docs(reviewers): Elsa 3 Code Review is the only merge gate; bots are advisory

[sfmskywalker]

Aligns the reviewer docs with the merge rule set on 2026-10-03.

Merge gate (the only one): an Elsa 3 Code Review GitHub review on the PR whose body reads APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha> (posted as sfmskywalker, state COMMENTED), plus green CI on that head. The merge is pinned to that SHA (gh pr merge --match-head-commit <sha> or the merge API with sha=). Any push after the approval needs Code Review to re-confirm.

Advisory only: Greptile, CodeRabbit, Copilot and Bugbot. There is no Greptile 5/5 gate and no waive process.

Changes:

• .github/reviewers.md: Greptile row and Rules rewritten to match elsa-core: Greptile is advisory, the stale Greptile 5/5 gate and the Greptile-unavailable exception are removed, and the merge rule spells out the review body, author/state, and SHA-pinned merge.
• AGENTS.md: the pre-PR line no longer says Greptile is required.

Docs only; no code or workflow changes.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Clarified that Greptile reviews are advisory and that merge approval requires an Elsa 3 Code Review approval and green CI on the approved version.
  • Updated guidance to require confirmation on the latest version after a push; a fresh Greptile review is optional.

Companion PRs: elsa-workflows/elsa-core#8605, #1124, elsa-workflows/elsa-extensions#280.

[coderabbitai]

Navigate logical layers of code changes, visualize relationships, and explore their blast radius.

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: defaults
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: 677d885c-30ea-4f79-ab42-bd3383c365e8

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between d256de5 and 6fba99f.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/reviewers.md

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 2 remain after this review.

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The review guidance makes Greptile advisory and sets Elsa 3 Code Review approval at the current head SHA, plus green CI, as the merge gate. It also requires merging against the approved SHA.

Changes

Review and merge guidance

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Review policy and merge gate .github/reviewers.md, AGENTS.md	Greptile reviews are advisory, and requesting a fresh review after each push is optional. Merging requires an Elsa 3 Code Review comment with APPROVE + HIGH @ <full head SHA>, green CI on that head, and a merge pinned to that SHA. A later push requires confirmation for the new head.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~8 minutes

Change: Other

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 6fba9

This is a documentation-only change to the reviewer and merge-gate guidance. It has no code or workflow impact and is low risk to merge. The accepted review-body prefix is worth confirming against the external gate.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 6fba9

The change affects 1 system.

Changed systems: AGENTS.md

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — AGENTS.md (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in AGENTS.md: The PR guidance changes Greptile from required, with a re-request after every push, to advisory. It adds a merge requirement of Elsa 3 Code Review APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha> and green CI, with the merge pinned to that SHA.
• observed — Modified behavior in .github/reviewers.md: The reviewer list’s verification date changes to 2026-10-04, and Greptile is reclassified from required to advisory. The rules remove the required Greptile review, 5/5 score gate, and unavailability exception. They define the merge gate as an Elsa 3 Code Review comment starting with the specified approval, confidence, and head-SHA text plus green CI; clarify that its review state is COMMENTED; require merging at that SHA; and require reconfirmation after any push. Greptile and the other automated reviewers are advisory, with at most one additional advisory reviewer requested besides Greptile.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: Elsa 3 Code Review is the only merge gate, and bots are advisory.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description explains the purpose, solution, scope, merge rules, and affected files. It does not include the template’s verification steps or completed checklist, but it is otherwise sufficiently d…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Commit to this branch
• Create a new PR

• Autopilot · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[greptile-apps]

Confidence Score: 4/5

[Low risk] Updates documentation about code review process.

Not safe to merge while this PR has no permitted path through the documented review gate.

Summary

The PR clarifies the Code Review header, verdict, and head-SHA requirements. The previously reported merge-gate conflict remains unresolved.

_{Reviews (2) · Last reviewed commit: "docs(reviewers): spell out the exact Cod..."}

[sfmskywalker]

Elsa 3 Code Review: REQUEST_CHANGES + HIGH @ d256de5

Code Review, Round 1/4

Scope: .github/reviewers.md (Greptile row and Rules) and one line of AGENTS.md, docs only. This is a companion to the matching PRs in the other two Elsa 3 repositories.

