fix: repair automerge merge conflicts after merge race

[steipete]

Summary

• treat GitHub mergePullRequest merge-conflict failures as repairable automerge rebase work
• dispatch the existing ClawSweeper repair worker instead of leaving the automerge loop blocked after a merge race
• update public automerge repair wording so dirty/rebase repairs are not described as failing checks

Validation

• pnpm run build:repair
• node --test dist/repair/comment-router-core.test.js
• pnpm exec oxfmt --check --threads=1 src/repair/comment-router.ts src/repair/comment-router-core.ts src/repair/comment-router-core.test.ts
• git diff --check
• pnpm run test:repair
• pnpm run lint

[steipete]

@clawsweeper automerge

[clawsweeper]

🦞🦞
ClawSweeper automerge is enabled for this PR.

I added clawsweeper:automerge and asked ClawSweeper to review this head. If ClawSweeper emits a repair marker or requests changes, I will repair/rebase the branch and ask for another review, up to the configured round limit.

Draft PRs stay fix-only until GitHub marks them ready for review. A maintainer can pause this with /clawsweeper stop.

[clawsweeper]

Codex review: passed for ClawSweeper automerge.

What this changes:

The PR adds detection for GitHub merge-conflict failures from the automerge merge command, routes those failures into the existing repair dispatch path, updates the automerge repair response wording, and adds focused helper tests.

Automerge follow-up:

No separate repair-lane job is needed from this review; the PR is already opted into automerge and has no actionable review finding for an automated worker to fix.

Security review:

Security review cleared: No concrete security or supply-chain issue found; the diff changes router logic, response text, and repair-core tests only, with no workflow, dependency, permission, secret, or package-resolution changes.

Review details

Best possible solution:

Land the narrow router change after the normal automerge gates pass, so a merge race that surfaces as a GitHub merge-conflict error triggers the existing repair worker instead of leaving the automerge loop blocked.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes. A high-confidence reproduction path is an opted-in automerge PR that passes review and readiness, then becomes conflicted before gh pr merge runs and returns Pull Request has merge conflicts (mergePullRequest); current main records that as a blocked merge.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes. Classifying only conflict-shaped merge command failures as repair_needed and reusing the existing automerge job/repair dispatch loop is the narrowest maintainable fix; unrelated merge failures such as head SHA mismatch remain blocked.

What I checked:

• Current main blocks late merge-command conflicts: On current main, executeAutomerge returns a blocked merge whenever gh pr merge exits nonzero, so a race where GitHub reports merge conflicts after readiness validation is not routed to the repair worker. (src/repair/comment-router.ts:1377, 2cbd49f2e2c6)
• Existing repair dispatch path is available after merge execution: The command execution path already dispatches repairs via ensureAutomergeJob and dispatchRepair; the PR reuses this path when a merge result is classified as repair-needed. (src/repair/comment-router.ts:767, 2cbd49f2e2c6)
• Current main has related rebase repair classification only before merge: Current main includes automergeRebaseRepairReason for DIRTY, BEHIND, and CONFLICTING target state, but it does not classify text failures returned by the later merge command. (src/repair/comment-router-core.ts:166, 2cbd49f2e2c6)
• PR diff scope: The PR adds automergeMergeFailureRepairReason, returns repair_needed for conflict-shaped merge failures, dispatches an automerge repair when possible, and adds tests for conflict and non-conflict merge failure text. (src/repair/comment-router-core.ts:180, ce7e77b97c79)
• Related prior repair PR: The local report for fix: repair dirty automerge prs #23 shows the preceding dirty/behind/conflicting automerge repair PR was kept open and later appears in current main as the helper this PR extends, so this PR is not superseded by that earlier work. (records/openclaw-clawsweeper/items/23.md:84, 2cbd49f2e2c6)
• Feature history: Recent remote history for src/repair/comment-router.ts and src/repair/comment-router-core.ts is dominated by automerge/comment-router repair commits from steipete, including fix: repair dirty automerge prs (#23) and fix: repair automerge prs with failing checks. (src/repair/comment-router.ts:531, 1f2ada432610)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Remote commit history for the central comment-router and repair-core files shows repeated recent automerge repair work by this handle, including the merged dirty automerge repair path that this PR extends. (role: recent maintainer and feature-history owner; confidence: high; commits: 1f2ada432610, 06fd342a7bc6, 8d608f9fe535; files: src/repair/comment-router.ts, src/repair/comment-router-core.ts, src/repair/comment-router-core.test.ts)

Codex review notes: model gpt-5.5, reasoning high; reviewed against 112a241eee30.

[clawsweeper]

🦞🦞
Thanks, ClawSweeper. ClawSweeper merged this PR after the passing review.

Source: clawsweeper[bot]
Feedback: structured ClawSweeper verdict: pass (sha=ce7e77b97c79f02a99f355a9f5deee2722cdddf5)
Merge status: merged by ClawSweeper automerge
Merged at: 2026-05-01T02:07:33Z

The automerge loop is complete.