Promises, Perils, and (Timely) Heuristics for Mining Coding Agent Activity (MSR 2026 - Technical Papers)

Who

Romain Robbes, Théo Matricon, Thomas Degueule, Andre Hora, Stefano Zacchiroli

Track

MSR 2026 Technical Papers

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When

Mon 13 Apr 2026 11:50 - 12:00 at Oceania V - Session 1-A: AI Agents & Automation Chair(s): Matheus Paixao

Abstract

In 2025, coding agents have seen a very rapid adoption. Coding agents leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) in ways that are markedly different from LLM-based code completion, making their study critical. Moreover, unlike LLM-based completion, coding agents leave visible traces in software repositories, enabling the use of MSR techniques to study their impact on SE practices. This paper documents the promises, perils, and heuristics that we have gathered from studying coding agent activity on GitHub.

Link to Preprint

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.18345

Romain Robbes

CNRS, LaBRI, University of Bordeaux

France

Théo Matricon

Univ Rennes, INSA Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA

France

Thomas Degueule

CNRS

France

Andre Hora

UFMG

Brazil

Stefano Zacchiroli

LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France

France

Promises, Perils, and (Timely) Heuristics for Mining Coding Agent Activity (MSR 2026)

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Session Program

Mon 13 Apr
Displayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change

11:00 - 12:30	Session 1-A: AI Agents & AutomationTechnical Papers / Industry Track / MSR Program at Oceania V Chair(s): Matheus Paixao State University of Ceará

11:00 10m Talk		Toward Linking Declined Proposals and Source Code: An Exploratory Study on the Go Repository Technical Papers Sota Nakashima Kyushu University, Masanari Kondo Kyushu University, Mahmoud Alfadel University of Calgary, Aly Ahmad University of Calgary, Toshihiro Nakae DENSO CORPORATION, Hidenori Matsuzaki DENSO CORPORATION, Yasutaka Kamei Kyushu University Pre-print
11:10 10m Talk		IntelliSA: An Intelligent Static Analyzer for IaC Security Smell Detection Using Symbolic Rules and Neural Inference Technical Papers Qiyue Mei The University of Melbourne, Michael Fu The University of Melbourne Pre-print File Attached
11:20 10m Talk		Model See, Model Do? Exposure-Aware Evaluation of Bug-vs-Fix Preference in Code LLMs Technical Papers Ali Al-Kaswan Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, Claudio Spiess University of California, Davis, Prem Devanbu University of California at Davis, Arie van Deursen TU Delft, Mali Izadi TU Delft Pre-print
11:30 10m Talk		A Match Made in Heaven? AI-driven Matching of Vulnerabilities and Security Unit Tests Technical Papers Emanuele Iannone Hamburg University of Technology, Quang-Cuong Bui Hamburg University of Technology, Riccardo Scandariato Hamburg University of Technology Pre-print
11:40 10m Talk		PhantomRun: Auto Repair of Compilation Errors in Embedded Open Source Software Technical Papers Han Fu , Sigrid Eldh Ericsson AB, Mälardalen University, Carleton University, Kristian Wiklund Ericsson AB, Andreas Ermedahl Ericsson AB; KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Philipp Haller KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Cyrille Artho KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
11:50 10m Talk		Promises, Perils, and (Timely) Heuristics for Mining Coding Agent Activity Technical Papers Romain Robbes CNRS, LaBRI, University of Bordeaux, Théo Matricon Univ Rennes, INSA Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, Thomas Degueule CNRS, Andre Hora UFMG, Stefano Zacchiroli LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France Pre-print Media Attached
12:00 10m Talk		From Logic to Toolchains: An Empirical Study of Bugs in the TypeScript Ecosystem Technical Papers TianYi Tang Simon Fraser University, Saba Alimadadi Simon Fraser University, Nick Sumner Simon Fraser University Pre-print
12:10 10m Talk		Are We All Using Agents Now? An Empirical Study of Core and Peripheral Developers’ Use of Coding Agents Technical Papers Shamse Tasnim Cynthia University of Saskatchewan, Joy Krishan Das University of Saskatchewan, Banani Roy University of Saskatchewan Pre-print
12:20 5m Talk		Context Engineering for AI Agents in Open-Source Software Technical Papers Seyedmoein Mohsenimofidi Heidelberg University, Matthias Galster University of Canterbury, Christoph Treude Singapore Management University, Sebastian Baltes Heidelberg University Pre-print
12:25 5m Talk		A Blueprint for Trustworthy Code Annotation at Scale: An LLM-Powered Pipeline for Industrial Software Analytics Industry Track Ailon dos Santos Teixeira UFAM, Jaine Brito da Silva UFAM, Nikolas Rocha de Medeiros UFAM, Raimundo da Silva Barreto UFAM, José Reginaldo Hughes Carvalho UFAM, Alex Fernando Monteiro UFAM