merging-pull-requests

name	merging-pull-requests
description	Merge a Kivgraph PR only after current-head CI and a clean CodeRabbit review; then delete its exact head branch. Use for explicit merge requests only.

Merging a Kivgraph pull request

This skill performs the final, destructive PR operation. A request to merge a specific PR authorizes both the merge and deletion of that PR's head branch. Do not use this skill for requests to prepare a PR, check whether it is ready, or enable auto-merge. The workflow below is self-contained and must not load another skill's SKILL.md at runtime.

Preconditions

1. Treat the PR as review-ready only when the intended changes are committed and pushed, relevant local gates have passed, required GitHub checks have completed successfully, CodeRabbit has reviewed the latest head, every actionable finding is addressed or explained, and GitHub reports no merge conflict or other known blocker. Stop if any condition is missing; do not merge around an unresolved finding.
2. Resolve exactly one PR. Use the PR number or URL supplied by the user; if it is absent, use the current branch's PR only when there is exactly one. Stop if the target is ambiguous.
3. Fetch live PR metadata from GitHub. Confirm that the PR is open, not a draft, mergeable, and has a concrete headRefOid, headRefName, headRepository.nameWithOwner, base branch, and repository. Never infer these values from a stale local checkout.
4. Check required status checks and review state. Wait for pending checks and CodeRabbit; stop on a failure, conflict, missing required check, or a review decision that still requests changes.

CodeRabbit final gate

The final gate is about the current head SHA, not merely whether CodeRabbit has reviewed the PR at some point.

1. Before waiting, record the current head SHA and a snapshot of all existing CodeRabbit reviews, inline comments, issue comments, and thread states. Keep each artifact's ID, commit or timestamp fields, body digest, and resolution state where available. Set reviewCycleStartedAt immediately after this snapshot. Identify the bot by its GitHub account/login returned by the API, not by a string in the comment body. The usual login is coderabbitai[bot], but do not assume it.
2. Wait until the CodeRabbit check or review for that exact SHA has completed. A queued, in-progress, absent, or API-inaccessible review is a blocker.
3. Fetch all three surfaces again:
   • pull-request reviews;
   • pull-request review comments, including replies and threads;
   • issue comments on the PR, which cover comments outside the diff.
4. Compare the second snapshot with the first and save the second as the postReviewSnapshot. Any new CodeRabbit finding that requests a change blocks the merge, even if CI is green. A new clean summary is not a finding, but it must be reported.
5. Check existing findings as well. Every CodeRabbit comment concerning the current head must be resolved, obsolete with an evidence-based explanation, or already fixed. Do not treat an old comment as harmless just because it was posted on an earlier SHA. Unresolved review threads or a CHANGES_REQUESTED review block the merge.
6. Issue comments do not expose commit_id. Treat an issue comment as part of the current review cycle when its ID is new after reviewCycleStartedAt, or its body or updated_at changed after that checkpoint. Evaluate its body and ID even without a commit field. Pre-existing unchanged issue comments remain historical, but their unresolved actionable content still blocks the merge; missing commit_id alone is not uncertainty. If identity, timing, or status cannot otherwise be established, stop and report the uncertainty instead of guessing. After any fix and push, restart this gate from the new head SHA.

When using the GitHub CLI, the relevant read-only API surfaces are equivalent to:

gh api --paginate repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/reviews
gh api --paginate repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/comments
gh api --paginate repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{number}/comments

Use structured fields such as commit_id, user.login, state, created_at, submitted_at, and thread resolution state. Do not rely on the abbreviated output of gh pr view alone. Use the GraphQL reviewThreads connection when the REST response does not expose whether an inline thread is resolved.

Merge and branch deletion

Immediately before mutating anything, refresh the PR and take a fresh snapshot of all three CodeRabbit surfaces: reviews, review comments, and issue comments, including body digests, timestamps, commit IDs, states, and thread resolution states where available. In the same live refresh, revalidate state=OPEN, isDraft=false, mergeable=MERGEABLE, all required checks as complete and passing, the review state, and the absence of a merge conflict or other known blocker. Compare the CodeRabbit data with postReviewSnapshot. If any CodeRabbit surface changed, any prerequisite is no longer merge-ready, or the head SHA differs from the SHA that passed the final CodeRabbit gate, repeat the entire gate. Otherwise capture the verified SHA as gatedHeadSha and retain the PR's headRepository.nameWithOwner and headRefName as the cleanup target. Never use the base repository or a same-named branch as a fallback.

Before requiring --delete-branch, determine whether the base branch requires a merge queue using live GitHub branch-protection or repository metadata. The GitHub CLI does not support combining a merge queue with --delete-branch. When a queue is required, report a blocker and do not drop --delete-branch, delete the branch before merging, or use --auto. Proceed only if GitHub confirms a supported direct-merge path, the user explicitly authorizes any required bypass (such as administrator privileges), and that path still supports deletion after the merge.

For a supported direct merge, use the repository's configured or user-selected method and include both --delete-branch and --match-head-commit "$gatedHeadSha" in the gh pr merge command. Do not use --auto: it can merge later after the verified review state is stale. Do not close the PR separately; a successful merge closes it.

After the command:

1. Refetch the PR and verify state=MERGED, a merge timestamp, and a merge commit or equivalent merge result.
2. Resolve the remote repository from the saved headRepository.nameWithOwner, then check whether refs/heads/<headRefName> exists there. The preferred path is the CLI's --delete-branch behavior. If that exact ref still exists after a successful merge, including for a cross-repository PR, delete only that ref through GitHub and verify it is absent afterward. URL-encode branch names as needed; never check or delete a same-named ref in the base repository.
3. A protected branch or a deletion failure is not success. Report the PR as merged but the cleanup as failed, including the exact branch name; never force-delete another ref.
4. If another actor merged the PR during the final refresh, do not merge again. Verify the same post-merge and branch-deletion conditions, then report the race.

Handoff

Report the PR URL and number, final head SHA, checks, CodeRabbit result (including whether any new comments appeared), merge method and merge commit, exact branch deletion result, and any skipped or blocked condition. Say explicitly if the PR was already merged or if the branch cleanup still needs intervention.