pr-green-definition

name	pr-green-definition
description	Canonical 6-green PR merge criteria, PR status check pattern, PR freeze discipline, and admin merge protocol
type	policy

PR "Green" Definition (6-Green)

Was "7-Green" until this repo's own Skeptic PR-gating automation (skeptic-gate.yml, skeptic-cron.yml, test.yml's trigger job) was retired in PR #773 — Skeptic PASS is no longer a required gate here. See CLAUDE.md's "Skeptic Architecture" note for what still applies (consumer-repo templates, the ao skeptic verify CLI itself).

A PR is "green" (merge-ready) when all 6 conditions hold:

#	Condition	Verification
1	CI passing	All checks show SUCCESS
2	No merge conflicts	mergeable: MERGEABLE
3	CodeRabbit APPROVED	CR must post explicit APPROVED review state (configured via .coderabbit.yaml approve=true); COMMENTED alone does not pass
4	Bugbot clean	Zero error-severity comments from cursor[bot]
5	All inline comments resolved	Zero unresolved non-nit inline review comments
6	Evidence review passed	evidence-review-bot APPROVED or evidence-gate CI passed

Pre-merge verification is MANDATORY. Before executing any merge command (gh pr merge, gh api .../merge), verify all 6 gates pass. If ANY gate fails, do NOT merge — fix the failing gate first. Merging a non-green PR is a commitment integrity violation.

Verification Procedure (Mandatory)

WARNING: gh pr checks is NOT sufficient for 6-green verification. The Green Gate workflow always exits 0 (success), so gh pr checks shows "Green Gate: pass" even when individual gates FAIL. The "CodeRabbit: pass" line means the webhook responded, NOT that CodeRabbit gave an APPROVED review.

Step-by-step verification

Given a PR number N and its branch name BRANCH:

# 1. Get branch name
BRANCH=$(gh pr view N --repo OWNER/REPO --json headRefName --jq '.headRefName')

# 2. Get latest Green Gate run ID (use workflow file name to avoid ambiguity)
RUN_ID=$(gh run list --workflow green-gate.yml --repo OWNER/REPO --branch "$BRANCH" -L 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId')

# 3. Read gate-by-gate results (THE ONLY RELIABLE CHECK)
gh run view "$RUN_ID" --repo OWNER/REPO --log 2>/dev/null | grep -E "GATE-[1-5] (PASS|FAIL)"

# 4. Cross-reference CR review state (do NOT trust gh pr checks)
gh pr view N --repo OWNER/REPO --json reviews --jq '[.reviews[] | select(.state != "COMMENTED") | {author: .author.login, state: .state}] | last'

What each gate checks

Gate	gh pr checks shows	Actually verifies
1	CI check statuses	commits/{sha}/status API = "success"
2	(not shown)	pulls/{N} API .mergeable = true
3	"CodeRabbit: pass" (MISLEADING)	Latest non-COMMENTED coderabbitai review = APPROVED
4	"Cursor Bugbot: pass" (MISLEADING)	cursor[bot] check conclusion = success, no error comments
5	(not shown)	GraphQL: zero unresolved review threads
6	(not shown)	Evidence review bot APPROVED

Rule: A PR is 6-green ONLY when all 6 gates show PASS in the workflow logs. Never report 6-green status based on gh pr checks output alone.

PR status check — canonical pattern (mandatory)

Every PR status check (loops, hooks, one-off) MUST check merge/close state FIRST:

# STEP 0 — always first. If merged/closed, stop checking green conditions.
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/N --jq '{state, merged}'
# If merged:true or state:"closed" → report and exit. Do NOT check mergeable_state, reviews, etc.

Why: mergeable_state returns unknown for merged PRs (identical to its transient CI-running state). Checking only these fields causes loops to report "blocked" on already-merged PRs for hours.

PR Freeze Discipline

Pre-push commit count check: Before pushing a PR branch, run COMMITS=$(git rev-list --count origin/main..HEAD). If > 5 commits, warn: "N commits — squash before final review to avoid CR incremental stall and merge conflicts."

Squash before final merge: When all 6-green conditions are met (or CR has verbally approved in comments), squash all commits into ONE before pushing:

git reset --soft origin/main
git commit -m "feat(scope): concise single-commit message"
git push --force-with-lease

Then merge with explicit human approval (gh pr merge N --squash --admin) — this repo no longer has an automated skeptic-cron merge path (retired PR #773); MERGE APPROVED from the human is required every time, not just when CR is in incremental stall.

Why: 16-commit PR #412 took 5 review rounds. CR treats squashed commits as "already reviewed" and refuses re-review. 1-commit squash merged in one shot.

Never use git commit --no-edit after a merge conflict — it steals origin/main's commit message. Always provide an explicit squash commit message.

Admin merge (when CR is in incremental stall): gh pr merge N --squash --admin --subject "feat(scope): message". Verify gh api repo --jq .permissions.admin first.

Export PR admin merge: For jleechanorg/claude-commands export PRs (title contains "Export"), when cr-loop-guard.sh returns skip AND CR state is CHANGES_REQUESTED on acknowledged design limitations (not code bugs), treat the PR as merge-ready.