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decide_state() derived state from three inputs -- draft flag, requested reviewers, submitted reviews -- and read NOTHING about mergeability or checks. Combined with the `if requested "$HUMAN"` short-circuit at the top of its precedence, the label was sticky: once the maintainer was requested, the PR read state:needs-human through conflicts, through red CI, through a force-push that staled every approval. Nothing demoted it. Observed twice in one afternoon, in two different shapes. Three PRs sat at state:needs-human while CONFLICTING for hours -- the board inviting a merge GitHub had already disabled. And #119, after a rebase, read MERGEABLE, four green checks, state:needs-human, with ZERO reviews bound to its head: every visible signal saying "merge me" over a tree no reviewer had seen. That second shape is the dangerous one, because unlike a conflict nothing on the page contradicts it. The rule the label now keeps: state:needs-human means a human could merge this RIGHT NOW, so anything making that false outranks the request that put it there. CONFLICTING or failing checks -> state:needs-rebase (new; the agent's to fix) approvals staled by a push -> state:addressing (nobody reviewed this tree) An UNFINISHED round still yields to an explicit human request -- a maintainer pulling a PR to themselves early is deliberate, and MISSING (nobody has reviewed yet) is a different fact from STALE (everyone reviewed something else). That distinction is why the two are handled in different arms rather than collapsed. 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 being fixed. A failed read of either fact degrades to the same "do not know" value, for the same reason -- an API hiccup must not relabel the board. Also adds merge-next, because a correct needs-human still does not say WHICH PR to merge first, and order matters when they conflict through CHANGELOG.md. Queue order is intent, so the reconciler never sets it; it only CLEARS it the moment the PR stops being mergeable-by-a-human -- precisely the staleness that made needs-human untrustworthy. Both live shapes are pinned in test/labels-reconcile.sh (19 -> 29 fixtures), including that UNKNOWN does not trigger needs-rebase and that a draft outranks a conflict. Proven non-vacuous: dropping the mergeability arm fails 4 assertions, dropping the STALE precedence fails 2, restoring returns 29/0. Closes #136 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
116 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
# Labels
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How this repo uses GitHub labels. The taxonomy is shared across the
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heavy-duty repos (box, rig, cast) — only the `scope:` set differs per repo,
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because it names this repo's actual surfaces.
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## State — who is the ball with? (PRs, exactly one)
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Every open PR carries exactly one `state:` label, and it answers the only
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question a board scan actually asks: *who is this PR waiting on?* The states
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mirror the review loop this repo runs — PRs open as drafts, three reviewer
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bots pick up ready PRs with reviews requested, each round is answered in a
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single reply, and a human takes the final review.
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| Label | Color | Waiting on | Enters when | Leaves when |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| `state:building` | `#FBCA04` | the coding agent, still building | PR opened as draft | marked ready + bot reviews requested |
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| `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 |
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| `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 |
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| `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 |
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| `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` |
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`bots-reviewing` and `addressing` are deliberately distinct: staleness in the
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first means *poke the bots*, staleness in the second means *the agent dropped
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the ball*. Collapsing them loses exactly the information a sweep needs.
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**`state:needs-human` means one thing: a human could merge this right now.**
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Anything that makes that false outranks the review request that put it there,
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because the label is the only signal a maintainer scanning the board (or a
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phone) actually reads — and a label that says "your turn" on an unmergeable PR
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is worse than no label at all. Two things therefore take precedence over an
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explicit human request:
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- **it does not merge** — `CONFLICTING`, or a failing check → `state:needs-rebase`
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- **nobody reviewed *this* head** — every approval staled by a push → `state:addressing`,
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because the agent owes a re-request
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The second is the more dangerous of the two: with a conflict, GitHub at least
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disables the merge button, while a staled-approval PR reads green, mergeable
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and "waiting on the human" over code no reviewer has seen.
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`UNKNOWN` mergeability is deliberately **not** treated as unmergeable. GitHub
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reports it for about a minute after every merge while it recomputes, and
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flapping every open PR through `needs-rebase` on each merge would be worse than
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the bug this precedence fixes.
