dev-self-merge

name	dev-self-merge
description	Merge self-check for a green PR. Reads the PR's required-check status from the checks API (the committed ci-status feed is RETIRED), outputs MERGE (mark task completed, stand down — server-side auto-enqueue enqueues,

/dev-self-merge <N>

Devs DO NOT enqueue. On a passing self-check, mark the task completed and stand down — the server-side auto-enqueue.yml workflow enqueues (#2786). This skill's outcomes are MERGE (regression self-check passes → mark the task completed and stand down; you do NOT touch the merge queue) or ESCALATE (to tech lead). The PR is enqueued by the server-side workflow, not by you.

Why devs no longer enqueue (#2786). The old model had the dev one-shot enqueue when green, with a background CI watcher to do it after stand-down. But that watcher is a child of the dev process — it died with the agent, so a green PR whose dev had stood down stranded un-enqueued (#2225, #2247). The fix moves enqueue to the one actor that is long-lived and outside agent lifecycle: the GitHub Actions workflow. Its workflow_run-on-completion trigger fires right after the required-check workflows finish, and its grace window is now 0 (#2786), so it enqueues every just-green PR within ~one workflow-startup — no dependence on any agent surviving. The required checks are cheap gate (main-ancestor + lint), merge shard reports, and quality.

The merge queue then re-validates on the merged state. merge_group re-runs the required checks (the regression-gate #1943 — the hard block), and auto-park (#2547) labels any PR that fails the merge_group re-run hold. The workflow's single trailing-add enqueue never loops, so it cannot cause the re-enqueue "cancellation churn" (memory project_merge_queue_requeue_cancels_run) that poll-loop re-adds caused on 2026-06-20.

Backstops, not the mechanism: the workflow's ~30-min cron, and the tech lead's per-loop open-PR sweep (CLAUDE.md "Tech lead discipline") — both catch the rare stray the responsive workflow_run run misses (e.g. a PR the queue dropped on main-advance). Neither is the primary path.

SECURITY — the workflow's author-trust gate is now load-bearing. With no dev enqueue, the workflow is the single enqueuer; it only enqueues PRs whose authorAssociation is OWNER/MEMBER/COLLABORATOR. External contributor PRs are never auto-enqueued — they require a deliberate maintainer enqueue plus a green cla-check.

Waiting for CI — background the watcher, PIPELINE the next slice (do NOT idle)

CI wall time is now ~2 min (115-shard parallel, sort-by-duration scheduling, parallel gate+shards — see PRs #503, #505, #506), plus merge-queue time after. The dev does NOT terminate and hand off — it keeps the PR — but it also does not sit idle blocking on CI. Run the watch as a background task, then immediately claim and start your NEXT slice in a fresh worktree while CI runs. On-the-spot recovery from drift / CI-failure with full PR context is preserved — the watcher notifies you on settle, you recover THEN (the context lives in the diff, not your foreground attention), and return to the next slice. Idling on a green-riding PR produces zero output and burns the budget window; a dev whose PR is in CI should always have a new slice in flight. A stream of idle pings "while a PR is in CI" means the dev is NOT pipelining — it should be claiming the next task. (See .claude/agents/developer.md step 5 and the pipeline-not-idle memory.)

# Watch the run live (preferred — exits when the run finishes):
run_id=$(gh pr view <N> --json statusCheckRollup \
  --jq '[.statusCheckRollup[] | select(.detailsUrl) | .detailsUrl][0]' \
  | grep -oE 'runs/[0-9]+' | cut -d/ -f2)
gh run watch "$run_id" --exit-status

# Or poll every 30s with a timeout:
deadline=$(( $(date +%s) + 1200 ))   # 20 min hard cap
while :; do
  pending=$(gh pr checks <N> --json state \
    --jq '[.[] | select(.state == "PENDING" or .state == "IN_PROGRESS")] | length')
  [ "$pending" = "0" ] && break
  [ "$(date +%s)" -gt "$deadline" ] && { echo "CI > 20 min — escalate"; exit 2; }
  sleep 30
done

After the run exits:

