Auto-merge for docs PRs is armable only when the diff is prose-only, defined precisely: no YAML frontmatter changes AND no file adds, moves, or deletes under the record stores — because record state lives in both frontmatter (status flips) and directory position (lifecycle bucket moves). A state change is a gate crossing (adversarial-review-scales-with-blast-radius) and always waits for the human; prose fixes are below the review floor. Adopted as documented protocol now (applied by eye when arming); the mechanical rung — a CI check that refuses auto-merge arming when the diff touches frontmatter or record paths — is a later seed per script-first-mvp

Auto-merge for docs PRs is armable only when the diff is prose-only, defined precisely: no YAML frontmatter changes AND no file adds, moves, or deletes under the record stores — because record state lives in both frontmatter (status flips) and directory position (lifecycle bucket moves). A state change is a gate crossing (adversarial-review-scales-with-blast-radius) and always waits for the human; prose fixes are below the review floor. Adopted as documented protocol now (applied by eye when arming); the mechanical rung — a CI check that refuses auto-merge arming when the diff touches frontmatter or record paths — is a later seed per script-first-mvp

Remedy grounds (2026-09-29)

• GitHub Actions fires pull_request with the auto_merge_enabled activity type (https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/events-that-trigger-workflows, consulted 2026-09-29) and auto-merge proceeds once required reviews and checks pass (https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/incorporating-changes-from-a-pull-request/automatically-merging-a-pull-request, consulted 2026-09-29), so disarming at the moment of arming refuses only the automatic merge and leaves the human merge open.
• Rejected: a ruleset 'Restrict file paths' rule, which acts on pushes and would block every legitimate record change, and a required failing check, which would block the human merge too.