docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

[hyperpolymath]

Adds a Signed commits section to this repo's CONTRIBUTING, per owner ruling D218. The estate policy is docs/SIGNING-POLICY.adoc in hyperpolymath/standards.

This repo's default branch is covered by the zero-bypass Require-Signed-Commits ruleset, and rebase-merge is off. The section tells contributors what that requires:

• People and interactive agents sign with an SSH signing key.
• Apps, bots and workflows write through the API, so GitHub signs their commits.
• PRs are merged with squash.

If the file already had its own signing section, that section is replaced in place instead of adding a second one. Lines elsewhere that told people to sign with GPG are changed to match the policy (SSH for people).

This is a docs-only change. The commit was created through createCommitOnBranch, so GitHub signs it.

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• GitHub Check: governance / Workflow security linter
• GitHub Check: governance / Trusted-base reduction policy
• GitHub Check: governance / Actions lockfile verify
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⚠️ CI failures not shown inline (14)

GitHub Actions: Governance / 1_governance _ Workflow security linter.txt: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run if [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then
 �[36;1mif [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-lint)."�[0m
 �[36;1melse�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT=".standards-dupkey/tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::workflow parser gate not found in the pinned Standards revision or locally"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Workflow security linter: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run if [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then
 �[36;1mif [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-lint)."�[0m
 �[36;1melse�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT=".standards-dupkey/tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::workflow parser gate not found in the pinned Standards revision or locally"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Workflow security linter: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run # GitHub Actions REJECTS a workflow with duplicate keys: the run is
 �[36;1m# GitHub Actions REJECTS a workflow with duplicate keys: the run is�[0m
 �[36;1m# `failure` with no jobs, no log and no check run. Nothing else here�[0m
 �[36;1m# can see it, because yaml.safe_load silently keeps the LAST�[0m
 �[36;1m# duplicate and reports success — so the file "parses" and every�[0m
 �[36;1m# other lint passes. Measured 2026-08-05: nine workflows in hypatia�[0m
 �[36;1m# were dead this way, including a CodeQL workflow with zero�[0m
 �[36;1m# successful runs in its entire lifetime.�[0m
 �[36;1mset -euo pipefail�[0m
 �[36;1m# Standards exercises its pull-request scripts; every consumer uses�[0m
 �[36;1m# the canonical scripts fetched from this workflow's immutable�[0m
 �[36;1m# Standards revision.�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="scripts/check-workflow-duplicate-keys.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-lint)."�[0m
 �[36;1melse�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT=".standards-dupkey/scripts/check-workflow-duplicate-keys.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::duplicate-key checker not found — neither fetched from" \�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / 3_governance _ Well-Known (RFC 9116 + RSR).txt: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run SECTXT=""
 �[36;1mSECTXT=""�[0m
 �[36;1m[ -f ".well-known/security.txt" ] && SECTXT=".well-known/security.txt"�[0m
 �[36;1m[ -f "security.txt" ] && SECTXT="security.txt"�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -z "$SECTXT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::No security.txt found."�[0m
 �[36;1m  exit 0�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mgrep -q "^Contact:" "$SECTXT" || { echo "::error::Missing Contact field"; exit 1; }�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Well-Known (RFC 9116 + RSR): docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run SECTXT=""
 �[36;1mSECTXT=""�[0m
 �[36;1m[ -f ".well-known/security.txt" ] && SECTXT=".well-known/security.txt"�[0m
 �[36;1m[ -f "security.txt" ] && SECTXT="security.txt"�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -z "$SECTXT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::No security.txt found."�[0m
 �[36;1m  exit 0�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mgrep -q "^Contact:" "$SECTXT" || { echo "::error::Missing Contact field"; exit 1; }�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Well-Known (RFC 9116 + RSR): docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run MIXED=$(grep -rE 'src="http://|href="http://' --include="*.html" --include="*.htm" . 2>/dev/null | grep -vE 'localhost|127\.0\.0\.1|example\.com|lol/|node_modules/|third-party/|vendor/' | head -5 || true)
 �[36;1mMIXED=$(grep -rE 'src="http://|href="http://' --include="*.html" --include="*.htm" . 2>/dev/null | grep -vE 'localhost|127\.0\.0\.1|example\.com|lol/|node_modules/|third-party/|vendor/' | head -5 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$MIXED" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::Mixed content (HTTP in HTML)"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / 4_governance _ Security policy checks.txt: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run FAILED=false