Outcome	Action
All required checks green	Run Step 0 (the checks-API self-check); on MERGE, mark the task completed and stand down — the server-side workflow enqueues (Step 5, #2786)
Drift (mergeable_state becomes BEHIND while waiting)	Do NOT re-enqueue. update-branch/auto-refresh-prs auto-rebases BEHIND PRs and the auto-enqueue backstop re-sweeps. A clean fast-forward (git fetch origin && git merge origin/main && git push) is optional; never re-enqueue after — the backstop owns re-adds
CI failure (any required check FAILURE)	Diagnose with full PR context — the agent KNOWS what it changed. Fix locally, git push, loop back to wait-for-CI
Long wait (>10 min)	Emit a TaskUpdate noting the unusual wait but keep waiting
Very long wait (>20 min)	Escalate to tech lead

Step 0 — the merge gate (checks API; the committed CI feed is RETIRED)

The per-PR CI feed .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json is RETIRED. The writer workflows (ci-status-feed.yml, ci-status-basic.yml, ci-status-pending.yml) are workflow_dispatch-only stubs; the newest feed file on main is from the PR-471 era. A current PR will NEVER get one — do not fetch it, wait for it, or treat its absence as "CI still in flight". (That misread stranded two agents on 2026-07-23.) Steps 1–4 below only ever applied to that feed and are kept as historical reference — do not execute them.

The operative gate, for EVERY PR (src or not):

gh pr view <N> --json statusCheckRollup,mergeStateStatus,isDraft,labels \
  --jq '{ mergeStateStatus, isDraft,
          labels: [.labels[].name],
          pending: [.statusCheckRollup[] | select(.status != null and .status != "COMPLETED") | .name],
          failed:  [.statusCheckRollup[] | select(.conclusion == "FAILURE" or .conclusion == "failure") | .name] }'

• pending non-empty → CI still running. Keep the background watcher on it.
• failed non-empty → diagnose with full PR context (you KNOW what you changed), fix locally, push, loop back to wait-for-CI. ESCALATE to the tech lead only for genuine judgment calls (see "What ESCALATE means").
• All required checks green (per docs/ci-policy.md §7) + mergeStateStatus == "CLEAN" + not a draft + no hold label → MERGE: mark the task completed and stand down (Step 5); the server-side workflow enqueues.
• Green checks but BEHIND/BLOCKED → the Drift row above; never re-enqueue.
• No checks at all (workflow-only / CI-config PR) → MERGE — stand down (Step 5); the workflow enqueues, or the tech lead admin-merges a CI-only change.

What a green PR-level run does and does NOT tell you. On pull_request, merge shard reports and check for test262 regressions are DESIGNED green no-ops: the heavy test262 shard matrix is merge_group-only (#2519 slim-down; #3431 mg matrix; #3448/#3467 per-SHA baseline reuse), so both jobs green-skip with SHARDS_RAN: false — their logs literally say "shards intentionally skipped" / "no merged test262 report to diff". A green PR is NOT evidence your PR causes no test262 regressions. The real regression/trap gates (the #3467 per-SHA-merge-base diff, the catastrophic guard #1668, the standalone floor/net guards #1897/#2097) run in the merge_group re-validation on the merged state — which is why a fully-green PR can still be auto-parked (#2547) with a bot hold label. Handle that per "If the queue rejects your PR" below.

---

LEGACY — Steps 1–4 (retired ci-status feed; do NOT execute)

These steps consumed the retired .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json feed. The criteria they describe (net_per_test > 0, 10% ratio, 50-per-bucket) are now enforced by CI itself: the regression-gate job runs them as a hard required check in the merge_group (#1943, #3467). Kept only as reference for the field semantics.

Legacy Step 1 — read the feed

git fetch origin
git show origin/main:.claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json

If test262_skipped: true in the JSON, this was a test-only / docs-only PR (no src/** changes). Skip Steps 3–4 entirely:

• conclusion == "success" → MERGE (go to Step 5, stand down — workflow enqueues)
• conclusion != "success" → ESCALATE — basic CI failed on a non-src PR.

Extract: head_sha, net_per_test, regressions, regressions_real, regressions_wasm_change, wasm_identical_noise, compile_timeouts, improvements, run_url, baseline_stale, baseline_staleness_commits.

