SKILL.md
send-it
Bundle uncommitted work into atomic commits (via the [commit](../commit/SKILL.md) skill), run the change-gated lint [preflight](../preflight/SKILL.md), author or update the dated changelog/<ts>-<slug>.md entry (via the [changelog](../changelog/SKILL.md) skill), compose a Conventional Commits PR title (CI + humans; under the dual merge policy, feature PRs land as merge commits and release-please ranks the landed commit subjects for the bump — A-1176 / A-824), push the branch, open or update a pull request against the base branch, and transition any linked Linear issues to In Review (via the [linear-sync](../linear-sync/SKILL.md) skill).
This skill is the single source of truth for the ship flow. It is a thin orchestrator: it owns only the glue no sibling skill does — the branch guard, worktree resolution, the release-type decision (by category), PR-title composition, push, and the PR — and delegates the rest:
- Commit → the
commitskill (classify in-scope vs out-of-scope, atomic
Conventional Commits, out-of-scope guard).
- Lint gate → the
preflightskill (change-gated; no-ops when nothing
lint-relevant changed).
- Changelog → the
changelogskill (author/update + validate; an entry for
every PR, skipped entirely only when config.json sets changelog: false).
- Linear In Review → the
linear-syncskill (resolve state by team name,
idempotent transition).
- Post-PR triage → the
triage-prskill (Phase A CI fix loop and the
promote-on-proven-green flip, then Phase B review dispositions up to its human envelope — Step 11, A-1151).
The delegated skills auto-detect their own scope, so monorepo features (per-workspace ESLint fan-out, changelog affected_packages) no-op cleanly in a single-package repo. send-it configures nothing about them.
Install the delegated skills alongside
send-it. This bundle invokes and
links its siblings by relative path (../commit/SKILL.md,../preflight/SKILL.md,../changelog/SKILL.md,../linear-sync/SKILL.md,../triage-pr/SKILL.md), so a--skill send-it-only install leaves the commit, lint, changelog, Linear, and
triage steps unavailable and those links dangling. Install them together:
```bash
npx skills add https://github.com/rheged-studio/agent-skills \
--skill send-it --skill commit --skill preflight --skill changelog --skill linear-sync \
--skill triage-pr \
--agent claude-code --agent cursor --copy
```
This flow intentionally does not run typecheck, tests, or format checks — CI handles those. The only gate it runs is the change-gated preflight lint.
Done criteria. Opening or updating the PR (Step 9) and moving Linear issues
to In Review (Step 10) are mid-pipeline — not the end of/send-it. The run
is incomplete until Step 11 (triage-pr) has started, or you printed an explicit
skip/degraded line with a stated reason (ℹ️ triage chain skipped …for--skip-triage/triage: false, or⚠️ triage-pr not installed …when the
sibling is absent). Reporting a draft PR URL as the final outcome without one of
those lines is a failed run.
Configuration
A few knobs live in [config.json](config.json) beside this file; edit your copied config.json to match the consuming repo (a neutral [config.example.json](config.example.json) ships as a template):
| Key | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
baseBranch |
The trunk the branch diff is taken against (origin/<baseBranch>) and the PR base. |
"main" |
shippablePaths (advisory) |
Path prefixes that make up the published surface — a documentation hint for reviewers, not the release decision (A-598; see Step 6). Release-type is decided by the change's semantic category, so these no longer gate the title. Kept for the optional publish-surface cross-check note. | ["skills/"] |
shippableManifestKeys (advisory) |
package.json keys that form the published-files surface — same advisory role as shippablePaths, no longer a release gate. |
["name", "version", "files", "publishConfig"] |
changelog (optional) |
Whether to author a dated changelog/ entry at all (Steps 7–8). Set false for repos with no changelog flow — no changelog/ directory and no changelog skill installed (e.g. a private repo with no release pipeline). When false, send-it skips changelog authoring entirely, and the category decision continues to drive only the PR title. Omit it (or set true) whenever the changelog skill is installed. |
true |
bundleVersioning (optional) |
Enables the per-bundle version-bump check (Step 6) for repos that ship many independently-versioned skill bundles. An object { root, manifest, skillFile } naming the bundle parent dir and the manifest / skill-manifest filenames each bundle carries. Omit it entirely in single-package repos — the check then no-ops. |
unset (disabled) |
triage (omit or true by default) |
Whether the run chains into the [triage-pr](../triage-pr/SKILL.md) skill once the PR is open (Step 11) — the CI fix loop, the promote-on-proven-green flip, then Phase B up to triage-pr's human envelope. The key may be omitted (defaults to true); the step is not optional on a default run. Set false only in repos that deliberately stop at the open PR, or where triage-pr isn't installed. --skip-triage does the same for a single run (A-1151) — always state why. |
true |
The team name, issue-ID prefixes, and workspace slug are not configured here — they live in the linear-sync and changelog skills' own config.json files, read by the delegated steps.
