Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

ADR-002 — PR author ≠ merger (two GitHub identities)

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-09-08

Context

NFR-12 says implementer ≠ merge approver. On a solo GitHub login, a second Cursor agent cannot APPROVE a PR that login opened (GitHub self-APPROVE rule). Enabling “authors can approve their own PRs” would count same-login review as a gate. That is theater.

Café Fausse (artofdream/aea-interactive-design, .cursor/skills/pr-coordinator/SKILL.md) already probed this: cursor[bot] is the distinct second identity. Same principle applies here. This ADR does not import that repo’s restaurant/SRS content.

Decision

Reuse that split on ctos:

  1. Do not enable GitHub author self-APPROVE. Do not add a required-approval ruleset until a second human exists.
  2. Author does not merge their own PR.
  3. Identities: artofdream (owner) and cursor[bot] (Cursor GitHub App, already used for cloud PRs). Do not install another App or mint a second personal account for this.
  4. Written MRC (ctos-mr-coordinator) is the review-in-the-room. Prefer COMMENT / REQUEST_CHANGES. Record who authored / who reviewed / who merges on the PR.
  5. If cursor[bot] REST APPROVE returns 403 (probed on Café Fausse #27; unprobed on ctos), do not block a valid cursor[bot] merge of an artofdream-authored PR after this-run green checks (when CI exists) and Bugbot resolved-or-declined. Missing Approve is not a reason to treat that merge as invalid.
  6. Owner PAT / artofdream still must not APPROVE or merge an artofdream-authored PR.
Who opened the PRWho writes the reviewWho merges
artofdreamNew MRC session (COMMENT)cursor[bot] after green + Bugbot terminal
cursor[bot] (cloud / this agent)Owner, optionally plus MRC COMMENTartofdream

Consequences

  • #2 is cursor[bot]-authored scaffold: owner merges after the MRC write-up.
  • CI is still Planned on ctos. “Green checks” cannot be claimed until a workflow is probed. Fail closed: no CI yet is not “green.”
  • cursor[bot] merge and App APPROVE on this repo stay Unknown until probed here. Do not copy Café Fausse #16/#27 as a ctos probe.