| 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:
BRANCH=$(gh pr view N --repo OWNER/REPO --json headRefName --jq '.headRefName')
RUN_ID=$(gh run list --workflow green-gate.yml --repo OWNER/REPO --branch "$BRANCH" -L 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId')
gh run view "$RUN_ID" --repo OWNER/REPO --log 2>/dev/null | grep -E "GATE-[1-5] (PASS|FAIL)"
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:
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/N --jq '{state, merged}'
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.
