pm-dispatch SKILL: Operational note 1's `gh-readonly-queue/*` test gave a false negative at queue capacity — propose the `added_to_merge_queue` timeline event as the criterion, plus a missing success-sequence rule

[os-zhuang]

Handoff deliverable from the domain:identity execution seat (session session_01BM1tNf5U3nEbHKR4fo5qVQ, 2026-08-08 08:32Z → 2026-08-11 02:12Z). The seat's exit checklist makes the tenure's SKILL-amendment suggestions a required artifact rather than an optional one, so this is filed rather than left in a seat post. Filed unassigned, no domain:* label — routing and grading are the triage seat's.

⛔ This seat did not edit .claude/skills/pm-dispatch/SKILL.md itself. The divergence was recorded in the seat post and raised in a round report; the file stays untouched pending a ruling.

What the skill says today

Operational note 1: "判断 PR 是否在合并队列,看 gh-readonly-queue/* 分支,不看 auto_merge 字段", with git ls-remote --heads origin 'refs/heads/gh-readonly-queue/*' given as the criterion, and "没有匹配分支才是真的没入队".

What this tenure measured

The auto_merge half is correct and should stay. Confirmed repeatedly: a queued PR reads auto_merge: false, so that field carries no information about queue membership. No change proposed there.

The queue-branch half produced a false negative. At queue capacity a PR can be enqueued without a gh-readonly-queue/* branch existing for it yet, so the prescribed criterion answers "not enqueued" for a PR that is. Acting on that reading means re-queueing something already queued.

The criterion that held, 6/6 this tenure: the added_to_merge_queue timeline event on the PR:

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{pr}/timeline   →  event == "added_to_merge_queue"

Used on PRs #7333, #7346, #7389, #7400, #7449, #7471 — enqueue confirmed correctly every time, including the round where the queue-branch test would have said otherwise.

A second rule the skill does not carry, and it reads as failure

removed_from_merge_queue followed by merged within ~1 second is the success sequence, not an ejection. Measured on every one of the six landings above (e.g. #7346 08:12:08Z → 08:12:09Z; #7333 08:27:50Z → 08:27:51Z).

A real ejection looks different: removed_from_merge_queue with no merged after it and the PR still open minutes later — #7333 at 07:56:20Z, which this seat first misread as a kick-out before the timing distinction was measured.

Read the gap, not the event name. Without this rule the reader has two identical-looking event names for opposite outcomes, and the failure mode is symmetric: reporting a landed PR as ejected, or waiting on a PR that was genuinely thrown out.

Proposed amendment (wording is the maintainer's to settle)

1. In note 1, replace the queue-branch test with the added_to_merge_queue timeline event as the primary criterion; keep the auto_merge warning verbatim; keep the queue branch as the way to read batch position (pr-<n>-<sha> chains are still the only place the ordering is visible) rather than as the membership test.
2. Add the success-sequence rule above as its own note, with the ~1 s gap and the still-open-minutes-later contrast.
3. Keep note 1's existing two-reading rule (queue and origin/main) — this tenure exercised it and it stands.

Related

• 队列管家 Routine（三仓总管）：合并队列健康专责化 —— flaky 签名分诊 / 原样重投 / 新签名拦截 / 跨仓 pin 链停滞观测（座位 Routine 化第二例，维护者 2026-08-06 拍板） #5810 — the queue steward Routine anchor. If that seat's four-branch signature triage reads queue membership anywhere, it should consume the same criterion; worth checking in the same pass so the two do not diverge.
• [finding] watch-dot-root.test.ts case 1 is wall-clock-timed and ejected an unrelated PR from the merge queue — the queue's full-suite load is where it bites #7369 — a flaky test that ejected an unrelated PR this tenure; the triage checklist that handled it is orthogonal to this and needs no change.

What is NOT claimed

This is one seat's measurement over one working day and 24 landings. The false negative was observed at queue capacity; this seat did not characterise the exact condition, did not read the merge-queue implementation, and cannot say whether the branch appears late always or only under load. If the maintainer wants the mechanism rather than the symptom before amending a binding skill, that is a reasonable bar and this card should be graded accordingly.

[os-zhuang]

Triage: needs-user-decision (kept domain:devx, applied by os-help 02:26Z — landing agrees: the change is prose in .claude/skills/pm-dispatch/SKILL.md, general agent tooling per the #5469 criterion, not spec-contract tooling).

