Policy Gates

Policy Gates

Four CI gates that enforce coherence automatically on every PR.

Workflow: .github/workflows/coherence-gates.yml (live since v0.2.0) Spec: actions/POLICY_LOGIC.md

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Gate Overview

flowchart TD
    PR[PR Opened] --> M{Major PR?}
    M -->|Yes| G1{DLR linked?}
    M -->|No| G2
    G1 -->|Yes| G2
    G1 -->|No| BLOCK1[Block]

    G2{Assumptions<br/>expired?}
    G2 -->|Current| G3
    G2 -->|Expiring| WARN[Warn]
    G2 -->|Expired| BLOCK2[Block]
    WARN --> G3

    G3{Canon changed<br/>without changelog?}
    G3 -->|No / changelog updated| G4
    G3 -->|Yes| BLOCK3[Block]

    G4{Drift format<br/>valid?}
    G4 -->|Yes / no drift| OK[Pass]
    G4 -->|Missing sections| ADVISE[Warn]
    ADVISE --> OK

    style BLOCK1 fill:#c0392b,color:#fff
    style BLOCK2 fill:#c0392b,color:#fff
    style BLOCK3 fill:#c0392b,color:#fff
    style WARN fill:#f39c12,color:#000
    style ADVISE fill:#f39c12,color:#000
    style OK fill:#27ae60,color:#fff

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Gate 1: Major PR Requires DLR

Blocks merge if a Major PRs has no DLR linked in the PR body.

• Scans PR body for coherence/decisions/DLR-\d{4}.md
• Verifies the file exists in the branch

Gate 2: Assumption Expiry

• Warning — assumption expires within 14 days
• Block — assumption has expired and status: active
• Override — add label assumption-waiver (with justification comment)

Gate 3: Canon Changelog Required

Blocks merge if any file in coherence/canon/ is changed but changelog.md is not.

Gate 4: Drift Signal Format

Warns (non-blocking) if a new DRIFT-*.md file is missing required sections: Severity, What Drifted, Evidence, Affected, Status.

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How It Works

The workflow triggers on pull_request events (opened, synchronize, labeled, unlabeled).

1. All 4 gates run as steps in a single job
2. Each gate sets a status output: pass, fail, warn, or skip
3. A final Summary Comment step posts (or updates) a consolidated table on the PR

Summary Comment Example

Status	Gate	Details
✅	DLR Required	Not a major PR — DLR not required.
✅	Assumption Expiry	2 active assumptions, all current.
➖	Canon Changelog	No canon files changed.
➖	Drift Format	No new drift signals added.

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See Also

• Major PRs — what triggers Gate 1
• IntelOps — assumptions that trigger Gate 2
• FranOps — canon that triggers Gate 3
• DriftOps — drift format that triggers Gate 4