

Security as Hygiene

Vulnerabilities stop piling up and become routine maintenance.

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A Good First Setup

  • Only high & critical vulnerabilities
  • One repo or service
  • PRs only (no direct merges)
  • CI required before merge
  • Named owner for review

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Where This Fits in the Bigger Picture

This workflow is often a team’s first successful cloud agent because:
  • the ROI is immediate
  • the risk is bounded
  • the output is reviewable
  • leadership already cares about the problem
Once this is working, teams often expand into:
  • error remediation
  • dependency hygiene
  • operational cleanup

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Where to Go Next

Snyk Integration Docs

More information on the Continue Snyk Integration and how you can get started today.

Add the Snyk Integration

Get started by adding the Snyk integration to your projects

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One Sentence to Remember

Cloud agents turn security remediation from an interruption into routine maintenance.