724f103908
Round 2. Two blockers, both real, both closing the same hole this PR exists to close — a `state:needs-human` that invites a human to merge a tree that will not merge. The check-rollup classifier enumerated the outcomes that block and let the rest fall into `else "SUCCESS"`, so ERROR, CANCELLED and STALE all read as green. Inverted: it now lists the outcomes that DON'T block — SUCCESS, NEUTRAL, SKIPPED, plus the pending set — and treats everything else as blocking. The direction is the point. The rollup mixes two closed enums (CheckRun.conclusion, StatusContext.state) and an outcome the list forgets is one we cannot certify as mergeable; the costs are not symmetric, since a false FAILURE parks the PR on the agent who looks, while a false SUCCESS is #136 exactly. Once CANCELLED blocks, superseded runs must be dropped first: a re-run does not evict the run it replaced, and this PR's own tip carries a CANCELLED `scope` beside the SUCCESS `scope` that superseded it. Each context now collapses to its newest entry before anything is judged, keyed on workflow + job name because a bare job name is only unique within its workflow. That preserves the re-run case the panel split over while still blocking a cancelled run that is the newest word. The classifier also moved out of main() into checks_state(). That is why no fixture caught this: it was inline in the fetch loop, so the fixtures could only inject CHECKS= as an already-decided string. Second, decide_state() returned from inside the bot loop on the first MISSING, so a STALE belonging to a later bot in BOTS was never read — a round that was both unfinished and staled came out needs-human over a head nobody had reviewed. The whole round is now collected before precedence is applied to it as a unit, STALE before MISSING. test/labels-reconcile.sh: 29 -> 44 fixtures, pinning the check-outcome enum, the supersede rule (both orders, plus same name in another workflow), and the mixed round at both ends of BOTS. All verified non-vacuous against the round-1 code. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Labels
How this repo uses GitHub labels. The taxonomy is shared across the
heavy-duty repos (box, rig, cast) — only the scope: set differs per repo,
because it names this repo's actual surfaces.
State — who is the ball with? (PRs, exactly one)
Every open PR carries exactly one state: label, and it answers the only
question a board scan actually asks: who is this PR waiting on? The states
mirror the review loop this repo runs — PRs open as drafts, three reviewer
bots pick up ready PRs with reviews requested, each round is answered in a
single reply, and a human takes the final review.
| Label | Color | Waiting on | Enters when | Leaves when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
state:building |
#FBCA04 |
the coding agent, still building | PR opened as draft | marked ready + bot reviews requested |
state:bots-reviewing |
#1D76DB |
the reviewer bots to finish the round | ready with reviews requested, or fixes pushed and reviews re-requested | all three bots have reviewed the round |
state:addressing |
#D93F0B |
the coding agent to reply and push fixes | all bots reviewed the round, not all approved | the single round-reply is posted and fixes pushed |
state:needs-rebase |
#B60205 |
the coding agent to rebase or fix | the branch does not merge — GitHub says CONFLICTING, or a check has failed |
it merges cleanly and checks are green again |
state:needs-human |
#8250DF |
the human reviewer | the PR could be merged right now: mergeable, checks not failing, three formal head-current approvals — and the human review is requested | merged — or changes requested, which cycles back to state:addressing |
bots-reviewing and addressing are deliberately distinct: staleness in the
first means poke the bots, staleness in the second means the agent dropped
the ball. Collapsing them loses exactly the information a sweep needs.
state:needs-human means one thing: a human could merge this right now.
Anything that makes that false outranks the review request that put it there,
because the label is the only signal a maintainer scanning the board (or a
phone) actually reads — and a label that says "your turn" on an unmergeable PR
is worse than no label at all. Two things therefore take precedence over an
explicit human request:
- it does not merge —
CONFLICTING, or a failing check →state:needs-rebase - nobody reviewed this head — every approval staled by a push →
state:addressing, because the agent owes a re-request
The second is the more dangerous of the two: with a conflict, GitHub at least disables the merge button, while a staled-approval PR reads green, mergeable and "waiting on the human" over code no reviewer has seen.
UNKNOWN mergeability is deliberately not treated as unmergeable. GitHub
reports it for about a minute after every merge while it recomputes, and
flapping every open PR through needs-rebase on each merge would be worse than
the bug this precedence fixes.