 �[36;1mFAILED=false�[0m
 �[36;1mWEAK_CRYPTO=$(grep -rE 'md5\(|sha1\(' --include="*.py" --include="*.rb" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'checksum\|cache\|test\|spec' | head -5 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$WEAK_CRYPTO" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::Weak crypto (MD5/SHA1) detected — ADVISORY, does not fail this job. Use SHA256+:"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "$WEAK_CRYPTO"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mHTTP_URLS=$(grep -rE 'http://[^l][^o][^c]' --include="*.py" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.yml" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'localhost\|127.0.0.1\|example\|test\|spec' | head -5 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$HTTP_URLS" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::HTTP URLs found — ADVISORY, does not fail this job. Use HTTPS:"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "$HTTP_URLS"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mSECRETS=$(grep -rEi '(api_key|apikey|secret_key|password)\s*[=:]\s*["\x27][A-Za-z0-9+/=]{20,}' --include="*.py" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" --include="*.env" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'example\|sample\|test\|mock\|placeholder' | head -3 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$SECRETS" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::Potential hardcoded secrets detected — this FAILS the job:"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Security policy checks: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run FAILED=false
 �[36;1mFAILED=false�[0m
 �[36;1mWEAK_CRYPTO=$(grep -rE 'md5\(|sha1\(' --include="*.py" --include="*.rb" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'checksum\|cache\|test\|spec' | head -5 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$WEAK_CRYPTO" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::Weak crypto (MD5/SHA1) detected — ADVISORY, does not fail this job. Use SHA256+:"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "$WEAK_CRYPTO"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mHTTP_URLS=$(grep -rE 'http://[^l][^o][^c]' --include="*.py" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.yml" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'localhost\|127.0.0.1\|example\|test\|spec' | head -5 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$HTTP_URLS" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::warning::HTTP URLs found — ADVISORY, does not fail this job. Use HTTPS:"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "$HTTP_URLS"�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mSECRETS=$(grep -rEi '(api_key|apikey|secret_key|password)\s*[=:]\s*["\x27][A-Za-z0-9+/=]{20,}' --include="*.py" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.go" --include="*.rs" --include="*.env" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'example\|sample\|test\|mock\|placeholder' | head -3 || true)�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ -n "$SECRETS" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::Potential hardcoded secrets detected — this FAILS the job:"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Security policy checks: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run set -uo pipefail
 �[36;1mset -uo pipefail�[0m
 �[36;1mDIR=.github/canonical-references�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -d "$DIR" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "ℹ️  [R5] no $DIR/ — skipped (repo has not opted in)"�[0m
 �[36;1m  exit 0�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif ! command -v python3 >/dev/null 2>&1; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "❌ [R5] python3 missing on runner — required for YAML rule parsing"�[0m
 �[36;1m  exit 2�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mpython3 - <<'PY'�[0m
 �[36;1mimport os, sys, glob, subprocess�[0m
 �[36;1mtry:�[0m
 �[36;1m    import yaml�[0m
 �[36;1mexcept ImportError:�[0m
 �[36;1m    sys.exit("❌ [R5] PyYAML not installed on runner; install python3-yaml")�[0m
 �[36;1m�[0m
 �[36;1mdir_ = ".github/canonical-references"�[0m
 �[36;1mfiles = sorted(glob.glob(f"{dir_}/*.yml") + glob.glob(f"{dir_}/*.yaml"))�[0m
 �[36;1mif not files:�[0m
 �[36;1m    print(f"ℹ️  [R5] {dir_}/ has no .yml/.yaml rules — skipped")�[0m
 �[36;1m    sys.exit(0)�[0m
 �[36;1m�[0m
 �[36;1mtotal = 0�[0m
 �[36;1mfor rf in files:�[0m
 �[36;1m    with open(rf, encoding="utf-8") as fh:�[0m
 �[36;1m        cfg = yaml.safe_load(fh)�[0m
 �[36;1m    if not isinstance(cfg, dict):�[0m
 �[36;1m        print(f"❌ [R5] {rf}: top-level must be a mapping"); total += 1; continue�[0m
 �[36;1m    rid  = cfg.get("id", os.path.basename(rf))�[0m
 �[36;1m    desc = cfg.get("description", "")�[0m
 �[36;1m    pats = cfg.get("patterns") or []�[0m
 �[36;1m    canon = cfg.get("canonical_pointer", "")�[0m
 �[36;1m    scope = (cfg.get("scope") or {})�[0m
 �[36;1m    includes = scope.get("include") or []�[0m
 �[36;1m    if not pats or not includes:�[0m
 �[36;1m        print(f"❌ [R5:{rid}] missing patterns or scope.include in {rf}")�[0m
 �[36;1m        total += 1; continue�[0m
 �[36;1m    # exclude self-references�[0m
 �[36;1m    skip = set(["CHANGELOG.md", "CHANGELOG.adoc", rf])�[0m
 �[36;1m    if canon: skip.add(canon)�[0m
 �[36;1m    rule_hits = 0�[0m
 �[36;1m    for f_ in includes:�[0m
 �[36;1m        if f_ in skip or not os...

