forward-future/deploybot/manage-merge-queue

Manage Merge Queue

Read .mergequeue.toml before acting. Treat its checks and review providers as the repository's policy; never assume a particular review vendor.

Prepare The Pull Request

1. Keep the PR draft while source changes.
2. Run the repository's required local tests, commit, and push only this task.
3. Mark the final head ready and treat it as immutable.
4. Wait for every configured exact-head check and review provider.
5. Read all actionable review findings and fix valid issues. Return the PR to

draft before any replacement push, then repeat the final review once.

1. Immediately after opening the PR, call update_agent_thread in pr-draft,

pr-review, or ready phase with its number so this opening thread becomes the immutable repair and deployment-receipt destination.

1. Before finishing the PR-opening response, call pipeline_status and verify

that the exact PR is in pull_request_thread_owners, not unbound_pull_requests. Bind and recheck it if missing.

Do not merge merely because review is complete.

Record Deploy Intent

Treat the user's exact deploy instruction as authority for this thread's PR only. Call request_deployment through the DeployBot MCP server, or run deploybot request <pr-number>. DeployBot uses the recorded PR-opening thread; a coordinator must never substitute its own thread ID. This records intent immediately. If review fixes change the head, call refresh_deployment_request only after its fresh checks and review pass; the event worker then promotes that exact head without another user instruction.

The intent label wakes the GitHub coordinator. Review, check, ready, and push events retry promotion without a polling timer. Do not merge independently.

Coordinate A Burst

Use pipeline_status, then react_to_delivery_event or the narrower queue tools. Preserve first-in order unless dependencies require another order. Merge independent ready PRs back-to-back without rebasing merely because main moved.

Use the reaction path for queue work. follow_release / deploybot follow is release-only and never promotes or drains queued pull requests. For an "all open PRs" request, refresh status, the plan, and the provider's open list after the verified release; react again for newly opened authorized work and stop only when all three are empty at the same fresh boundary. In GitHub Actions, keep queue reaction and release-only follow in separate concurrency groups so release ownership never holds up merged-mode admission.

Skip blocked or waiting PRs so they do not stop independent work. A blocker creates a structured repair handoff to the source thread. After the repair has fresh checks and review, call resume_pull_request once. If policy requests an integration PR, let DeployBot scaffold it, resolve source once, run tests once, and obtain one final review. Never hand-merge generated output.

A genuine repair remains merge-ineligible, but DeployBot may temporarily hold overlapping ready work for the configured bounded repair window so concurrent merges do not repeatedly invalidate the replacement head.

Track newer cumulative base heads through CI, deployment, and configured health checks from release events. With release_admission = "merged", immediately admit the next independent ready batch after merge instead of occupying the merge worker while production catches up. A later failure pauses further merges until the coordinator verifies recovery and unpauses. Before creating that recovery, call claim_release_repair; only the returned owned thread may use the deterministic repair branch. Respect the configured maximum batch size and the selected merged, ci-passed, or verified release-admission fence. Record exact heads, review verdicts, merged commits, waiting items, repair packets, integration groups, and delivery timing.

Immediately before asking the user to unpause or take another repair action, call pipeline_status again. Never show a stale pause prompt when durable state is already running or the release has advanced. The original deploy instruction authorizes the coordinator to unpause the matching failed release after the elected repair head passes fresh checks and review, provided the pause reason still matches and no rollback or gate waiver is needed. In that case, run deploybot unpause --sha <failed-main-sha> --control-id <control-id> and continue without asking the user to repeat authorization.