gitea-review-bot/AGENTS.md

# gitea-review-bot: AGENTS.md

gitea-review-bot is a **thin Matrix bot that runs an AI PR-review-and-merge workflow for your Gitea
repos**, one review room per repo. It is a *separate* bot from `matrix-bridge` (which turns Matrix
messages into interactive Claude Code sessions): this one's single responsibility is **watching what
lands in a repo** — so every room it's in is a review room and there is no manual "ignore this room"
wiring. Invite it to a room, it auto-joins and maps the room to a repo by name, then for that repo
it polls Gitea PRs, posts a headless `claude -p` review as a Matrix thread, and lets you merge/reject
from the thread. Opt-in per repo, it also watches **commits pushed by anyone but me** and posts an
assessment of what they did (see the push watch in Commands).

> **Inbox check:** At session start, if `~/Projects/standards/INBOX.md` exists, scan it for items
> tagged `(gitea-review-bot)` and surface them before proposing next steps; triage with `/triage`.

## Stack

Python + **matrix-nio**, one thin Docker container on the Spark (same shape as `matrix-bridge` and
the `ten31-database` intake bot). No framework (Maubot rejected — see Decisions). The heavy work —
the `claude -p` review and any deploy — runs **on the Mac over SSH**, reusing matrix-bridge's proven
wrappers (`scripts/ask-claude.sh` for the review, `scripts/deploy-site.sh` for publish). State is
flat JSON in a writable `state/` mount.

## Placement

| Dimension | Call |
|---|---|
| Host | **Spark**, plain Docker container (NOT Start9/s9pk) |
| Runtime | Long-running service: matrix-nio sync + a Gitea poll loop over mapped repos |
| Model routing | `claude -p` on the Mac via the Spark→Mac SSH seam (subscription); the review session spawns subagents (reviewer / adjudicator / security-auditor) |
| Data layer | Flat JSON in `state/` (room→repo map + enabled agents + reviewed-PR heads + thread roots) |
| Interface | Matrix — one review room per repo (+ phone) |
| Repo home | Local + Gitea (`ssh://git@immense-voyage.local:59916/grant/gitea-review-bot.git`) |
| Sensitivity | Sends PR diffs to `claude -p` (subscription). Fine for code review; flag the boundary before pointing it at a sensitive repo. |