Changelog scope (was
changelogScope). send-it authors a dated entry for
every PR — the "record everything, filter later" model. Release notes come
from filtering the changelog to the version-stamped (release-triggering) entries
at release time, not from gating authoring at write time. ThechangelogScope
knob (added in 0.4.0) is gone (A-600); only thechangelog: true|false
master switch remains.
Prerequisites
ghCLI installed and authenticated (gh auth status).- The sibling skills (
commit,preflight,changelog) installed. linear-sync— optional; without it (or the Linear MCP server) the In Review
writeback is skipped silently (Step 10).
triage-pr— required for the default pipeline. Without it the Step 11 chain
warns and the run finishes at the open PR — that soft-skip is a degraded outcome, not a successful finish. The two siblings behave differently on purpose: a skipped Linear writeback changes nothing about the PR, whereas a skipped triage chain leaves work undone.
Process
Step 0: Worktree resolution (only if --worktree= is set)
If --worktree=<branch-or-path> was passed, resolve and cd into that worktree before any other step runs. Skip this step otherwise.
- Run
git worktree list --porcelainto list worktrees with their paths and
branches.
- Resolve the argument:
- Absolute path (starts with /): match against the worktree <path> field. - Otherwise: treat as a branch name and match against the branch refs/heads/<name> field.
- No match — exit immediately with: `No worktree found for <arg>. Available:
<comma-separated paths>`.
- Match —
cdinto the resolved worktree path. Thecwdpersists for the
rest of the workflow, so all subsequent git and gh calls operate on the worktree.
- Ensure dependencies are present. A freshly-created worktree has no
node_modules. If it is absent, run pnpm install --frozen-lockfile now — before any step that invokes a bundled script or a validator — so --worktree is self-sufficient:
``bash [ -d node_modules ] || pnpm install --frozen-lockfile ``
- Continue to Step 1.
This step does nothing when --worktree is omitted — no-arg send-it keeps working unchanged from whatever directory the session is in.
Step 1: Branch guard
- Get the current branch:
git branch --show-current. - If on the base branch (
baseBranchfromconfig.json; defaultmain):
- Run git status --porcelain. If clean, exit with: "Nothing to ship from the base branch. Create a feature branch first." - If there are uncommitted changes: - Inspect the diff (git diff and git diff --cached) and the changed file paths. - Derive a short kebab-case slug summarising the change (~3 words, lowercase, max ~40 chars). Examples: add-readme-section, fix-config-typo. - Branch name resolution (in order): 1. --branch=<name> — use as-is. 2. --issue=<ID> — use <ID>-<slug> lower-cased (e.g. a-7-as-acquired), matching Linear's gitBranchName. 3. Otherwise — just <slug> (no wip/ prefix). - If the chosen branch already exists locally or on origin, append -2, -3, … until unused. - Run git checkout -b <branch> to move the working tree onto it. - Inform the user: "Was on the base branch with uncommitted changes; created <branch> and continuing." - Continue with the rest of the workflow on the new branch.
- If on a feature branch: continue.
Step 2: Refresh lockfile if package.json drifted
Skip this step if no package.json was touched on the branch.
git diff --name-only origin/<base>...HEAD | grep -E '(^|/)package\.json$'. If
empty, skip.
- Run
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile. If it succeeds, the lockfile is already in
sync — continue.
- If it fails, run
pnpm installto update the lockfile. - If the lockfile changed, stage and commit it before any other commits go in:
``bash git add pnpm-lock.yaml git commit -m "chore: update lockfile" ``
This keeps CI's --frozen-lockfile install green. (Skip silently in repos that don't use pnpm.)
