actions/changelog-assembled/changelog-assembled.sh

@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@ set -euo pipefail
 # no '## ' heading, and changelog_section extracts the body below HEAD's
 # heading — so the date HEAD stamped into its heading never enters the
 # comparison, and a date difference can never masquerade as a prose one.
+#
+# This guard narrows, but cannot close, the target-movement window: it sees a
+# fragment present when CI reads the target ref, but one can still land after
+# the final run and before merge. Requiring release PRs to be up to date with
+# their target branch before merge is the repository setting that closes that
+# residual window (#253).
 
 base_ref="${1:-${CHANGELOG_ASSEMBLED_BASE:-origin/main}}"
 changelog="${2:-${CHANGELOG:-CHANGELOG.md}}"
@@ -169,6 +175,37 @@ frag_count="$(printf '%s' "$base_frags" | grep -c . || true)"
 
 failures=0
 
+# Refusal: the target branch gained a fragment after this release PR's merge
+# base, so the ceremony could not have consumed it. Merging this tree would
+# strand that fragment for the next release and misattribute when it shipped.
+stranded=""
+while IFS= read -r -d '' entry; do
+  meta="${entry%%$'\t'*}"
+  path="${entry#*$'\t'}"
+  otype="$(printf '%s\n' "$meta" | awk '{ print $2 }')"
+  name="${path##*/}"
+  case "$otype:$name" in
+    blob:README.md) ;;
+    blob:*.md)
+      if ! printf '%s' "$base_frags" | grep -Fxq "$path"; then
+        stranded="${stranded}    ${path}"$'\n'
+      fi
+      ;;
+  esac
+done < <(git ls-tree -z "$base_ref" -- "$dir/")
+if [ -n "$stranded" ]; then
+  {
+    echo "changelog-assembled: fragment(s) on target '$base_ref' were not consumed by this release PR:"
+    echo
+    printf '%s' "$stranded"
+    echo
+    echo "  Merging now would strand these entries for the next release and"
+    echo "  misattribute when they shipped."
+    echo "  Fix: rebase onto the target head and re-run bin/changelog-assemble '$ver'."
+  } >&2
+  failures=$((failures + 1))
+fi
+
 # Refusal: a fragment the ceremony consumed is still present on HEAD. The
 # ceremony deletes exactly what it assembles (#112) — a fragment that
 # survives its own release sits in the directory and is assembled AGAIN

changelog.d/253.md

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+### Fixed
+
+- Release checks now refuse a target-head fragment that the candidate did not consume, preventing late merges from misattributing shipped changes (#253).

test/changelog-assembled.test.sh

@@ -217,6 +217,49 @@ check "a surviving fragment with its entry present fails" 1 "STILL PRESENT" \
 check "the survivor refusal names the file" 1 "changelog.d/9.md" \
   run survivor base
 
+# A release PR can be faithful to its merge base while the target branch moves
+# ahead and gains a fragment during review. That target-only fragment was not
+# available to the ceremony, so merging the PR would strand it for the next
+# release. The guard must read the target ref as well as their merge base.
+seed_flat target-stranded
+ceremony target-stranded 0.2.0 2026-07-24
+commit_head target-stranded
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" switch -q base
+printf -- '- Landed while the release was under review (#30).\n' \
+  >"$TMP/target-stranded/changelog.d/30.md"
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" add -A
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" commit -qm target-fragment
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" switch -q main
+check "a target-head fragment the release did not consume fails" 1 \
+  "changelog.d/30.md" run target-stranded base
+check "the target-stranding refusal names the rebase remedy" 1 \
+  "rebase onto the target head" run target-stranded base
+check "the target-stranding refusal names the assembler re-run" 1 \
+  "changelog-assemble '0.2.0'" run target-stranded base
+
+# Removing the target-only fragment makes the same diverged fixture green:
+# target drift itself is not the failure, only a stranded fragment is.
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" switch -q base
+rm "$TMP/target-stranded/changelog.d/30.md"
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" add -A
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" commit -qm target-fragment-removed
+git -C "$TMP/target-stranded" switch -q main
+check "the same target fixture is green once no fragment is stranded" 0 \
+  "byte-for-byte" run target-stranded base
+
+# Spell out the common harmless case independently: the target branch moved,
+# but the advancing commit added no fragment.
+seed_flat target-unrelated
+ceremony target-unrelated 0.2.0 2026-07-24
+commit_head target-unrelated
+git -C "$TMP/target-unrelated" switch -q base
+printf 'unrelated target change\n' >"$TMP/target-unrelated/code.txt"
+git -C "$TMP/target-unrelated" add -A
+git -C "$TMP/target-unrelated" commit -qm target-unrelated
+git -C "$TMP/target-unrelated" switch -q main
+check "a target head advanced without a fragment stays green" 0 \
+  "byte-for-byte" run target-unrelated base
+
 # Fragments consumed, section never stamped: the prose went nowhere.
 seed_flat halfdone
 rm "$TMP/halfdone/changelog.d/12.md" "$TMP/halfdone/changelog.d/9.md"