## Commands

- **Run (container, on the Spark):** from `~/gitea-review-bot`, `docker compose up -d --build`
  (host networking, `restart: unless-stopped`; read-only mounts of `.env`/`config.toml`/SSH key,
  read-write `state/`). Logs: `docker compose logs -f`. `known_hosts` lives inside the image, so it
  resets on every rebuild — the ssh config sets `LogLevel ERROR` so the first connection's
  "Permanently added … to the list of known hosts" warning doesn't get prepended to a review or
  assessment (it did, visibly, on 2026-08-21).
- **Deploy:** the Spark's `~/gitea-review-bot` is a Gitea clone tracking `master`; deploy =
  `git fetch && git reset --hard origin/master && docker compose up -d --build`, **or one click on
  this bot's tile in Spark Control's Bots tab** (shipped since spark-control v0.28.0, confirmed live:
  status badge, Update, Start/Restart/Stop, View logs; the tile is hidden unless `GITEA_REVIEW_USER`
  is set in its Settings). `config.toml` is gitignored — refresh it on the
  Spark separately (scp) like matrix-bridge. Reach the Spark from the Mac as **`ssh modelo32`** (the
  **NVIDIA Sync** alias — host `spark-32d0`, user `modelo`, key-based; injected into `~/.ssh/config`
  via an `Include`. `modelo27`/`spark-27ea` is a second Spark on another LAN). `reset --hard` is safe:
  `.env`/`config.toml`/`state/` are gitignored.
  **Deploy-key gotcha:** each repo the Spark clones needs its *own* Gitea deploy key plus its own
  `Host` alias — Gitea refuses to reuse one SSH key across two repos' deploy keys, and the default
  `immense-voyage.local` block already carries matrix-bridge's key.
- **Onboard a repo:** create a Matrix room named like the repo, invite this bot → it auto-joins,
  maps the room to `<owner>/<roomname>` (+ `~/Projects/<roomname>` on the Mac), and posts an
  onboarding message. Pick review agents in-chat: `agents +reviewer +security -adjudicator` (a new
  room's panel starts **empty** — the lead review still runs, it just convenes no subagents).
  **No restart needed:** the poll loop re-reads `list(rooms.keys())` every cycle, so a room mapped
  mid-run is polled within one interval. The startup log line ("polling N mapped repo(s)") is stale
  from then on — it is printed once and never re-printed; don't read it as the live room count.
- **In a review room:** `merge` / `reject` / `clear` (inside a PR's thread, or `<cmd> <n>` by number),
  `yes`/`no` to confirm a merge, `agents …` to toggle the subagent panel. `clear` (alias `resolve`)
  redacts an orphaned thread without touching the PR.
- **Merging under branch protection:** these repos protect `master` with push + merge whitelists
  (`grant` only) and `required_approvals = 1`. The bot never posts an approving *review* to Gitea, so
  a collaborator's PR page shows as blocked pending approval — the in-thread `merge` still lands it,
  because the bot merges with `force_merge: true` (proven on ten31-site PR #4 against this exact rule
  shape). Tell a collaborator that "1 approval required" is expected, not stuck. Post-merge publishing
  is opt-in per repo (`[repo.<name>].deploy_on_merge`); without it a merge merges and redacts, nothing more.
- **Push watch (opt-in per repo):** notifies whenever someone who isn't me pushes commits, and posts a
  `claude -p` assessment of what they did. Turn on with `[repo.<name>].watch_pushes = true` plus
  `[gitea] my_emails` (my commit emails — anyone *not* on that list notifies, so an unrecognised
  address surfaces rather than slips through; these repos' commits aren't linked to Gitea accounts,
  the API returns `author: null`, so the **git email is the only identity that works**). Optional
  `[repo.<name>].expected_paths` globs mark the collaborator's expected territory; files outside it
  are flagged in the notice (deterministically, not by the model) and called out to the assessor.
  Shape: **notify first, assess second** — the notice posts immediately, the commits are recorded in
  `state/` *before* the assessment starts, and the assessment lands as a threaded reply. Scope is
  every branch *except* branches with an open PR; the default branch is walked first, so a commit
  reachable from several branches is reported as being on `master` rather than on some stale branch.
  On first run the watch arms at "now" (it never replays history into the room); to force a test,
  backdate `watch.since` in `state/rooms.json`.
  - **Why the ordering:** recording before the assessment is what stops a crash, a restart or a send
    error in those minutes from reposting the whole notice and re-running the assessment. The cost is
    the opposite failure — a crash mid-assessment leaves a bare "_Assessing…_" in the room with no
    retry. Preferred deliberately: a missing assessment is visible, a duplicate one is noise.
  - **What it says out loud rather than logging:** more than `WATCH_MAX_PAGES × WATCH_COMMIT_LIMIT`
    (150) commits arriving at once, and a commit whose file list Gitea didn't return (the path check
    is then incomplete, and it must never print the all-clear).
  - **Bounds:** ≤`WATCH_MAX_BATCHES` (2) assessments per repo per cycle, each ≤`[defaults]
    watch_timeout_seconds` (480s; a real two-commit run with one panel subagent measured 173s), so a
    busy push can hold the other rooms' polling for ~16 min worst case — the head-of-line cost ROADMAP
    Phase 3 tracks, now bounded rather than open-ended. Held-over batches keep their commits out of
    `seen` and pin the `since` cursor, so they go out next cycle; after `WATCH_GIVEUP_HOURS` (48) the
    bot stops pinning and logs what it gave up on, so an unsendable batch can't freeze the watch.
  - **Merging a PR banks its commits** (`remember_pr_commits`, including the merge commit Gitea
    creates), whether it was merged from the thread or in Gitea's web UI — otherwise those commits
    land on `master` and read as a fresh push of work the review already covered.
  - **What it is not:** the author check reads the git email, which anyone can set. It is an
    accountability aid for a cooperative collaborator, not an authentication boundary. And push
    notices are *not* redactable — `clear` only reaches PR threads, so they accumulate as a log.
- **Tests:** `python3 tests/test_watch.py` — no pytest, no deps, stubs matrix-nio. Covers the push
  watch's *policy*: who gets reported, cross-branch dedupe, the `since` cursor, the path flag, and
  that every attacker-authored field lands inside the prompt's fence. 17 mutations of `src/bot.py`
  were each confirmed to flip it to FAIL (2026-08-21). What it does **not** cover is the orchestration
  inside `watch_repo` — the record-before-assess ordering, the per-cycle cap, held batches — because
  that lives in closures over the live clients; those are verified by exercising the bot in a real
  room, which is still how everything else here is verified.
- **Prove the poll loop is alive** (silence is normal — the loop logs only on a review or an error, so
  a healthy bot can go days without a line). Sample the Spark's host socket table fast enough to catch
  a poll: `end=$((SECONDS+130)); while [ $SECONDS -lt $end ]; do case "$(cat /proc/net/tcp)" in *EE73*)
  echo hit;; esac; sleep 0.01; done` — `EE73` is Gitea's port 61043 in hex, and **two hits ~60s apart =
  healthy**. Why the fast sampling: the poll socket lives milliseconds and leaves no `TIME_WAIT` (Gitea
  closes first), so 1–2s polling misses it entirely and reads as a false wedge. Also: the container has
  no `ps`, `sudo` on the Spark wants a password (no `tcpdump`), and host networking means the container's
  `/proc/1/net/tcp` *is* the host's. This is the observation the no-heartbeat decision waits on.