Step 3: Commit uncommitted changes — delegate to the commit skill
send-it is the all-in-one ship pipeline: whatever's uncommitted should be committed before the changelog/PR work begins — but only what belongs to this branch.
Follow the [commit](../commit/SKILL.md) skill to do this: classify uncommitted files in-scope vs out-of-scope against the merge base (git merge-base HEAD origin/<base>), show a staging plan flagging any out-of-scope files (never git add -A; stray files from another branch/worktree are never staged silently), and create logical atomic Conventional Commits (type + optional scope + British-English body; ! / BREAKING CHANGE: for breaking changes). If clean, skip this step. Direct the commit skill to classify against this send-it run's resolved base — <base> is baseBranch (from config.json), or --base when passed — not the commit skill's own config.json baseBranch, which differs on a --base run (the stacked-PR case). The scope classification and the out-of-scope guard must be computed against the same base send-it ships against, or a stacked PR would mis-classify files.
The Conventional-Commit types this step writes are the input to Step 6's release decision (derive-bump.mjs reads them back out of the commits), so the honest types and ! / BREAKING CHANGE: markers matter.
This delegation covers only the initial commit of uncommitted work. send-it's own later, targeted commits stay here: the lockfile refresh (Step 2), the optional bundle-version bump (Step 6), and the changelog entry (Step 8).
Step 4: Fetch the base branch and confirm there's something to ship
git fetch origin <base>
If git log origin/<base>..HEAD is empty, exit with: "No commits ahead of the base branch. Nothing to ship."
Step 5: Lint gate — delegate to the preflight skill
--skip-preflightbypasses this whole step. Print a clear⚠️ lint gate bypassed (--skip-preflight)warning and jump to Step 6. Use it only
when the gate misfires; CI still runs the repo's real linting.
Run the change-gated lint preflight, following the [preflight](../preflight/SKILL.md) skill:
node skills/preflight/scripts/preflight.mjs
Act on its exit-code contract, reading .preflight-summary.json to interpret a non-zero exit:
- Exit 0 — pass. No introduced violations; continue.
- **Exit 1 with
violations.introducedCount > 0— introduced violations
(blocking).** Run node skills/preflight/scripts/lint-fix.mjs, re-run preflight, and repeat until introduced violations clear. Commit the fixes (a style:/fix: commit, or fold into the relevant Step 3 commit if not yet pushed) before continuing.
- **Exit 1 with
introducedCount == 0andresults.failedLintersnon-empty — a
linter could not run (its binary is absent), not a real violation. This is expected in a repo that doesn't use that toolchain (e.g. a docs/skills repo with no ESLint or markdownlint installed). Treat it as a skip, not a block**: warn that <linter> was unavailable and continue. The repo's own CI owns whatever linting it actually runs.
- Exit 2 — pre-existing violations only. Not introduced by this branch — do not
block shipping. Surface them and continue (optionally offer a debt issue per the preflight skill).
Preflight is change-gated: it lints only the categories the branch touched, so it no-ops when nothing lint-relevant changed. Skip this step entirely only if preflight isn't installed.
Step 6: Decide release-type by category and compose the Conventional Commits PR title
Versioning is driven by release-please reading Conventional Commits. The estate uses a dual merge policy (A-1176 / [ADR-0005](../../../architecture/0005-dual-merge-policy.md)):
- Feature / ship PRs land as merge commits. After merge, release-please ranks
the landed commit subjects on trunk to decide the bump (A-824) — not the PR title alone.
- Release-please version PRs and fan-out PRs stay squash (orchestrator /
fanout-spine). For those paths the squash subject remains the bump declaration.
- Both
allowmergecommitandallowsquashmergestay enabled (A-1177) — squash
is not disabled.
send-it still composes a correct Conventional Commits PR title (CI's PR-title lint + humans; the changelog-completeness gate still keys off a release-triggering title) and writes the dated changelog entry (for every PR — see Step 7). It does not bump versions, write any CHANGELOG.md, or tag.
Release-type is decided by the change's semantic category — the Conventional-Commit type of the work send-it itself committed — not by which paths the diff touches (A-598). A docs-only edit is docs: (no release) even when it lives under a published path like skills/; a feat: is a release wherever its files sit. (Earlier versions keyed this off shippablePaths, which mis-titled a docs edit inside a published path as feat:/fix: and cut a spurious release.)