Legacy Step 1a — baseline staleness short-circuit (#1391)

If baseline_stale: true is set on the feed, the regression count is contaminated by drift on main (tests that flipped between when the baseline was last refreshed and the PR's CI run). Continuing through the criteria below would falsely block PRs whose actual same-run-main diff is clean.

stale=$(jq -r '.baseline_stale // false' .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json)
if [ "$stale" = "true" ]; then
  drift=$(jq -r '.baseline_staleness_commits // 0' .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json)
  echo "ESCALATE — baseline is stale ($drift commits behind main HEAD)."
  exit 1
fi

Output (when triggered):

ESCALATE — baseline is stale (N commits behind main HEAD). The CI feed's regression counts are inflated by drift, not by this PR. Tech lead should sanity-check by diffing branch-merged vs main-merged artifacts from the same CI run before merging.

Skip the rest of the algorithm. Do not merge. The tech lead may override after confirming via artifact comparison; the staleness threshold (50 commits) is conservative and most PRs will not be flagged.

regressions_wasm_change (added by #1222) = regressions where the compiled Wasm binary differs between base and PR (excluding compile_timeout). Pass→fail flips on a byte-identical binary are physically impossible compiler regressions — they're CI runner variance (scheduling, memory pressure, GC timing). This is the preferred field for the ratio check in criterion 2.

regressions_real (added by #1192) = compile_error + fail regressions only — excludes compile_timeout transitions which are runner-load timing noise (tests right at the 30s compile-timeout boundary flap based on CI system load). Used as a fallback when regressions_wasm_change is null (older CI feed).

compile_timeout transitions are NOT counted — runner timing noise. Wasm-identical pass→fail flips are NOT counted — runner variance noise.

Field priority (use the first non-null): regressions_wasm_change → regressions_real → regressions

Legacy Step 1b — compile_timeout flake filter

A pass → compile_timeout transition is runner-load noise unless the underlying compilation takes meaningfully long. Verified during the 2026-05-21 post-wave investigation: 23 of 27 "regressions" turned out to be timeouts on tests that compile in <500ms locally. See plan/issues/sprints/53/post-wave-regression-investigation.md for the full investigation (headline number overstated ~6×).

If regressions_wasm_change is null (older CI feed) or if the JSON has a breakdown by transition kind, the dev should subtract pass → compile_timeout transitions where baseline_compile_ms < 5000 from the regression count before applying criterion 2.

The cleanest field to use is regressions_wasm_change (introduced in #1222) — it already excludes compile_timeout AND byte-identical-binary flips. If the feed has it, prefer it. The filter chain stays:

regressions_wasm_change → regressions_real → regressions

If the CI feed somehow surfaces a regressions count that includes compile_timeout flakes (older format), and the feed has a compile_timeout field, compute:

flake=$(jq -r '.compile_timeout // 0' .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json)
R_real=$((regressions - flake))

Use R_real for criterion 2. Document this in your ESCALATE message if relevant ("8 of 12 regressions are compile_timeout flake; effective R=4").

Legacy Step 2 — SHA check

git rev-parse HEAD

If head_sha in the JSON ≠ git rev-parse HEAD output:

ESCALATE — SHA mismatch. CI ran on a different commit. Push again and wait for a new CI result.

Stop.

#1943 — CI ENFORCES criteria 2 and 3 as a hard gate; the merge_group re-run owns regression-catching. The regression-gate job (scripts/diff-test262.ts) fails the required check when the 10% ratio or 50-per-bucket limit is exceeded, not just when net_per_test < 0. The thresholds are exported constants (REGRESSION_RATIO_LIMIT / REGRESSION_BUCKET_LIMIT / REGRESSION_BUCKET_PATH_DEPTH in scripts/diff-test262.ts) — this table is the documentation twin of those constants; they are byte-identical by construction. Because the gate runs both on the PR and again in the merge_group (against the merged state), a regression cannot slip through whether the dev runs this self-check or not. So this skill is a pre-enqueue gate: a clean result means MERGE (mark the task completed and stand down — Step 5; the server-side workflow enqueues); a failing criterion means ESCALATE to tech lead instead.