## Layout

- `src/bot.py` — the bot: matrix-nio sync; auto-join + in-room auto-map (room→repo by name); a Gitea
  poll loop that walks **all** mapped repos in **one async task, serially** (so rooms never interleave,
  but a long review head-of-line-blocks the next room's poll: the scaling limit to watch at 3+ repos,
  and what the deferred poll→webhook item addresses); threaded `claude -p` review (subagent panel);
  merge/reject/deploy
  in-thread; whole-thread redaction on resolve (server-enumerated, restart-proof) — a merge always
  redacts (a failed post-merge deploy leaves a top-level warning, not an orphaned thread); `clear`
  redacts without touching the PR. Same loop, per repo, runs the opt-in **push watch**:
  `select_push_batches()` holds the whole policy (whose commits, already-seen, cross-branch dedupe) as
  a pure function with no I/O — the part worth testing — while `watch_repo()` does the fetching and
  `post_push_notice()` the notify-then-assess.
- `config.example.toml` — homeserver, `[mac]` (ssh alias + the reused matrix-bridge wrapper paths),
  `[gitea]` (api_base/owner/verify_tls/my_emails), `[defaults]`, optional `[repo.<name>]` deploy +
  push-watch overrides.
- `.env.example` — `MATRIX_*` + `GITEA_TOKEN` (real `.env` gitignored). The live token is scoped
  `write:repository` only: repo/PR calls work, but `/user` and anything needing `read:user` 403s.
- `Dockerfile` · `docker-compose.yml` · `docker-entrypoint.sh` — the Spark container (generic image;
  secrets/config via read-only mounts; entrypoint writes `~/.ssh/config` for the Mac alias).
- `tests/` — `test_watch.py` + a sanitized five-branch Gitea fixture (identities replaced, history
  overlap preserved because that overlap is what the dedupe is for).
- `state/` — gitignored runtime JSON (`rooms.json`: room map + agents + heads + thread roots, plus
  `watch: {since, seen[]}` per push-watched room — `since` is the Gitea `since` cursor, trailing the
  newest commit by 24h so a committer's clock skew can't hide a push, and clamped to now so a
  future-dated commit can't push the cursor into the future and silence the watch; `seen` is the last
  500 SHAs accounted for).

## Decisions

- **Separate bot from matrix-bridge** (single responsibility = PR review). Beat: extending
  matrix-bridge with review-room special-casing. Reopens if the two bots' logic heavily overlaps.
- **Thin matrix-nio container, NOT Maubot.** Reevaluated 2026-06-28: Maubot helps with the Matrix
  plumbing we've already solved, not the SSH/`claude -p`/poll logic that's the actual weight, and it
  reintroduces a web-UI/management layer (Spark Control is the dashboard). Reopens at ~6+ bots or a
  non-developer web-management need; the lighter step first is a shared "bot kit" library.
- **Subagent panel (Option B):** the lead `claude -p` session spawns subagents and presents each
  output + its own overall recommendation. Beat: bot-orchestrated separate `claude -p` runs (more
  deterministic but 3× the sessions + more bot code). Reopens if headless subagent spawning is flaky.
- **Panel composition is per-room, set in chat** (onboarding message + `agents +/-`), not config.
  `design-checker` joined the panel with the push watch — it audits against a repo's own
  `design/DESIGN.md` + tokens, which is exactly the brand question ten31-brand's room asks.
- **Push watch: notify first, assess second** (2026-08-21). The notice is a plain Gitea-derived
  message posted before any `claude -p` runs, and the path flag ("outside the expected area") is
  computed from globs, not asked of the model — so the thing you actually need (that someone pushed,
  and where) never depends on a model call that can time out, fail, or be wrong. The assessment is a
  threaded reply under it. Beat: one composed message after the assessment (prettier, but a 10-minute
  `claude -p` budget sits between a push and knowing about it).
- **Watch scope: every branch except ones with an open PR.** A PR already gets the full review
  treatment, so re-notifying its commits is noise. Beat: master-only (misses a side-branch push that
  never opens a PR).
- **Reuse matrix-bridge's Mac wrappers + Spark→Mac SSH key** (don't duplicate the seam).
- **Auto-map by name:** room `<x>` → Gitea `<owner>/<x>` + `~/Projects/<x>`; mapping persists to
  `state/` (mirrors matrix-bridge D14). One room per repo.
- **No wedge-detection heartbeat** (adjudicated 2026-07-29). A healthcheck badge restarts nothing
  under this compose setup, the tile that would show it lives in spark-control (so it's a two-repo
  change), and serial per-room polling with a 10-min review budget makes any staleness threshold
  either too loose to be timely or noisy mid-review. Reopens only on an *observed* wedge **plus**
  confirmation the spark-control tile already renders Docker health. The cheaper half of the same
  goal was the ROADMAP fold-in — **done 2026-08-21**: both unbounded awaits are bounded and the poll
  task's death now exits the process, so `restart: unless-stopped` handles it.

