quality_assurance · workflow

Dropbox builds Nova, an internal cloud platform for running coding agents across the software development lifecycle

Engineering work at Dropbox included many repetitive, disruptive tasks — debugging CI failures, updating dependencies, fixing flaky tests, and managing migrations — that pulled engineers' focus away from deeper product and infrastructure work. Off-the-shelf coding agent tools did not fit Dropbox's monorepo, Bazel-based infrastructure, or internal validation paths.

How it works
Common implementation structure
How this type of workflow is generally built, generalized across documented cases — not tied to any one vendor's stack. Click any stage to read what happens there. Specific products that implement these stages appear in “Tools commonly seen” below.
Stage 1 · Task submitted to Nova
An engineer or internal system submits a task to Nova, optionally including validation commands.
Tools used
NovaBazelAthenaDeflakerGooseDashMCPRenovateBotGitHub
Outcome

Nova is now used across flaky test remediation, dependency migrations, and production crash response at Dropbox, replacing the prior Goose-based migrator with interactive sessions, shared guardrails, and reusable workflow tooling across a range of engineering workflows.

What failed first

A prior Goose-based AI migrator had no interactivity for reviewing or continuing agent output, leaving teams with no practical way to recover from failures. It also lacked shared guardrails, reusable workflow tooling, and a consistent operating model.

Results
Volume100 or more
Source

https://dropbox.tech/machine-learning/introducing-nova-our-internal-platform-for-coding-agents

How we source this →

Grounding & classification
Source type: technical build writeup
30 fields verified against source quotes.
agentic workflowai agentcode generationmulti agent workflowcode diff prfailure mode describedmetric backednamed customerproduction runtime claimedtools describedworkflow describedsoftwareemployee productivitytechnical build writeupback office opsincident managementquality assuranceagentic task executionescalation workflow