cleanup

name	cleanup
description	Post-merge workflow resolution. Verifies PR merge status, backfills synthesis metadata, force-resolves review statuses, transitions to completed, and cleans up worktrees/branches. Use when the user says 'cleanup', 'resolve workflow', 'mark as done', or runs /cleanup. Do NOT use before PRs are merged.
metadata	{"author":"exarchos","version":"1.0.0","mcp-server":"exarchos","category":"workflow","phase-affinity":"completed"}

Cleanup Skill

VCS Provider

This skill uses VCS operations through Exarchos MCP actions (list_prs, get_pr_comments, etc.). These actions automatically detect and route to the correct VCS provider (GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps). No gh/glab/az commands needed — the MCP server handles provider dispatch.

Overview

Resolve merged workflows to completed state in a single operation. Replaces the manual multi-step process of navigating HSM guards after PR stacks merge.

Batch Pruning for Stale Workflows

For bulk cleanup of accumulated stale or abandoned workflows (as opposed to resolving a single merged workflow), use @skills/prune/SKILL.md. That skill invokes exarchos_orchestrate prune_stale_workflows in dry-run mode, displays candidates, and applies after user confirmation. Safeguards automatically skip workflows with open PRs or recent commits.

Rule of thumb: cleanup is per-workflow (one merged feature → completed); prune is bulk (N inactive workflows → cancelled). They are complementary, not alternatives.

Triggers

Activate this skill when:

• User runs cleanup command
• User says "cleanup", "resolve workflow", "mark as done"
• PR stack has merged and workflow needs resolution
• User wants to close out a completed feature

Prerequisites

• Active workflow in any non-terminal phase
• All PRs merged on GitHub

Process

1. Identify Target Workflow

Read workflow state to get current phase and metadata:

exarchos:exarchos_workflow({ action: "get", featureId: "<id>" })

If featureId not provided, use pipeline view to list active workflows:

exarchos:exarchos_view({ action: "pipeline" })

The pipeline view is repo-scoped by default — only the caller's repo. A workflow started in another repo won't appear; when the response reports unscopedTotal greater than page.total, re-query with scope: "all" to reveal the hidden rows.

2. Verify Merge Status

For each PR associated with the workflow, verify it is merged.

Primary method — VCS MCP action:

exarchos_orchestrate({ action: "list_prs", state: "merged" })

For individual PR details, use exarchos_orchestrate({ action: "get_pr_comments", prId: "<number>" }) or the VCS provider's native API.

Collect from merged PRs:

• prUrl: The PR URL (or array of URLs for stacked PRs)
• mergedBranches: The head branch names that were merged

Safety check: If ANY PR is not merged, abort with clear error message.

For detailed verification guidance, see references/merge-verification.md.

2.5. Post-Merge Regression Check (Advisory)

After verifying merge status, run the post-merge regression check:

exarchos_orchestrate({
  action: "check_post_merge",
  featureId: "<id>",
  prUrl: "<url>",
  mergeSha: "<sha>"
})

This check is advisory — findings are reported but do not block cleanup. If findings are detected, log them for the user's awareness before proceeding.

3. Invoke Cleanup Action

Call the MCP cleanup action with collected data:

exarchos:exarchos_workflow({
  action: "cleanup",
  featureId: "<id>",
  mergeVerified: true,
  prUrl: "<url-or-array>",
  mergedBranches: ["branch1", "branch2"]
})

This single call:

• Backfills synthesis.prUrl and synthesis.mergedBranches
• Force-resolves all blocking review statuses to approved
• Transitions to completed via universal cleanup path
• Emits workflow.cleanup event to event store

4. Worktree Cleanup

Reclaim all worktrees associated with the workflow through the governed garbage-collector prune_worktrees — not ad-hoc git worktree remove.

GC cadence — after synthesize (INV-12). Governed worktrees become reclaimable once a workflow reaches synthesis; cleanup runs post-merge (after synthesize completes), so this is the natural point to apply the reclamation. The next_actions projection surfaces the same prune_worktrees dry-run affordance from synthesis onward.

prune_worktrees runs the fail-closed safety ladder (it refuses to destroy a worktree with unsaved work) and auto-emits the worktree.remove.requested / worktree.remove.executed pair per deleted worktree. Dry-run first (the default — reports candidates + reclaimable bytes + grouped skip reasons, deletes nothing), then apply:

// Dry-run (default) — preview candidates, delete nothing
exarchos:exarchos_orchestrate({ action: "prune_worktrees", repoRoot: "<repo-root>" })

// Apply — reclaim the delete-eligible candidates
exarchos:exarchos_orchestrate({ action: "prune_worktrees", repoRoot: "<repo-root>", dryRun: false })

Handle gracefully if worktrees are already removed. If the GC skips a worktree (e.g. uncommitted work), resolve the reported reason before re-applying — never force-remove a dirty worktree by hand.

5. Branch Sync

Remove merged local branches:

git fetch --prune
git branch -d <merged-branch-1> <merged-branch-2> ...

6. Report Completion

Output summary:

## Cleanup Complete

**Feature:** <featureId>
**Transition:** <previousPhase> → completed
**PRs merged:** <count>
**Worktrees removed:** <count>
**Branches synced:** ✓

Dry Run

Use dryRun: true to preview what cleanup would do without modifying state:

exarchos:exarchos_workflow({
  action: "cleanup",
  featureId: "<id>",
  mergeVerified: true,
  dryRun: true
})

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Resolution
STATE_NOT_FOUND	Invalid featureId	Check pipeline view for active workflows (repo-scoped by default; add scope: "all" if the workflow may live in another repo)
ALREADY_COMPLETED	Workflow already done	No action needed
INVALID_TRANSITION	Workflow is cancelled	Cannot cleanup cancelled workflows
GUARD_FAILED	mergeVerified is false	Verify PRs are merged before cleanup

Anti-Patterns

Don't	Do Instead
Use cleanup as escape hatch during implementation	Only use after PRs are merged
Skip merge verification	Always verify via GitHub API
Manually navigate HSM guards post-merge	Use cleanup
Leave worktrees after cleanup	Include worktree removal in process

Exarchos Integration

The cleanup action auto-emits events — do NOT manually emit:

• workflow.cleanup — emitted by the MCP cleanup action for the phase change to completed