- Derive the slug, body, type, and category from the branch commits via the
bundled helper (zero-dep — no tsx):
``bash node skills/send-it/scripts/derive-bump.mjs ``
It prints JSON: { "slug", "bump", "body", "type", "breaking", "category", "releaseTriggering" }: - type — the dominant Conventional-Commit type across all branch commits (feat/fix/perf/docs/refactor/chore/ci/… — A-387); this is the PR-title prefix. Merge commits are excluded from the scan (git log --no-merges). - breaking — true if any commit carries a ! or a BREAKING CHANGE: trailer. - category — the dated changelog category enum value (feat→feature, fix→fix, perf→perf, docs→docs, refactor→refactor, everything else →chore). - releaseTriggering — true iff breaking or type ∈ {feat, fix, perf}. This is the release decision: true cuts a release, false does not. - bump — major/minor/patch, the release magnitude when releaseTriggering (a BREAKING CHANGE:/! → major; dominant feat: → minor; else patch). Ignored when releaseTriggering is false.
- (Advisory) publish-surface cross-check.
shippablePaths/
shippableManifestKeys in [config.json](config.json) are a documentation hint of the published surface — they do not decide release-type any more. Optionally sanity-check the category against them: if releaseTriggering is true but the diff (git diff --name-only origin/<base>...HEAD) touches no shippablePaths prefix (nor a shippableManifestKeys key in package.json), note it in the PR body so a reviewer can confirm the release was intended — and likewise if a change touching a published path is releaseTriggering: false. This is a soft note only; never let it override the category decision or block.
- Check per-bundle version bumps — only when
config.jsonsets
bundleVersioning (multi-artefact repos; skip this step entirely when it's unset). Each skill bundle carries its own version in its package.json + SKILL.md metadata.version, bumped by hand and decoupled from the repo release. CI enforces that the two agree, but nothing enforces they were bumped when the bundle's content changed — so an edited bundle can ship with a stale version label. Close that gap:
``bash node skills/send-it/scripts/check-skill-bumps.mjs ``
It prints { "configured", "unbumped": [{ name, currentVersion, suggestedBump, suggestedVersion, manifestPath, skillPath }], "bumped" }. For each unbumped entry, surface the proposal and apply it on confirmation:
> skills/<name> changed but its version is still <currentVersion>. Suggested > bump: <suggestedBump> → <suggestedVersion> (matches the PR-title bump). > Apply? (yes / no / patch / minor / major)
On yes (or an explicit level), edit both manifestPath (version) and skillPath (metadata.version) to the chosen version — in lockstep, so the parity invariant CI checks still holds — then stage and commit just those two files: git commit -m "chore(<name>): release <name>@<version>". On no, leave it and continue. Under --dry-run, print the proposal and edit nothing.
- Compose the PR title as a single Conventional Commits subject — CI's
PR-title lint and the changelog-completeness gate still require it. For feature PRs (merge commits), the post-merge bump comes from the landed commit subjects (A-824); the title remains the human/CI declaration and should match the dominant type. For squash paths (release + fan-out), the squash subject is still the bump declaration. If --title was passed, use it verbatim (still run derive-bump above for the changelog category, and warn — don't block — if the supplied type contradicts the derived type/releaseTriggering). Otherwise build it straight from the derived fields: - Prefix = type (add a scope when one is obvious, e.g. feat(<scope>):), plus ! when breaking — so feat: <body>, fix: <body>, perf: <body>, docs: <body>, refactor: <body>, chore: <body>, feat!: <body>, etc. - Release-triggering (releaseTriggering: true) → the prefix is already a release type (feat/fix/perf, or any !). Add the scope; that's it. - Non-release (releaseTriggering: false) → the prefix is a non-release type (docs/refactor/chore/ci/build/test/style).
> ⚠️ Keep the title honest with the commits. A mistyped prefix misleads > reviewers and the completeness gate — a feat: on a docs-only branch, or a > chore: on a real fix. For feature PRs the post-merge bump follows the landed > commit subjects; for squash paths the title is the declaration. Derive the > title from the change's semantic category (the commit types) so they stay > aligned.