Legacy Step 3 — criteria (in order, stop at first failure)

#	Criterion	Failure output
1	net_per_test > 0	ESCALATE — net_per_test is not positive (value: N). PR caused more regressions than improvements.
2	R == 0 OR R / improvements < 0.10, where R = regressions_wasm_change ?? regressions_real ?? regressions	ESCALATE — regression ratio is N% (R/improvements), exceeds 10% threshold.
3	No bucket > 50 regressions (see Step 4)	ESCALATE — bucket "<path>" has N regressions, exceeds 50-test limit.
4	All above pass	MERGE — mark the task completed and stand down (Step 5); the workflow enqueues. (merge_group re-runs this same gate.)

R (criterion 2) prefers regressions_wasm_change if the feed has it (post-#1222 CI). This filters out byte-identical-binary pass→fail flips, which are CI runner variance, not real regressions. Falls back to regressions_real (post-#1192, excludes compile_timeout), then to the headline regressions count. Excluding wasm-identical noise and compile_timeout prevents CI variance from tipping otherwise-clean PRs above the 10% threshold. Compute it in shell with:

R=$(jq -r '.regressions_wasm_change // .regressions_real // .regressions' .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json)

If regressions is null in the feed (older CI format without per-test tracking): treat criterion 2 as pass and skip criterion 3 (no data to bucket). Result is MERGE (stand down; workflow enqueues) if criterion 1 holds.

Legacy Step 4 — bucket regressions (only if regressions > 0)

Download the merged report artifact and ensure the baseline JSONL is cached locally (#1528 — the baseline is no longer committed to the repo; it's fetched on demand from loopdive/js2wasm-baselines):

run_id=$(jq -r '.run_url' .claude/ci-status/pr-<N>.json | grep -oE 'runs/[0-9]+' | cut -d/ -f2)
mkdir -p output/sm-<N>
gh run download "$run_id" -n test262-merged-report -D output/sm-<N>

# Fetch the baseline JSONL to .test262-cache/ if not already present.
node scripts/fetch-baseline-jsonl.mjs

Bucket by path prefix:

python3 - <<'EOF'
import json
from collections import Counter

base = {}
with open('.test262-cache/test262-current.jsonl') as f:
    for line in f:
        try: d = json.loads(line); base[d['file']] = d['status']
        except: pass

new = {}
with open('/tmp/sm-<N>/test262-results-merged.jsonl') as f:
    for line in f:
        try: d = json.loads(line); new[d['file']] = d['status']
        except: pass

regs = [f for f in base if base[f] == 'pass' and new.get(f, 'pass') != 'pass']
buckets = Counter('/'.join(f.split('/')[:5]) for f in regs)
print(f"Total regressions: {len(regs)}")
for path, count in buckets.most_common(10):
    flag = " <- EXCEEDS 50" if count > 50 else ""
    print(f"  {count:4d}  {path}{flag}")
EOF

Any bucket with count > 50 → ESCALATE with the bucket name and count (criterion 3 above).

Step 5 — mark task completed, then stand down (do NOT enqueue)

All criteria passed → result is MERGE. You do NOT enqueue (#2786). The server-side auto-enqueue.yml workflow is the single enqueuer: its workflow_run-on-completion trigger fires right after the required-check workflows finish and (grace 0) enqueues your just-green PR within ~one workflow-startup — without depending on you or any watcher surviving. Trying to enqueue yourself is the old model that stranded green PRs when the dev's watcher died on stand-down (#2225, #2247).

So on MERGE: mark your task completed and stand down. Do not touch the merge queue at all — no enqueuePullRequest, no gh pr merge --auto, no re-enqueue.

