docs(agents): state how a green PR lands, and the governed-surface exception

.changeset/agents-md-states-how-a-green-pr-lands.md

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+---
+---
+
+`AGENTS.md` only — this PR releases nothing to HotCRM users, so the frontmatter above is
+deliberately empty (the sanctioned "releases nothing" declaration that
+`.github/workflows/changeset-check.yml` documents at lines 33-34 and 66-67, on par with
+the `skip-changeset` label). No `src/` metadata changed: no object, field, view, label,
+flow or hook.
+
+§✅ Verifying changes gains **How a green PR lands**, the posture this repo practised but
+never wrote down: a seat may take a PR out of draft and arm auto-merge once every check
+has finished with none failed, unless the diff touches a governed path (`AGENTS.md`,
+`CLAUDE.md`, `.claude/**`, `.github/instructions/**`), in which case the PR stays a draft
+and the maintainer merges it. Maintainer ruling on #1742, decision batch #81, chosen over
+"every PR waits for the maintainer".
+
+Measured before writing, because the card turns on a zero: the filer's six terms
+(`auto-merge`, `automerge`, `merge queue`, `merge-queue`, `squash`, `ready-for-review`)
+across `AGENTS.md`, `CONTRIBUTING.md`, `docs/**` and `.github/**` return one hit, not
+zero — `CONTRIBUTING.md:210` "Branch will be squash-merged", under §Getting Merged, which
+states merge *mechanics* for a human contributor and never says who may perform the
+merge. So the authorisation gap the card describes is real; the "zero hits" figure it
+cites is off by one on a line that does not close it.
+
+"Every check green" is stated as *finished and none failed* rather than literally green,
+because two checks in this repo are routinely neither green nor red: `Check Changeset`
+concludes `skipped` under the `skip-changeset` label
+(`.github/workflows/changeset-check.yml:14`), and `link-check` never runs at all on a
+diff carrying no `.md` (`link-check.yml` `pull_request.paths`). Both were read off real
+PRs — #1058 shows the skip and the absence, #1795 shows `link-check` present when the
+diff does carry Markdown. No required-checks list is invented, because none was ruled.

AGENTS.md

@@ -575,6 +575,25 @@ The lone exception is the **`skip-changeset`** label, for PRs that ship nothing
 users (CI-only chores, repo housekeeping). Do not reach for it to get a red check
 green — write the changeset instead.
 
+### How a green PR lands
+
+**A seat may take a PR out of draft and arm auto-merge once every check on it has
+finished and none has failed — unless its diff touches a governed path.** The governed
+paths are `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, `.claude/**` and `.github/instructions/**`, and one
+governed path governs the whole diff however small that part of it is. A governed PR
+**stays a draft** and is the maintainer's own merge: ⛔ a seat never flips it ready and
+⛔ never arms auto-merge on it. Arming auto-merge is a seat's only landing route —
+⛔ never merge by hand. A check that concluded `skipped` (`Check Changeset` under the
+`skip-changeset` label) or that never ran because a path filter excluded it
+(`link-check` on a diff carrying no `.md`) is not a failure.
+
+Written down because an unwritten landing rule is re-derived by every seat, and
+re-derivation is where seats diverge — invisibly, until the divergence produces a merge
+nobody authorised.
+
+> Ruling: #1742, decision batch #81 (2026-09-08), which chose this over "every PR waits
+> for the maintainer". Governed surfaces graded on #1233.
+
 ### Verifying UI in the browser
 
 The Console renders dashboards, charts, and views from metadata. When verifying a