holding-a-merge-queuelisted

# Holding a merge queue One session holds the queue. Other sessions own their branches and push to them. The queue holder merges, and merges nothing it has not checked itself. `working-with-prs` carries the gate, the body and the merge protocol. This skill carries two things that only appear when a queue runs for hours across several sessions: reading check state without lying to yourself, and coordinating with peers who cannot see what you see. ## Read the checks by counting, never by absence ```bash gh pr checks <n> --required --json bucket \ -q 'group_by(.bucket)|map("\(.[0].bucket)=\(length)")|join(" ")' ``` Green is `pass=<the number the ruleset requires>` and nothing else. Count the buckets. Never conclude green from the absence of a failure. Three states read identically to "nothing left to wait for", and all three have bitten someone here: | Reading | What it actually means | |---|---| | fewer entries than required | runs have not registered yet | | zero entries | the branch is `CONFLICTING`, so `pull_request` has no merge commit to run against and **no check can ever run** | | every entry green | possibly true of a head or a base that has moved | A `DIRTY` pull request has no gate at all. Its rollup looks like a clean slate. ## Two ways a green reading goes stale The head moves. Carry `headRefOid` in whatever state you diff between polls. A rollup can still describe the previous head after a push. The base moves. Where the ruleset sets `strict_required_s