Once the workflow enqueues, GitHub will:

1. Place the PR on a temp branch (gh-readonly-queue/main/pr-<N>-...)
2. Re-run the required checks (cheap gate, merge shard reports, quality — incl. the regression-gate) against the merged state via the merge_group event
3. Fast-forward main if checks pass; auto-refresh-prs.yml then merges origin/main into every other open PR branch
4. If the merge_group re-run fails, auto-park (#2547) labels the PR hold so it can't re-churn the queue — fix it on the branch, remove the label, and the workflow re-enqueues

Never enqueue or re-enqueue from a dev. The single trailing-add enqueue is the workflow's job; re-enqueue loops were the sole cause of the merge-queue cancellation churn (every re-add changes queue membership → GitHub rebuilds the merge group → CANCELS the in-flight merge_group run; ~3.5h on 2026-06-20, memory project_merge_queue_requeue_cancels_run). The workflow's single trailing-add never loops. If a green PR somehow sits un-enqueued (the rare stray the responsive run missed), the ~30-min cron and the tech lead's per-loop sweep catch it. If something looks genuinely wrong, escalate to the tech lead.

The issue file already carries status: done. Under self-merge there is no separate post-merge observer who can commit a status flip, and once the queue lands the PR you cannot make a follow-up commit from /workspace. So the implementation PR itself sets status: done + completed: <date> in the issue frontmatter when you open it (by merge time it IS done; queue rejections are rare, and the gate already verified what the queue re-verifies). Do NOT open the PR at in-review and plan a later flip — that is exactly what orphans issues at in-review (see #1602/#1603/#1606).

On a passing self-check (MERGE), your job for this PR is done — STAND DOWN. Do not enqueue, do not wait for the merge, do not re-enqueue. The server-side workflow takes it from here. Proceed immediately:

1. (Status already done in the merged PR — no separate flip needed.)
2. TaskUpdate taskId=<your-task> status=completed
3. Remove your worktree: git worktree remove /workspace/.claude/worktrees/<branch>
4. Sync the shared checkout once the queue lands the PR: bash scripts/sync-workspace-main.sh — fast-forwards /workspace to origin/main so it never rots behind (it silently fell 135 commits behind on 2026-05-29, which made the statusline report a stale sprint). It's a no-op on a clean, current tree and refuses to touch a dirty one, so it's always safe to run. (Tech lead's auto-merge monitor also runs this; running it here too keeps the checkout fresh between monitor passes.)
5. TaskList → claim next unowned task (or message tech lead if empty)

If the queue rejects the PR (rare), the status: done you set has not yet landed on main, so nothing is orphaned; auto-park holds it and you re-fix it below.

If the queue rejects your PR (auto-park labels it hold)

GitHub fails the final queue checks if something flipped between your CI run and the queue's re-run (usually main moved). auto-park (#2547) then labels the PR hold. In that case — the backstop, not you, owns the re-add:

• The auto-refresh workflow may have already pushed a merge of main into your branch — fetch and review
• Diagnose and fix with full PR context (you KNOW what you changed), push
• Re-run this self-check against the new CI run
• If clean, remove the hold label and let the auto-enqueue backstop re-sweep it — do NOT re-enqueue manually. (Your one-shot enqueue is spent; manual re-enqueue loops are exactly what caused the cancellation churn.) Escalate to the tech lead if it won't clear.

Admin direct-merge — tech-lead only

gh pr merge <N> --merge --admin (bypassing the queue) is tech-lead-only, used only when the change is workflow-only / CI-only (queue ruleset checks don't apply), a hotfix bypass is explicitly authorized, or the queue itself is broken and needs unblocking. Set GATE_BYPASS=1 if the local pre-commit hook blocks because pr-<N>.json isn't present. Devs never use this.

What ESCALATE means

Post to tech lead via SendMessage with:

• Which criterion failed
• The exact values from the CI JSON
• The PR number

Do not merge. Do not move to the next task. Own the issue until it resolves.

What these fields mean

• net_per_test = improvements - regressions — per-test transitions from diff-test262.ts. The merge gate.
• regressions_wasm_change (#1222) — regressions where the Wasm binary changed (excluding compile_timeout). Preferred for criterion 2.
• wasm_identical_noise (#1222) — pass→other transitions where the Wasm binary is byte-identical on base & PR. These are CI runner variance, not real regressions, and are excluded from regressions_wasm_change.
• regressions_real (#1192) — compile_error + fail regressions, excludes compile_timeout. Fallback for criterion 2.
• snapshot_delta = bulk pass-count difference vs committed baseline. NOT a merge criterion — contaminated by baseline drift. Ignore it.