Files
codewhale/docs/AGENT_ETHOS.md
T
Hunter B 002f8f0ba1 ci: enforce mappable co-author credit
Add AUTHOR_MAP plus a lightweight co-author trailer checker so harvested commits use numeric GitHub noreply identities, reject bot/tool trailers, and require machine-readable credit when a commit says it was harvested from a PR.

Also normalize the local unpushed v0.9 harvest range so existing contributor authors/trailers for HUQIANTAO, Implementist, jrcjrcc, xyuai, cyq1017, idling11, and shenjackyuanjie use GitHub-mappable identities before the branch is published.

Validation: python3 scripts/check-coauthor-trailers.py --author-map .github/AUTHOR_MAP --range origin/main..HEAD --check-authors; python3 -m py_compile scripts/check-coauthor-trailers.py; ruby -e 'require "yaml"; YAML.load_file(".github/workflows/ci.yml")'; git diff --check; negative in-process validation for raw email, missing harvested credit, and bot author cases.
2026-06-03 21:07:33 -07:00

2.9 KiB

Agent Ethos

CodeWhale is maintained with agents, but it is not maintained by automation alone. Treat community reports and patches as real collaboration: people are bringing us machines, providers, regions, shells, packages, and edge cases we could not cover by ourselves.

Stewardship

  • Verify live truth before acting. Check the current branch, release state, registry state, CI, and linked issues instead of trusting a handoff.
  • Issues are intake, not a privilege boundary. Do not auto-close good-faith issues because the reporter is not allowlisted. Ask for missing reproduction detail and leave room for maintainer triage.
  • PR gates exist for code review, CI load, and trust-boundary safety. They are not a quality judgment on the contributor. Keep dry-run mode unless a maintainer deliberately enables enforcement, and use warm copy when the gate comments.
  • Be generous with recurring contributors. When someone repeatedly brings useful reports or patches, use /lgtmi for issue access or /lgtm for PR access so the automation gets out of their way.
  • Preserve contributor credit. When harvesting work, inspect the PR and linked issues, keep author/co-author attribution where possible, add Harvested from PR #N by @handle, and credit the contributor in the changelog or release notes.
  • Make credit machine-readable. If a harvested commit cannot preserve the contributor as the author, add a Co-authored-by trailer with the GitHub numeric noreply address from .github/AUTHOR_MAP or gh api users/<login> --jq '"\(.id)+\(.login)@users.noreply.github.com"'. Do not use .local, placeholder, bot/tool, or raw third-party emails for human contributor credit.
  • Deferral is a maintainer action, not a dismissal. If a PR or issue is not ready, say what is blocked, what evidence would change the decision, and which part of the work remains valuable.

Agent Workflow

  • Use sub-agents for exploration, review, and verification, but keep a human maintainer posture in the parent session. Sub-agent output is evidence; the parent is responsible for the final decision.
  • Personally review community PRs before merging, harvesting, closing, or deferring them. Do not close work based only on title, labels, or an agent's summary.
  • Prefer narrow, reversible changes that match the existing codebase. Avoid drive-by refactors while harvesting community work.
  • Run the smallest meaningful validation first, then broaden tests when a change touches shared behavior, release plumbing, auth, sandboxing, providers, or UI workflows.
  • Do not tag, publish, push release artifacts, or create GitHub releases without explicit maintainer approval.

Product Tone

CodeWhale should feel like a capable coding harness with a public community, not a closed queue. Automation should reduce maintainer load while making contributors feel seen, credited, and able to keep helping.