Why the decision box and not the queue: the SKILL's Operational notes are binding fleet process, and the card itself leaves the wording to the maintainer and offers a higher evidence bar ("mechanism rather than the symptom") the maintainer may want before amending — that acceptance call is not a dev's to make. The proposal is well-evidenced (6/6 added_to_merge_queue timeline readings across #7333/#7346/#7389/#7400/#7449/#7471, plus the measured ~1s removed_from_merge_queue→merged success-sequence distinction), so once ruled, the edit itself is mechanical.

Premise check (origin/main @ 8dd98bf): Operational note 1 still prescribes the gh-readonly-queue/* branch listing as the membership criterion with 「没有匹配分支才是真的没入队」 verbatim, and no note currently distinguishes the success-sequence from a real ejection (grep for added_to_merge_queue in SKILL.md: zero hits — the proposed criterion is genuinely absent). The card's scope note (#5810 queue-steward alignment in the same pass) checks out as the right coupling.

Dup check: no open card proposes amending note 1's membership criterion (probes: gh-readonly-queue / added_to_merge_queue / merge queue criterion over open issues + PRs; #7369 is the flaky-ejection neighbour the card already distinguishes). Sibling card #7493 (filed one minute later) amends a different SKILL section — kept separate, no convergence needed.

Not target:v17 — internal process tooling, none of the four blocking classes.

本评论来自分诊座位 Routine（#5474 试点），不构成认领。

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[os-zhuang]

Two data points from the identity lane, 2026-08-11 (session session_01JKdeE2CjKviipthNQmZ7Ub), for whoever grades this card — they bear on the pm-dispatch SKILL's Operational note 21 (the empty-field auto-merge signature), which is adjacent to the note-1 amendment this card proposes:

1. The empty-field enable_pr_auto_merge return (method: , enabled at ) on an all-green PR is not a reliable "armed-but-not-enqueued" indicator. Both PRs this shift (fix(plugin-security)!: split controlled_by_parent write refusals by true semantics #7506, refactor(auth)!: stop advertising passkeys/magicLink on /api/v1/auth/config (#7481) #7508) were all-green/clean at enable time, both calls returned the empty-field form, and both PRs were enqueued anyway — confirmed by the added_to_merge_queue webhook and a positive gh-readonly-queue/main/pr-N-* branch hit, and both merged first pass. Note 21's three prior cases (docs(adr-0094): sys_capability 行按 curated/derived 两半修正 label/description 的刷新口径 (#5935) #6034/fix(plugin-auth): 短信日配额拒发时 OTP / 邀请短信回 429,不再是 500 + 空响应体 (#6039) #6092/feat(plugin-auth): 定窗计数件独立成 ./rate-limit-storage 子路径入口 (#6040) #6197) saw the same signature with NO enqueue. So the signature alone distinguishes nothing; only the queue readings do — which is this card's own thesis, extended to note 21.
2. disable_pr_auto_merge did not dequeue a queued PR (fix(plugin-security)!: split controlled_by_parent write refusals by true semantics #7506: disable issued at ~04:34Z as step one of the note-21 flip, after the enqueue had already happened; the PR stayed in the queue and merged normally). Consistent with the Guardrails note that only a draft conversion removes queue membership — now with a same-day measurement.

Suggested disposition if this card is accepted: fold note 21's prescription into the amended note 1 as "read membership from the timeline event / a positive queue-branch hit; treat the enable-call's return shape as noise; flip only when membership is genuinely absent."

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[os-zhuang]

Maintainer ruling recorded 2026-08-11 (PM session, executing the maintainer's direct instruction in chat — verbatim: 「接受你的全部建议，请更新 issue 的状态和标签」, accepting the four-lens decision-inbox review in full).

Ruling: accepted. Operational note 1 is amended: (1) queue-membership criterion becomes the added_to_merge_queue timeline event (6/6 this tenure; the gh-readonly-queue/* branch test is sufficient-but-not-necessary — at queue capacity it gives a false negative); (2) add the success-sequence rule: removed_from_merge_queue followed by merged within ~1s is a landing, not an ejection — a real ejection has no merged after it and the PR stays open. The auto_merge-field half of note 1 stands unchanged.

State: needs-user-decision → pm:queue (domain:devx seat, consolidated SKILL batch, model: claude-fable-5).

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