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An *unfinished* round still yields to an explicit human request — a maintainer
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pulling a PR to themselves early is a deliberate act. `MISSING` (nobody has
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reviewed yet) and `STALE` (everyone reviewed something else) are different
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facts and are treated differently.
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## Cross-cutting (PRs and issues)
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| Label | Color | Meaning |
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| `stale` | `#B60205` | No activity for 48h. Sweep-managed, never hand-applied. `state:building` + `stale` is precisely a forgotten draft. |
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| `blocked` | `#6A737D` | Waiting on another PR or issue to land first. Quiet *legitimately* — the staleness sweep skips it. |
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| `release` | `#0E8A16` | Release flow, versioning, and packaging work. |
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| `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. |
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## Scope — which surface? (PRs and issues, any number)
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All scopes share one calm color, `#C5DEF5` — scopes locate, states alert.
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| Label | Covers |
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|---|---|
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| `scope:cli` | `bin/box` — the command surface itself |
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| `scope:installer` | `install.sh`, the versioned install layout, upgrade/uninstall |
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| `scope:host` | `host/` — setup-host, teardown, the firewall and isolation stack |
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| `scope:tiers` | the restricted tier — grant/revoke, multi-user semantics |
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| `scope:templates` | `templates/` — the box seeds |
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| `scope:drill` | `drill/` — the rehearsals, doctor, RUNS.md |
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## Issue types
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`bug`, `enhancement`, `documentation` — issues only. PRs carry their type in
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the conventional title (`feat:`, `fix:`, `docs:`), so typing a PR with a label
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would just say the same thing twice, drifting apart eventually.
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## Maintenance
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State labels are written by automation, never by hand. Every state above is
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derivable from GitHub's own facts — the draft flag, requested reviewers,
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review states, push timestamps — so the labels workflow
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([.github/workflows/labels.yml](.github/workflows/labels.yml)) recomputes the
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state and reconciles labels statelessly, on a 15-minute cron plus PR events.
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A hand-moved label is a lie waiting to happen; the workflow asserts the
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effective state instead. `scope:` labels on PRs are applied from the changed
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paths by actions/labeler ([.github/labeler.yml](.github/labeler.yml));
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[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) says who sets what.
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The same workflow bootstraps the taxonomy: a manual dispatch creates any
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missing label idempotently. To create them by hand (needs push access):
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```sh
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gh label create "state:building" --color FBCA04 --description "PR is a draft — the coding agent is still building" --force
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gh label create "state:bots-reviewing" --color 1D76DB --description "Waiting on the bot reviewers to finish the round" --force
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gh label create "state:addressing" --color D93F0B --description "All bots reviewed — coding agent owes the single reply + fixes" --force
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gh label create "state:needs-rebase" --color B60205 --description "Does not merge — conflicts or failing checks; the agent owes a fix" --force
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gh label create "state:needs-human" --color 8250DF --description "All bots approve — waiting on the human reviewer" --force
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gh label create "merge-next" --color 0E8A16 --description "Head of the merge queue — merge this one next (set by hand/agent, cleared here)" --force
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gh label create "stale" --color B60205 --description "No activity for 48h — needs a poke (sweep-managed)" --force
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gh label create "blocked" --color 6A737D --description "Waiting on another PR or issue to land first" --force
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gh label create "release" --color 0E8A16 --description "Release flow and version/packaging work" --force
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gh label create "scope:cli" --color C5DEF5 --description "bin/box — the command surface" --force
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gh label create "scope:installer" --color C5DEF5 --description "install.sh, versioned installs, upgrade/uninstall" --force
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gh label create "scope:host" --color C5DEF5 --description "host/ — setup, teardown, firewall, isolation stack" --force
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gh label create "scope:tiers" --color C5DEF5 --description "restricted tier — grant/revoke, multi-user" --force
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gh label create "scope:templates" --color C5DEF5 --description "templates/ — the box seeds" --force
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gh label create "scope:drill" --color C5DEF5 --description "drill/ — rehearsals, doctor, RUNS.md" --force
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# delete is not an upsert: a label that is already gone exits non-zero. Swallow
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# that, so this block converges on re-run instead of erroring after first success.
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for L in duplicate invalid question wontfix "help wanted" "good first issue"; do
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gh label delete "$L" --yes 2>/dev/null || true
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done
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```
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