When releaseTriggering is false, note no release (<type>-only) in the PR body so reviewers can confirm the non-release type was intentional.
Step 7: Author or update the dated changelog entry — delegate to the changelog skill
Disabled entirely? If
config.jsonsetschangelog: false, **skip Steps 7
and 8 completely** — author nothing, run nochangelogscripts, make nodocs(changelog)commit — and note "changelog step disabled (no changelog flow in
this repo)" in the run summary. This is for repos with nochangelog/directory and
nochangelogskill installed; the category decision from Step 6 still drives the PR
title. Whenchangelogis unset ortrue, always author an entry (thechangelogScopeknob was removed — A-600).
An entry for every PR. send-it authors a datedchangelog/entry for every
PR, release-triggering or not — the "record everything, filter later" model. The
dated changelog is the full record of merged work; release notes filter it to the
version-stamped (release-triggering) entries at release time, so a non-release entry
simply carries noversion.changelog: falseis the only thing that suppresses
authoring.
Follow the [changelog](../changelog/SKILL.md) skill to author or update the entry:
- Detect an existing entry for this branch (by the
branchfrontmatter field) →
update vs create. On update, preserve the filename and created_at.
- Write/refresh
changelog/<YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS>-<slug>.md(the<slug>from Step 6),
deriving title/releasenote/issues from the branch. Set category and breaking straight from derive-bump's output (Step 6): category is its category field (feature/fix/perf/docs/refactor/chore — the changelog enum), and breaking is its breaking flag. For a non-release entry (releaseTriggering: false), releasenote may be blank when there's no user-facing impact.
Leave the post-merge fields (merged_at, commit, pr, stats) and version as blank placeholders — the post-merge enricher fills them (a non-release entry keeps version blank, as no release is cut for it). This includes pr: no step here writes it back after the PR opens; the post-merge enricher resolves it from the entry's branch:.
- Run the enrichment scripts:
node skills/changelog/scripts/set-affected-packages.mjs
then node skills/changelog/scripts/add-links.mjs.
- Validate:
node skills/changelog/scripts/validate-changelog.mjs. It must pass
before committing — if it fails, surface the error and abort; don't auto-fix.
Step 8: Commit the changelog entry and push
--dry-runwrites nothing from here on. Steps 8–11 are the mutating half of the
run. Under--dry-run, print what each would do and perform none of it: nogit commit, nogit push, nogh pr create/gh pr edit, no Linear transition
(pass--dry-rundown tolinear-syncsosave_issueis never called), and--dry-runon the Step 11 hand-off. A dry run may read —gh pr view, the
triage-pr preview — but it never writes. Then exit 0.
If a changelog/ entry was written in Step 7 (i.e. changelog is not false), commit only that file:
git add changelog/<YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS>-<slug>.md
git commit -m "docs(changelog): <one-line summary>"
Then push the branch:
git push -u origin <branch>
Step 9: Create or update the PR
<title> is the Conventional Commits PR title from Step 6 — set it on both create and update (re-derive it every run so it stays in sync with the branch's commits). Feature PRs are intended to merge via merge commit; release and fan-out automation keep using squash outside this skill.
- Check for an existing PR:
gh pr view --json number,url 2>/dev/null. - If creating: `gh pr create --base <base> --draft --title "<title>" --body
"<body>". Use --ready (the flag) instead of --draft if the user passed --ready`.
- If updating:
gh pr edit <number> --title "<title>" --body "<body>". - Return the PR URL and number via
gh pr view --json url,number.
send-it never arms auto-merge. It opens and updates the PR; landing it stays a
human action (A-1151). The old--merge-when-readyflag — which armedgh pr merge --auto --mergehere — is gone as of 0.8.0: from Step 11 onward, a
run can be sitting at triage-pr's disposition envelope, and an armed auto-merge
could land the branch while that plan is still awaiting approval. Merge by hand, or
arm auto-merge yourself once you're happy with the PR.
PR body template:
## Summary
- Comprehensive summary of all changes on this branch
- What changed and why
## Related Issues
<!-- Linear identifiers extracted from the branch and commits -->
- <ISSUE-ID>
## Test Plan
- [ ] <test>
Drop the ## Related Issues section if no issues were found.