## Sovereignty

**Untrusted input.** A PR's title/description and a pushed commit's subjects, filenames and diff are
written by someone else and go to `claude -p` running on the Mac, in the owner's checkout, under the
owner's OAuth token. Both prompts put *every* such field inside one `UNTRUSTED DATA <nonce>` fence
with a per-run random tag, so a forged terminator can't close it, and instruct the model to report
rather than obey anything inside. That is the cheap half; the tool-policy half (an explicit read-only
`--allowedTools` on that run) needs a matrix-bridge change and is the top ROADMAP item.


Reviews send PR diffs to `claude -p` (the subscription), not a frontier API on payload data; that's
acceptable for code review of these repos. Before pointing the bot at a repo with sensitive content,
revisit this — local inference via Spark Control would be the path.

## Current state

**LIVE and in steady use**, serving **two** review rooms. Verified 2026-08-18: the container had been
up since 08-13 with zero restarts, and the poll loop is genuinely alive (two Gitea connections exactly
60s apart — see the liveness recipe in Commands).

**2026-08-21 — the collaborator push watch shipped.** `master` now carries code the Spark hasn't got
yet, so **a redeploy is pending** (and the Spark's `config.toml` needs the new `[gitea] my_emails` +
`[repo.ten31-brand]` keys, which are gitignored and live only there). Two independent reviewer passes
ran over it; the first found the batch being recorded only *after* its assessment (a crash would have
replayed the whole notice) and an all-clear line printable from a missing file list, the second found
untrusted PR/commit metadata sitting above the prompt's fence. All fixed, each with a mutation that
reproduces it.

- **ten31-site** — proven end-to-end on PR #4 (2026-06-28: review → `merge` + `yes` → force_merge →
  auto-publish → redacted). **PR #5 "Update index.html" is still open**, reviewed 2026-06-30, its thread
  live in the room and waiting on a `merge`/`reject`. Push watch is **off** here.
- **ten31-brand** — onboarded 2026-08-18 to watch the interactive deck
  (`design/deck/interactive/index.html`). Collaborator `jonathan` uses **both** routes, so both are
  now covered: three PRs (#1–#3, all his, all merged 08-19/08-20, all reviewed by the bot) **and**
  direct pushes to `master` — 18 of the last 50 commits there are his
  (`Jonathan Kirkwood <jonathan@ten31.vc>`, most recently 2026-08-21). Two earlier notes here were
  wrong and are corrected: he is *not* blocked from pushing to `master`, and the repo has *not* had
  zero PRs. Every commit he has made touches exactly one file,
  `design/deck/interactive/index.html`, which is why `expected_paths` is that subtree.
  The review threads for #2 and #3 are **orphaned in the room right now** — merged outside the bot,
  so the stale prune dropped their roots without redacting. That is Next step 2 below, no longer
  hypothetical.

**Next steps, in priority order:**
1. **Deploy the push watch and watch one real notice land** (see the pending redeploy above).
2. **Fix the orphaned-thread prune** (`src/bot.py` ~L594): the poll loop drops a PR's thread root from
   state when the PR leaves the open list *without redacting*, so a PR merged or closed in the Gitea web
   UI strands its thread and `clear` can no longer reach it. More likely to bite now with two rooms.
3. **`/triage` the 3 untriaged inbox items** tagged for this repo — adjudication never reads the inbox, so
   their content is still unknown here.
4. With a 2nd repo mapped, ROADMAP Phase 3's verify is unblocked: next time both rooms have open PRs at
   once, watch a cycle (`docker compose logs -f`) for a long review head-of-line-blocking the other room.