babysit-prs

name

babysit-prs

description

Autonomous PR/issue triage and implementation loop for the current repository. Processes open PRs (CI fixes, review feedback, merge), selects the next issue by priority, implements it, and submits a review-gated PR. Use when the user runs `/loop <interval> /babysit-prs`, says "help me automatically process PRs and issues", or sets up recurring autonomous development work. Do not use for one-off PR reviews, manual issue work, or single code-review requests.

Babysit PRs

Purpose

Autonomous iteration: process PRs → select issue → implement → review gate → submit. Each iteration is self-contained; leave clear breadcrumbs for the next one.

This skill is responsible for the full autonomous development loop. It is NOT responsible for: one-off code reviews (/code-review), manual issue investigation, or architecture decisions (label arch-decision and skip).

Terminology

• NEXT ITERATION: End the current iteration. Return control to the /loop scheduler.
• STOP LOOP: Halt all work. Only if a safety constraint is violated or the repo is unrecoverably broken.

Safety Constraints

• NEVER push directly to main. Always use feature branches.
• NEVER delete unmerged branches.
• NEVER modify CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md core rules and architecture sections.
• NEVER run destructive commands (rm -rf, git reset --hard, git clean -f).
• NEVER modify CI/CD workflows or GitHub Actions configs.
• NEVER merge a PR in the same iteration that created it or pushed new commits to it.
• NEVER treat a missing review tool as a clean review. Missing tooling is a degraded gate — record it explicitly on the PR.
• If an issue is ambiguous or requires architectural decisions, add label arch-decision and skip it.

Turn Budget

Each iteration has 25 turns. Track your approximate count. At 25 turns without completion: comment on the issue/PR describing what remains, then NEXT ITERATION.

Pipeline

Iteration Guard

Before any work, check for duplicate fires:

gh pr list --search "author:@me" --state open --json updatedAt --limit 5

If any PR was updated < 5 minutes ago, this may be a duplicate fire. Proceed to NEXT ITERATION without changes.

Circuit Breaker (Rate Limit Protection)

Read logs/loop-circuit-breaker.json (create with defaults if missing). For full state machine details, see references/circuit-breaker.md.

• If circuitState is "open" and cooldownUntil is in the future: log and NEXT ITERATION.
• If circuitState is "open" and cooldownUntil has passed: set "half-open", continue pipeline.
• On rate-limit or quota error at any step: increment failures; if ≥ 2, open breaker with exponential backoff (30min–4h).
• On successful iteration: reset to "closed".

Session Init (first iteration only)

If this is the first iteration in the session (no prior /loop history in session memory):

1. gh auth status — if fails, STOP LOOP
2. git status --short --branch — if worktree is dirty with unrelated changes, STOP LOOP
3. Check review tooling availability: determine whether /simplify, /code-review, and /codex:review are available in this session. Cache the result in session memory.

On subsequent iterations, only run git status --short --branch.

Step 1: Process Existing PRs (max 2 per iteration)

Query: gh pr list --state open --json number,title,headRefName,statusCheckRollup,labels,reviews

Process each PR in order: 1b → 1c → 1a.

1b. CI failures: Check gh pr checks <number>. Attempt fix (max 2 attempts). If still failing: add label needs-human-review, comment, move on. If you push a fix, leave the PR open for a later iteration.

1c. Review feedback: Read references/review-gates.md for tool-specific rules. Read PR comments: gh pr view <number> --comments. Check session memory for /codex:review findings. All bot review findings (any priority) and high-confidence /code-review findings (≥80): must-fix. Only skip a finding if it is clearly a false positive or provides no actionable value — in that case, comment on the PR explaining why it was dismissed. If a review tool is unavailable, comment that the gate was unavailable and leave the PR open.

1a. Merge eligible: A PR is eligible when ALL true:

• CI passes
• No unresolved high-confidence /code-review findings (≥80)
• No unresolved bot review findings (any priority)
• No unresolved critical /codex:review findings in session memory
• PR was NOT created or pushed to in this iteration
• No needs-human-review or arch-decision label

If eligible: gh pr merge <number> --squash --delete-branch.

Step 2: Select Next Issue

gh issue list --state open --json number,title,labels,body --limit 50

Priority: P0-critical > P1-high > P2-medium > P3-low > unlabeled. Skip arch-decision issues. Skip issues with an open linked PR. Pick ONE issue. If none eligible → NEXT ITERATION.

Step 3: Create Branch

git fetch origin
git checkout main
git pull --ff-only
git checkout -b loop/issue-<number>-<slug>

If branch creation fails, comment on the issue and NEXT ITERATION.