Step 10: Transition linked Linear issues to In Review — delegate to the linear-sync skill
Follow the [linear-sync](../linear-sync/SKILL.md) skill with target state In Review: read its config.json for linearTeamName and issueKeys, extract issue IDs from the branch and commits, resolve the live state ID by team name (once), and apply the transition idempotently (skip any issue already at or past In Review). Skip silently if linear-sync or the Linear MCP server is unavailable.
Step 11: Drive the PR to merge-ready — delegate to the triage-pr skill
Completion gate. Do not treat the Step 9 PR URL as the final report and
stop. Steps 9–10 are mid-pipeline. Continue into this step unless the opt-out in
sub-step 1 applies, or sub-step 2 findstriage-prmissing (and you print the
corresponding skip/degraded line with a reason). A draft-only report withoutℹ️ triage chain skipped …or⚠️ triage-pr not installed …is a failed/send-itrun (A-1645).
send-it opens the PR; [triage-pr](../triage-pr/SKILL.md) takes it the rest of the way (A-1151). This step is part of the run — not an optional extra. One /send-it drives the whole pipeline: Phase A fixes in-scope CI failures and promotes the proven-green draft to ready, then Phase B waits for the AI reviewers, verifies every finding, and halts at its human envelope. This step runs after Step 10 so the linked issues are already In Review before triage begins.
- Check the opt-out first — before anything else in this step. If
--skip-triage
was passed, or config.json sets triage: false, print ℹ️ triage chain skipped (--skip-triage): <reason> — or (triage: false) — report the PR URL, and stop the run here. Do not run the install check, and do not start the cold-start poll: a skipped chain must cost nothing. That is the pre-0.8.0 behaviour.
> Don't reach for it to finish sooner. The opt-out exists for the cases where > the chain genuinely cannot work, not as a shortcut, and it is never the > default: triage: true ships in config.example.json, and initialise-skills > writes true when reconciling a consumer. Skipping leaves the PR un-triaged — > red CI unfixed, bot findings unread — which is the state this step exists to > prevent, so treat it the way Step 5 treats --skip-preflight: say why in the > report. The legitimate reasons are narrow: the PR changes the chain itself, so > the running prose and the prose on disk disagree (this bundle's own ship runs); > CI is gated on draft == false, so a draft never registers a check (prefer > triage: false in that repo's config over a per-run flag); or the user asked to > stop at the open PR. A missing triage-pr needs no flag — sub-step 2 handles it.
- Confirm
triage-pris installed — look for../triage-pr/SKILL.mdbeside this
bundle. If it is absent, print
``text ⚠️ triage-pr not installed — stopping at the open PR. Install it to chain: npx skills add <repo> --skill triage-pr --agent claude-code --copy ``
and finish the run. That warning is the degraded-outcome line the completion gate accepts (alongside ℹ️ triage chain skipped …) — the run may stop, but it must not report as a successful default finish. A missing sibling warns, never fails the process exit — louder than Step 10's silent linear-sync skip, because a skipped triage chain leaves PR work undone.
- Wait for CI to register — the cold-start gate. Step 9 created or updated the PR
moments ago, so GitHub Actions may not have registered a single check yet. An empty statusCheckRollup handed to a cold triage-pr reads as "nothing failing", and with promoteOnGreen on (its default) that would flip the draft to ready before CI ever ran. triage-pr's "no failures yet is not green" rule guards its own watch loop, not a cold entry — so send-it proves at least one check exists before handing off. Poll every 10 seconds for up to 3 minutes, in a single shell loop (not 18 separate calls — a foreground sleep between tool calls is slow and some harnesses refuse it). Stay quiet while polling; no interim "still waiting" pings:
Capture gh's exit status separately from the count — a failed call returns an empty string, and treating that as "zero checks" would silently convert an auth or API error into a full-window wait and a bogus "CI never started" verdict:
``bash for _ in $(seq 1 18); do if ! checks=$(gh pr view <number> --json statusCheckRollup --jq '[.statusCheckRollup[]?] | length'); then echo "gh pr view failed — cannot verify CI has started" >&2 exit 1 fi [ "$checks" -gt 0 ] && break sleep 10 done ``
- At least one check registered → continue to sub-step 4. - gh itself fails → stop and surface the error (authentication, rate limit, a deleted PR). Do not fall through to the no-checks branch: an unverifiable state is not the same as a verified-empty one, and only the latter is safe to hand off. - Still 0 when the window expires → CI never started for this PR (a repo with no workflows, a paths-filtered or draft == false-gated workflow this PR doesn't match, or a stalled Actions queue). Report ⚠️ no checks registered within 3 minutes — handing off with --no-promote and add --no-promote to the hand-off below, so an empty rollup can never be read as a proven green and flip the draft to ready. Nothing else about the chain changes.