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / 5_governance _ Actions lockfile verify.txt: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run set -uo pipefail
 �[36;1mset -uo pipefail�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SRC=scripts�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own gate + verifier (standards self-lint)."�[0m
 �[36;1melse�[0m
 �[36;1m  SRC=.standards-lock/scripts�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mfor f in check-actions-lock-gate.sh update-actions-lock.sh; do�[0m
 �[36;1m  if [ ! -f "$SRC/$f" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m    echo "::error::actions-lock gate: $f not found in $SRC (standards checkout at job.workflow_sha failed?)"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Actions lockfile verify: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run set -uo pipefail
 �[36;1mset -uo pipefail�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = hyperpolymath/standards ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SRC=scripts�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own gate + verifier (standards self-lint)."�[0m
 �[36;1melse�[0m
 �[36;1m  SRC=.standards-lock/scripts�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mfor f in check-actions-lock-gate.sh update-actions-lock.sh; do�[0m
 �[36;1m  if [ ! -f "$SRC/$f" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m    echo "::error::actions-lock gate: $f not found in $SRC (standards checkout at job.workflow_sha failed?)"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / 7_governance _ Language _ package anti-pattern policy.txt: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run SCRIPT=".standards-checkout/scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"
 �[36;1mSCRIPT=".standards-checkout/scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ] && [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = "hyperpolymath/standards" ] \�[0m
 �[36;1m   && [ -f scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-check)."�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::check-ts-allowlist gate not found in standards@main or locally"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Language _ package anti-pattern policy: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run SCRIPT=".standards-checkout/scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"
 �[36;1mSCRIPT=".standards-checkout/scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ] && [ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" = "hyperpolymath/standards" ] \�[0m
 �[36;1m   && [ -f scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="scripts/check-ts-allowlist.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-check)."�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::check-ts-allowlist gate not found in standards@main or locally"�[0m

---

GitHub Actions: Governance / governance _ Language _ package anti-pattern policy: docs: add Signed commits section to CONTRIBUTING

Conclusion: failure

View job details

##[group]Run SCRIPT=".standards-checkout/tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh"
 �[36;1mSCRIPT=".standards-checkout/tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ] && [ -f tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  SCRIPT="tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh"�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "Using this repository's own copy (standards self-check)."�[0m
 �[36;1mfi�[0m
 �[36;1mif [ ! -f "$SCRIPT" ]; then�[0m
 �[36;1m  echo "::error::language-policy gate not found in standards@main or locally"�[0m

🔇 Additional comments (1)

.github/CONTRIBUTING.md (1)

129-130: 🔒 Security & Privacy | 🛡️ Detected with Advanced Tier

Separate confirmed signing enforcement from the unresolved rebase-merge setting.

The active Require-Signed-Commits ruleset targets ~DEFAULT_BRANCH and includes required_signatures, so the signing statement is current for commits reaching main. This does not establish a separate requirement for PR branches. The repository configuration does not establish whether allow_rebase_merge is enabled. Keep any claim that rebase-merge is disabled as a policy requirement unless the effective configuration proves it.

---

📝 Summary

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Updated the contribution guide with commit-signing requirements for changes reaching the default branch.
  • Clarified signing options for people, interactive agents, apps, bots and workflows.
  • Documented that pull requests must be squash-merged and unsigned commits block merging.

Walkthrough

The contribution guide now documents signed-commit requirements, supported signing methods, and merge requirements.

Changes

Signed commit guidance

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Signing and merge instructions .github/CONTRIBUTING.md	The guide explains signing commits with a registered SSH key and verified committer email. It describes API-based commits for apps, bots, and workflows, squash merges, and how unsigned PR-branch commits affect merging.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~5 minutes

Change: Other

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to c3246

This docs-only change adds signed-commit and squash-merge guidance to the contribution guide. It does not alter runtime behavior, so merge risk is minimal.

Security Architecture Review

Security architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to c3246

The change adds documentation, not enforcement code. No introduced or worsened security weakness was established, but the claimed merge restrictions remain only partly verified.

Retained concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Security review details

Security Findings and Attack Paths

• observed — The supplied security assessment contains no retained findings. Its signing-policy candidate remains deferred, with unknown reachability; it does not establish that this documentation change enables unsigned commits to reach the default branch.

Trust Boundaries and Controls

• observed — The pre-existing local check verifies only HEAD. It does not demonstrate the guide's claimed enforcement over every PR-branch commit or its assertion that rebase merging is disabled; those depend on external configuration not established by the inspected source.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the documentation change and matches the main change in the pull request.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description directly explains the signed-commit guidance added to CONTRIBUTING and matches the documented changes.
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 💡 1

🛠️ Fix failing CI checks 💡

• Commit to this branch
• Create a new PR

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

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_{A rabbit signs a commit with care,
An SSH key takes it there.
Squash merges keep the branches neat,
Verified emails make the feat.
The guide now shows the way to go.}

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