| name | babysit |
| description | Shepherd an open PR to merge. Watches CI, fixes failures, addresses review comments, resolves conflicts, and enables/executes merge when green. Use after opening a PR, when the user says babysit/watch/get this merged, or as the final step of /ship. |
Babysit
Goal
The PR merges, or you stop with a precise blocker and the evidence for it.
Loop
Poll without spinning:
gh pr view <number> --json state,reviewDecision,mergeable,comments,headRefName,baseRefName
gh pr checks <number>
Wait 60-120 seconds between unchanged pending states.
CI failed
- Read the actual failure log:
gh run view <run-id> --log-failed.
- Classify:
- caused by this diff → fix, run local verification, commit, push.
- flaky/infra → retry once; if it repeats, treat as real or escalate.
- broken on base branch → prove or cite evidence, then stop; do not absorb main's failure into this PR.
- Loop guard: after 3 distinct failed fix attempts for the same check, stop and summarize attempts.
Review comments arrived
- Address substantive comments in code, batching fixes where practical.
- Reply with what changed or a concise rebuttal.
- Escalate genuine disputes after at most two back-and-forths.
- Do not mark reviewer threads resolved unless repo convention says authors resolve.
Merge conflict
- Fetch and rebase/merge according to repo convention.
- Resolve conservatively; inspect both sides' intent before choosing.
- Re-run relevant tests and verification before pushing.
- Use
--force-with-lease after a rebase, never bare --force.
All green + approved
- Determine merge convention from repo settings/recent PRs.
- Enable auto-merge or merge directly as appropriate, e.g.
gh pr merge <number> --auto --squash.
- Confirm the PR state is merged and report the URL/merge commit if available.
Exit conditions
Stop when:
- merged
- blocked on human review with no actionable comments
- loop guard tripped
- failure requires a product/security/API/data decision
- credentials/permissions are missing
Gotchas
gh pr checks can return non-zero while pending; read the output.- Pushing fixes can dismiss approvals; batch review fixes.
- External checks you cannot inspect/retry are blockers, not reasons to wait forever.