Step 4: Classify and Implement

If fewer than 10 turns remain → comment on issue, NEXT ITERATION.

• Simple (single-file, bug fix, docs): Implement with TDD directly.
• Complex (multi-file, new API, 200+ lines):
  • No plan exists: write plan to docs/superpowers/plans/<topic>.md, comment on issue, NEXT ITERATION.
  • Plan exists: implement ONE sub-task.

For runtime-sensitive changes on non-macOS hosts, see references/macos-runtime-policy.md.

Step 5: Verify and Submit

5a. Build and test:

swift build && swift test && swift build -c release

Max 3 fix-build-test cycles. If still failing → comment, NEXT ITERATION.

5b. Code quality: If /simplify is available, run once before committing. If unavailable, note in PR body.

5c. Commit and create PR:

git add -A
git commit -m "<type>: <concise description> (#<N>)"
git push -u origin HEAD
gh pr create --title "<title under 70 chars>" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
Closes #<N>

## Summary
<1-3 bullet points>

## Verification
- Automated: swift build, swift test, swift build -c release
EOF
)" --base main

5d. Review gate (bounded): Fire reviews in parallel where possible:

1. /codex:review --base main --background first (async, if available)
2. /code-review (sync, if available)
3. Bot reviews arrive asynchronously — handled in Step 1c of a future iteration

Round 1: Fix high-confidence/critical issues, push, re-run each available tool once. Round 2: If issues persist, fix if 1-2 changes suffice. Otherwise add needs-human-review.

Max 2 invocations per review tool per PR per iteration.

5e. Do NOT merge. Leave the PR open for the next iteration so CI and async reviews can settle.

Proceed to NEXT ITERATION.

Gotchas

• /codex:review results are session-local only — they do not appear as PR comments. Check session memory, not gh pr view --comments.
• /code-review and bot reviews post durable PR comments readable via gh pr view --comments across iterations.
• CronCreate can duplicate-deliver long prompts. This skill exists to avoid that — do not inline its content into /loop.
• Stop hooks that return block on infrastructure failures cause infinite loops (Claude responds → hook blocks → Claude responds again). The rate-limit-detector hook must always exit 0. See docs/lessons-learned.md § "Codex Stop Hook Infinite Loop".
• All bot review findings block merge regardless of priority level. A P2 finding that slips through causes follow-up fix PRs. See docs/lessons-learned.md § "babysit-prs Bot Review Findings Must All Block Merge".
• When API quota is fully exhausted, neither the circuit breaker nor the Stop hook can fire — the loop will empty-fire at the configured interval. This is a /loop infrastructure limitation, not a bug in this skill.
• claude -p (headless mode) does not support skills. Always use /loop for recurring work, never shell-scripted headless invocations.
• You MAY append entries to docs/lessons-learned.md when discovering operational insights.

Example: Successful Simple Iteration

Iteration Guard  → no duplicate fires, circuit breaker closed
Session Init     → gh auth ok, worktree clean, /code-review available
Step 1           → PR #115 CI passes, reviews clean → merge
Step 2           → Issue #93 (P2-medium, no linked PR) selected
Step 3           → branch loop/issue-93-cooldown-metrics created
Step 4           → classified Simple (single test file + metric struct)
                 → implement with TDD
Step 5a          → swift build ✅, swift test ✅, swift build -c release ✅
Step 5b          → /simplify ran, no issues
Step 5c          → commit, push, gh pr create
Step 5d          → /code-review ran, 0 high-confidence findings
Step 5e          → PR left open for next iteration
Verification     → checklist all green, circuit breaker → closed
→ NEXT ITERATION

Verification (self-check before NEXT ITERATION)

• No uncommitted changes left in worktree
• All PRs touched have clear status comments
• No missing review gates went unrecorded
• Branch is not main
• Circuit breaker state updated: circuitState → "closed", consecutiveFailures → 0 on success

Linked Resources

File	When to read	Purpose
references/review-gates.md	Step 1c (review feedback)	Three-tier review tool behavior, confidence thresholds, degraded-tooling handling
references/macos-runtime-policy.md	Step 4 (implement)	Runtime-sensitive change definition, validation tracking for non-macOS hosts
references/circuit-breaker.md	Iteration Guard (circuit breaker)	Full state machine, backoff schedule, Stop hook integration details
docs/lessons-learned.md	When discovering operational insights	Append new entries; check for relevant gotchas before implementing
docs/loop-job-guide.md	Session Init (first iteration)	/loop behavior, interval syntax, limitations