A gate on the merge path before it goes fully automatic

Why this needs a gate at all

In July 2026, Claude Code changed a default: background agents started with the claude agents command no longer stop to ask before they finish a code task in a worktree. They commit, push, and open a draft PR on their own.

• That saves time, and it also means the only step left between the agent's confidence and your main is the gate you built in advance.
• Without a gate: the agent's 'done' becomes your production incident.

What to set up before you let an agent run in the background

• Who must approve before merging into main.
• Which checks must pass green before merge.
• Which branch is protected and which is not.
• What happens when a check fails, who gets notified.
• Whether a draft PR is enough, or you also need a manual merge block.

The first bolt: branch protection

• Set the main branch as protected in the repo settings.
• Block direct push to the protected branch, from an agent and from you.
• Require the branch to be up to date before merge.
• Prevent deletion of the protected branch.

The second bolt: required review

• Require at least one human reviewer before merge, even when the PR was opened automatically by an agent.
• Don't approve your own agent's PR without reading the diff.
• If several agents work on the same repo, set a fixed reviewer for auditing automated PRs.

The third bolt: CI checks

• Require every check to be green before the merge button can even be clicked.
• Include a focused test, a full build, and lint/typecheck in the required chain.
• If CI fails, the PR stays a draft. Don't override it with a manual check because 'it's probably fine'.

A short prompt for the agent

When you finish, commit, push, and open a draft PR as usual.
Do not expect manual approval before this step - it will not come.
The only gate is what I configured on the repository: branch protection,
required reviewers, and CI checks. If those are not set up, say so
explicitly instead of assuming it is safe to proceed further.