- Hand off. **If send-it was run with
--dry-run,--dry-rungoes on this
command too — always.** A live triage-pr commits, pushes, and can flip the draft to ready, so a dry run that omits it stops being a dry run. Follow the [triage-pr](../triage-pr/SKILL.md) skill against the PR from Step 9, naming its number explicitly so it never re-resolves to a different PR:
``text triage-pr <number> [--dry-run] [--ci-only] [--no-promote] [--auto-apply] ``
Forward --dry-run, --ci-only, --no-promote, and --auto-apply verbatim when they were passed to send-it, plus --no-promote when sub-step 3's cold-start gate added it — that one is a safety flag this step owns, not a user flag, and dropping it would let an unverified rollup promote a draft. Add nothing beyond those. triage-pr reads its own config.json (promoteOnGreen, humanEnvelope, reviewBots, maxCiRounds, …) — send-it configures nothing about it, exactly as it configures nothing about commit, preflight, changelog, or linear-sync.
- Run the full chain. Don't stop between phases: Phase A's fix→push→watch loop,
the promotion gate, then Phase B's review wait and verify-then-propose. Halt where triage-pr halts — its human envelope, its slow-bot micro-gate, a hard blocker, or maxCiRounds exhaustion. The envelope is the run's natural stopping point: don't answer it on the user's behalf, and don't print a send-it "all done" over the top of it.
- Report once.
triage-pr's own final report is the run's report — prepend
send-it's line items (branch, PR URL, changelog entry, Linear transitions) to it rather than emitting a second, competing summary. Respect triage-pr's quiet rule (A-1178): no interim pings around the hand-off.
--dry-runchains intotriage-pr --dry-run. When a PR already exists for the
branch, hand off totriage-pr <number> --dry-runso the preview covers the failing
checks and unresolved findings too. When no PR exists — a dry run creates none —no PR to triage yetand exit 0. A dry run therefore makes read-onlygh
calls; it still writes nothing, commits nothing, and pushes nothing.
Re-runs are safe. A second/send-itre-enters the chain against the same PR.triage-prre-fetches threads every pass: resolved threads are filtered out, and
proposed follow-up threads already carry the non-resolvingfollow-up-pendingmarker (A-679),
so they arrive asdeferredThreads, not fresh findings. The envelope therefore
re-prompts only for genuinely new bot findings.
Flags
--dry-run— print what would be written/submitted (changelog preview, branch,
conventional PR title, any version-bump proposals), make no commits and no push. It chains into triage-pr --dry-run when a PR already exists for the branch (Step 11), so it makes read-only gh calls but still writes nothing. Exit 0.
--branch=<name>— override the auto-derived branch name when running on the base
branch with uncommitted changes.
--issue=<ID>— prefix the auto-derived slug with a Linear issue ID (e.g.
--issue=A-7 → a-7-<slug>, lower-cased). Ignored if --branch is given.
--base=<branch>— overrideconfig.json'sbaseBranchfor this run. Applies
everywhere the base is used: the git fetch, the branch diff (origin/<base>...HEAD), the PR --base, and the BASE_REF=origin/<branch> env passed to derive-bump.mjs / check-skill-bumps.mjs. Use it for stacked PRs or a non-main target.
--title="<conventional subject>"— set the PR title verbatim instead of deriving
it (escape hatch for when derivation picks the wrong type). It must still be a valid Conventional Commits subject (CI lints it). derive-bump still runs (its category drives the changelog entry); send-it warns if the supplied type contradicts the derived type/releaseTriggering.
--skip-preflight— skip the Step 5 lint gate entirely, printing a bypass warning.--skip-triage— end the run at the open PR: skip the Step 11triage-prchain
(identical to config.json triage: false). Restores the pre-0.8.0 bounded-finisher behaviour for one run. Not a shortcut — it leaves the PR un-triaged; see Step 11 for the narrow cases where it applies, and state the reason in the report.