Verified

• Stale wording is gone from the claimed files. The Greptile "required for merge" row, the Greptile 5/5 gate and the waive exception are removed from .github/reviewers.md. The stale Greptile line in AGENTS.md (line 6) is fixed.
• The new Rules match the policy:
  • the Elsa 3 Code Review is the only gate, together with green CI on the head;
  • the merge is pinned to the approved SHA (gh pr merge --match-head-commit, or the merge API sha);
  • any push voids the approval until it is re-confirmed on the new head;
  • authors never approve their own PRs (unchanged rule);
  • Greptile, CodeRabbit, Copilot and Bugbot are advisory only, with no score gate and no waive process.
• Consistency across the three repositories. The merge gate, merge pin and advisory bullets are word for word identical in elsa-core, elsa-studio and elsa-extensions. The remaining differences are intended: Bugbot is live only on elsa-core, Greptile is not live on elsa-extensions, and elsa-extensions picks exactly one advisory reviewer.
• No other governance file states a Greptile gate or waive process: CONTRIBUTING.md, .github/pull_request_template.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/agents, .github/prompts and .agents were checked. The only other repository hits for "5/5" are unrelated (a validation log and lockfile hashes). There are no links in the changed text.
• No U+2013 or U+2014 dashes in either file, before or after.
• CI at head: Build and test, CodeQL, Analyze (csharp, javascript-typescript, actions), GitGuardian and license/cla pass.

Blocker

B1. The gate bullet does not give the exact review header that people and tooling match on (.github/reviewers.md line 20).

• The gate is defined by recognising one review. The bullet says the body "reads APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha>", but a Code Review body starts with the line Elsa 3 Code Review: <APPROVE|REQUEST_CHANGES> + <confidence> @ <full head sha>. A check written from this text, such as "starts with APPROVE + HIGH", would never match a real approval.
• The bullet also presents COMMENTED as a side effect of the posting account. The rule is that the review is always posted with event COMMENT.
• A reader seeing "posted as sfmskywalker" next to "the PR author never reviews or approves its own PR" may read it as self approval when the author uses the same account. One clause removes that doubt.

Replace:

• Merge gate: the only merge gate is an Elsa 3 Code Review GitHub review on the PR whose body reads APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha> (the full 40-character SHA of the PR's current head commit; posted as sfmskywalker, so its review state is COMMENTED, not APPROVED), plus green CI on that head.

with:

• Merge gate: the only merge gate is an Elsa 3 Code Review on the PR whose body starts with the line Elsa 3 Code Review: APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha> (the full 40-character SHA of the PR's current head commit), plus green CI on that head. The Code Review is posted as sfmskywalker with review event COMMENT, so its GitHub review state is COMMENTED, not APPROVED. A REQUEST_CHANGES verdict, a confidence below HIGH, or a SHA other than the current head does not pass. The Code Review is a separate reviewer from the PR author, even when both post from the same account.

Notes (non-blocking)

N1. The AGENTS.md summary line paraphrases the gate as APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha>. That is fine as a pointer to .github/reviewers.md, and it needs no change once B1 lands there.

N2. Last verified still reads 2026-10-03, but the Rules changed in this PR. elsa-core bumped it to 2026-10-04. Consider bumping it here too.

Gate: with B1 applied verbatim (the same text in all three repositories), this is ready.

[sfmskywalker]

Elsa 3 Code Review: APPROVE + HIGH @ 6fba99f

Code Review, Round 2/4

Delta reviewed: d256de5...6fba99f.

B1 (Merge gate bullet): resolved. The bullet in .github/reviewers.md now matches the requested text word for word: the body must start with Elsa 3 Code Review: APPROVE + HIGH @ <head sha>, the review is posted with event COMMENT so its state is COMMENTED, a REQUEST_CHANGES verdict, a confidence below HIGH, or a stale SHA does not pass, and the Code Review is a separate reviewer from the author even on a shared account. The pinned merge bullet now uses the same full first line for re-confirmation, so the two bullets agree. The wording is identical across elsa-core, elsa-studio and elsa-extensions.

Last verified (note from Round 1): resolved. It now reads 2026-10-04, matching elsa-core.

CI was still running on this head when this review was posted. Per the rule this PR documents, merge only once CI is green on this exact head, pinned with --match-head-commit 6fba99f5220e487694b04ca5089ab10bc49e6759. Any further push voids this approval.

Verdict: APPROVE + HIGH at 6fba99f.