An unfinished round still yields to an explicit human request — a maintainer
pulling a PR to themselves early is a deliberate act. MISSING (nobody has
reviewed yet) and STALE (everyone reviewed something else) are different
facts and are treated differently.
Cross-cutting (PRs and issues)
| Label | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
stale |
#B60205 |
No activity for 48h. Sweep-managed, never hand-applied. state:building + stale is precisely a forgotten draft. |
blocked |
#6A737D |
Waiting on another PR or issue to land first. Quiet legitimately — the staleness sweep skips it. |
release |
#0E8A16 |
Release flow, versioning, and packaging work. |
merge-next |
#0E8A16 |
Head of the merge queue — merge this one next. Queue order is intent (which PR lands first, given how they conflict), so the reconciler never sets it: you or the agent maintaining the queue do. The reconciler only clears it, the moment the PR stops being something a human could merge — so it cannot go stale the way state:needs-human did. |
Scope — which surface? (PRs and issues, any number)
All scopes share one calm color, #C5DEF5 — scopes locate, states alert.
| Label | Covers |
|---|---|
scope:cli |
bin/box — the command surface itself |
scope:installer |
install.sh, the versioned install layout, upgrade/uninstall |
scope:host |
host/ — setup-host, teardown, the firewall and isolation stack |
scope:tiers |
the restricted tier — grant/revoke, multi-user semantics |
scope:templates |
templates/ — the box seeds |
scope:drill |
drill/ — the rehearsals, doctor, RUNS.md |
Issue types
bug, enhancement, documentation — issues only. PRs carry their type in
the conventional title (feat:, fix:, docs:), so typing a PR with a label
would just say the same thing twice, drifting apart eventually.
Maintenance
State labels are written by automation, never by hand. Every state above is
derivable from GitHub's own facts — the draft flag, requested reviewers,
review states, push timestamps — so the labels workflow
(.github/workflows/labels.yml) recomputes the
state and reconciles labels statelessly, on a 15-minute cron plus PR events.
A hand-moved label is a lie waiting to happen; the workflow asserts the
effective state instead. scope: labels on PRs are applied from the changed
paths by actions/labeler (.github/labeler.yml);
CONTRIBUTING.md says who sets what.
The same workflow bootstraps the taxonomy: a manual dispatch creates any missing label idempotently. To create them by hand (needs push access):
gh label create "state:building" --color FBCA04 --description "PR is a draft — the coding agent is still building" --force
gh label create "state:bots-reviewing" --color 1D76DB --description "Waiting on the bot reviewers to finish the round" --force
gh label create "state:addressing" --color D93F0B --description "All bots reviewed — coding agent owes the single reply + fixes" --force
gh label create "state:needs-rebase" --color B60205 --description "Does not merge — conflicts or failing checks; the agent owes a fix" --force
gh label create "state:needs-human" --color 8250DF --description "Mergeable, green, all bots approve — waiting on the human reviewer" --force
gh label create "merge-next" --color 0E8A16 --description "Head of the merge queue — merge this one next (set by hand/agent, cleared here)" --force
gh label create "stale" --color B60205 --description "No activity for 48h — needs a poke (sweep-managed)" --force
gh label create "blocked" --color 6A737D --description "Waiting on another PR or issue to land first" --force
gh label create "release" --color 0E8A16 --description "Release flow and version/packaging work" --force
gh label create "scope:cli" --color C5DEF5 --description "bin/box — the command surface" --force
gh label create "scope:installer" --color C5DEF5 --description "install.sh, versioned installs, upgrade/uninstall" --force
gh label create "scope:host" --color C5DEF5 --description "host/ — setup, teardown, firewall, isolation stack" --force
gh label create "scope:tiers" --color C5DEF5 --description "restricted tier — grant/revoke, multi-user" --force
gh label create "scope:templates" --color C5DEF5 --description "templates/ — the box seeds" --force
gh label create "scope:drill" --color C5DEF5 --description "drill/ — rehearsals, doctor, RUNS.md" --force
# delete is not an upsert: a label that is already gone exits non-zero. Swallow
# that, so this block converges on re-run instead of erroring after first success.
for L in duplicate invalid question wontfix "help wanted" "good first issue"; do
gh label delete "$L" --yes 2>/dev/null || true
done