I’m about to launch Kentico Sentinel, and I realize my own site isn’t on the latest Xperience by Kentico refresh. Not ideal. But it gives me an opportunity to test Kentico Sentinel on a new refresh.
Normally, that’s a quick-but-annoying task. Check versions, diff NuGet packages, bump dependencies, make sure nothing breaks, deploy carefully.
This time I didn’t do any of that.
Sentinel scanned the site and exported a JSON report — refresh drift, outdated NuGet packages, configuration issues. I handed that file to an AI agent and told it to bring everything up to the latest refresh.
About ten minutes later, the production site was fully upgraded. No downtime. No manual edits. I didn’t touch a single file.
How the magic happens
Sentinel outputs a structured JSON report: version drift, package drift, configuration issues.
That matters because it removes interpretation. The AI doesn’t need to “figure out” what’s wrong — the site tells it directly.
I passed that JSON to the agent and gave it a simple instruction: upgrade Kentico and related packages to the latest compatible refresh.
It updated the .csproj, handled the dependency alignment, built the project, and validated the result. No spreadsheet. No manual diffing. No guesswork.
The interesting part isn’t that it was fast. It’s that I wasn’t involved.
What this means for your XbyK site
Refreshes are basically trivial now. There, I said it.
I don't think AI replaces Kentico developers — the interesting work is still very interesting. But the quarterly “what's on 31.0.1 and why” chore? The version-audit spreadsheet? That whole genre of work is, frankly, on its way out. The site can describe its own health. The AI can read the description. You can drink your coffee.
If you want this on your own Xperience by Kentico site, here's the short version:
- Install Sentinel. Free, open source, MIT-licensed:
dotnet tool install -g RefinedElement.Kentico.Sentinel --prerelease. The launch post walks through the CLI and dashboard. - Export the JSON report and hand it to your AI of choice. That's the unlock. Sentinel speaks fluent agent.
- Stay in the loop. You read the plan. You merge the PR. The AI is the assistant, not the deploy key.
And if any of this sounds great in theory but you'd rather not stand it up yourself — or if you've got an Xperience by Kentico site, an AI ambition, and a gap in the middle — that's literally what we do. Drop a note to support@refinedelement.com and we'll help you make refreshes (and a lot of other things) trivial too.