| name | pr-babysitter |
| description | Spawn a background agent that babysits an open PR — triggers a Codex review, watches CI, judges and fixes valid findings, replies to and resolves review threads, and loops to a cap. Never merges. Trigger when the user asks to "babysit the PR", "ask for codex review(s) and watch CI", or after pushing a substantial chunk to a PR branch. |
| metadata | {"internal":true} |
PR Babysitter
Run the full review → wait → fix → re-review loop for a PR hands-off, in a background agent, so the main session can keep working.
When to use
- The user asks to get a PR reviewed and watched until green.
- You just pushed a substantial chunk of work to a PR branch.
Only ONE babysitter per PR. If one is already running, message it (SendMessage) instead of spawning another, and never duplicate its work from the main session: don't post extra @codex review triggers, don't run your own CI watchers, don't reply to or resolve review threads yourself. If you must act on the PR (e.g. the user asks directly), tell the agent exactly what you did, with timestamps.
Setup (main session)
- Post the trigger as a bare PR comment:
gh pr comment <n> --body "@codex review". Record the exact created_at timestamp of that comment (gh api repos/owid/etl/issues/<n>/comments).
- Spawn a
general-purpose background agent with the prompt template below, filled in. The agent works in the SAME checkout on the SAME branch — warn it that the main session may also push commits mid-loop.
- When the completion notification arrives, relay the report. If the agent stops early (its notification says it is "waiting"), resume it with a message telling it to poll inside a bash
until loop rather than ending its turn.
Agent prompt template
Fill every . Keep all rules — each one exists because its absence caused a real failure.
You are babysitting PR # on (branch ) until CI is green and the Codex review is addressed. Work from , already checked out on . A "@codex review" comment was posted at . The main session may push its own commits to this branch while you work.
Loop (max <3> iterations, then stop and report):
- CI:
gh pr checks <n> --watch --interval 60 (up to 30 min). On failure: read logs (gh run view <id> --log-failed), diagnose, fix.
- Wait for the review: poll every 2-3 minutes for a review by a user matching "codex" with
submitted_at LATER than the trigger timestamp above. Poll inside a single bash until ...; do sleep 120; done loop — do NOT end your turn to wait. Give up after 30 minutes and say so in your report.
- Judge each finding. Valid: real bugs, wrong data handling, broken asserts, metadata errors. Invalid: style nitpicks contradicting CLAUDE.md conventions, or suggestions to undo deliberate decisions listed in the PR description. When a finding touches a decision you know the main session made deliberately, rebut rather than fix.
- Fix valid findings:
git pull --rebase FIRST (the branch may have moved). Use .venv/bin/ for everything. Verify with the relevant etlr steps and make check. Commit 🐛🤖/🔨🤖 + "Co-Authored-By: Claude noreply@anthropic.com", push.
- Reply to every finding's inline comment (fixed → what you did + commit hash; rebutted → why). Every reply MUST start with this exact first line:
> _Written by Claude <model name> — @<handle> at the wheel._
This is a public repo: plain language, no internal context, no names of people.
- Resolve each thread you addressed (replying does not resolve it): match the REST inline-comment id to
databaseId of the thread's first comment in GraphQL —
gh api graphql -f query='query { repository(owner: "<owner>", name: "<repo>") { pullRequest(number: <n>) { reviewThreads(first: 50) { nodes { id isResolved comments(first: 1) { nodes { databaseId } } } } } } }'
then gh api graphql -f query='mutation { resolveReviewThread(input: {threadId: "<id>"}) { thread { isResolved } } }'.
Leave threads you did not address open for the human.
- Re-trigger a fresh bare
@codex review comment ONLY if you pushed a substantial code fix (metadata-only tweaks don't count). Record its exact timestamp and use it as the new polling threshold. Then loop back to 1.
- NEVER merge. Never force-push. Never edit
dag/archive/*.
Final report: status of every CI check; each finding with verdict (fixed+commit / rebutted+why); threads resolved; commits pushed; anything left for the human.
Lessons already folded in (do not relearn)
- The agent must poll inside
until loops; ending its turn "to wait" strands the loop until someone resumes it.
- Replying to a review comment does NOT resolve the thread; resolution is a separate GraphQL mutation.
- Every re-trigger resets the polling threshold; deleted trigger comments make timestamps lie — always pin the threshold to a comment that still exists.
- Main session and agent share the checkout: both must
git pull --rebase before committing, and the main session must not run a parallel review/CI loop.
