fix-blocker-rather-than-override

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• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Fix the Blocker, Don't Override

## Overview
A red gate on master that's unrelated to your PR is still a real cost: every future PR pays the same gate-block tax until someone fixes it. Fixing the blocker compounds value across the whole queue. Admin-override extracts only your PR's worth of value and trains the team (or you) to bypass the signal.

## When to Use
- Your PR's CI shows a failing gate that's mechanically unrelated to your change
- Verifying the failure exists on master (not introduced by your PR) confirms it's pre-existing debt
- The blocker has no in-flight session already addressing it

## Decision rule

**Precondition this rule assumes: the red is someone else's.** Check the PR's own
checks before overriding — `gh pr checks <N>` or
`gh pr view <N> --json statusCheckRollup`. `--admin` bypasses a required *review*
(the sanctioned solo-dev pattern) **and** a *failing required check*, silently and
identically. PR #12 was `--admin`-merged without that check on 2026-07-30 and main
went red at coverage 85.98/84/88.48 against floors 91/92/95: "Main is red and
that's my fault — I ran `--admin` without checking the CI result first."

- **Fix the blocker first if**: root cause is tractable (~30–60min), you can diagnose from existing artifacts, the fix doesn't conflict with other in-flight work
- **Admin-override if**: the blocker is genuinely out-of-scope (different domain, large unknown), the user has explicitly authorised the chain, AND the override is logged in the close-out PR description

## Steps
1. Confirm the gate is failing on master itself (not just your PR) — `gh run list --branch master --workflow <name> --limit 3 --json conclusion,headSha`
2. Search the backlog for an existing tracking ticket — if absent, file one (the gate exposed real debt; don't lose the signal)
3. Recommend fixing the blocker; check parallel-session conflicts before starting
4. Land the blocker fix, rebase your original PR, merge cleanly via the normal flow
5. If you do admin-override instead, link the blocker ticket in the close-out PR description so future-you knows what you bypassed

## Red flag
"Just admin-merging this one — it's clearly unrelated." That's how admin-override becomes the default. The next time, someone else admin-merges and the gate stays red forever. Fix the root cause unless you can articulate why fixing is out-of-scope.

From hjr15/claude-kit, MIT.

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