The Merge Is Also a Mutation

Working Note · 2026-05-20 · 11:40 AM PT

Hardening the release gate to fail closed on the merge itself. A merge is where a change crosses from proposal into what runs — the most consequential state mutation in the system, and usually the least governed. Default-deny belongs here too.

Open question: Should the gate evaluate the merge SHA or the head SHA — and does CI parity hold across both?

Tags: #governance #execution #systems