--ci-only— forwarded verbatim totriage-pr(Step 11): run its Phase A and stop
at green, never promoting the draft. No effect on send-it's own steps.
--no-promote— forwarded verbatim totriage-pr: never flip the draft to ready;
stop at green. send-it also adds this itself when the cold-start gate times out. No effect on send-it's own steps. (--promote is deliberately not forwarded — promotion is already triage-pr's default.)
--auto-apply— forwarded verbatim totriage-pr: skip its Phase B human envelope
and restore its legacy auto path (impact-gated fix-now; Linear-only gate for follow-ups). No effect on send-it's own steps.
--ready— open the PR ready-for-review instead of draft (default is draft).--worktree=<branch-or-path>—cdinto a worktree before running (Step 0).
--merge-when-ready was removed in 0.8.0. send-it no longer arms gh pr merge --auto --merge; see the Step 9 callout.
Notes
- Prose follows the host repo's language convention. Author the PR title, PR
body, and commit messages in the consuming repo's documented prose language. Across this estate that is British English (colour, behaviour, -ise/-yse); the changelog skill applies the same rule to the entry it writes. This governs prose only — never identifiers, dependency names, or upstream API field names.
- Trunk-based: PRs target the base branch (
config.jsonbaseBranch, or
--base for this run).
- send-it bumps only per-bundle versions, never the repo version. The optional
Step 6 bundle-version check moves a changed skill's own metadata.version; the repo-level npm release stays owned by release-please (feature PRs: landed commit subjects; squash paths: squash subject / PR title).
- send-it drives the pipeline now, not just the open PR (A-1151 / A-1645). Through
0.7.0 it was a bounded finisher: seconds of work, ending in a report and an open PR. From 0.8.0 the default run continues into triage-pr (Step 11), so a single /send-it can stay unattended for roughly 30 minutes — CI fix rounds plus the review wait — and ends on a prompt (triage-pr's disposition envelope), not a report. That is a deliberate shift in what the command is. --skip-triage, or triage: false, restores the old shape — only with a stated reason.
- send-it never merges, and never arms auto-merge. Taking the PR through triage
to green and ready-for-review is the end of its remit; landing it is a human action. Do not conflate "leave the merge to the human" with "stop once the draft exists".
- CI gated on non-draft PRs makes the chain a tax. send-it opens drafts by
default, so a repo whose workflows carry if: github.event.pull_request.draft == false registers zero checks until the PR is ready — the Step 11 cold-start gate then waits its full 3 minutes every run and hands off with --no-promote to a triage-pr with nothing to do. Use --ready, or set triage: false, in those repos.
- Idempotent: re-running send-it updates the existing PR title and changelog
entry; the Linear writeback skips issues already In Review or beyond; the Step 11 chain re-enters triage-pr against the same PR, whose follow-up-pending markers (A-679) keep already-dispositioned findings out of the envelope.
- send-it does not bump versions or write any
CHANGELOG.md. release-please
ranks Conventional Commits on trunk after merge (merge-commit history for feature PRs; squash subject for release/fan-out), bumps the manifest in the release PR, and the release workflow publishes + tags. send-it only writes the dated changelog/<ts>-<slug>.md entry (Step 7), finalised post-merge by the in-repo enricher.
Error Handling
gh auth statusfails — rungh auth loginfirst; abort until authenticated.- changelog validation fails — surface the error; don't auto-fix. The user
resolves the entry and re-runs.
- No commits ahead of the base — exit "No commits ahead of the base branch.
Nothing to ship."
- Branch push fails — verify push access; ensure the remote is configured.
- PR create/update fails — verify the PR isn't closed; verify the branch is
pushed.
triage-prisn't installed — warn and finish at the open PR (Step 11). A
missing sibling never fails a send-it run.
- No checks register within the cold-start window — hand off with
--no-promote
and say why. An empty statusCheckRollup must never be read as green.
- The triage chain fails, is aborted, or the envelope is declined — the commits,
changelog entry, PR, and Linear transitions from Steps 3–10 all stand. Re-run /triage-pr <number> directly rather than re-running the whole of send-it.