gator-gate

Validate and monitor OpenShell GitHub issues and PRs through a gator label state machine.

8.5k|1.3k|Updated Feb 24, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell --skill gator-gate
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: gator-gate
Source: https://github.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/tree/main/scripts/agents/gator/skills/gator-gate
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell --skill gator-gate

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

OpenShell maintainers need consistent triage, review, and merge-readiness tracking across GitHub issues and pull requests, and manual label management and follow-up monitoring is error-prone and time-consuming.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • State-machine gating: Drives issues and PRs through gator:* labels (follow-up-needed, blocked, validated, in-review, watch-pipeline, approval-needed, merge-ready) with defined transitions and 48-business-hour TTL nudges.
  • Durable review tracking: Uses a review-feedback ledger with stable finding IDs to carry findings across head SHAs, resolve addressed review threads, and avoid duplicate reviews.
  • Supervised watch mode: Emits OPENSHELL_AGENT_RESULT sentinels so the OpenShell agent supervisor can poll PRs until merge, close, or blocker resolution.
  • Use Case: A maintainer asks the agent to gate PR #412; the skill validates it, posts a marked review disposition, applies gator:in-review, monitors CI, and advances it to gator:merge-ready once checks are green and approval arrives.

Quick Start

Ask the agent to run gator on a specific OpenShell issue or PR number, for example: validate and monitor PR 412 until it is merge-ready.

Frequently Asked Questions about gator-gate

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I triage and gate GitHub pull requests automatically?▼

Run the gator-gate skill with a PR number; it validates the PR, applies the correct gator:* label, posts a marked review disposition, and monitors it through review, CI, and approval states until merge or close.

What do the gator labels on OpenShell issues and PRs mean?▼

Each item carries at most one gator:* label indicating its state: follow-up-needed, blocked, validated, in-review, watch-pipeline, approval-needed, or merge-ready. Transitions follow a defined state machine with 48-business-hour TTL nudges for stalled items.

Does gator-gate work with the gh CLI inside sandboxes?▼

Yes, but it requires REST-backed gh api calls for writes because some high-level gh commands use GraphQL mutations that gator policy disallows. Authentication health is checked with gh api user rather than gh auth status.

Why did gator report a transient failure instead of blocking my PR?▼

Transport errors like EOF or empty replies, and reviewer sub-agent failures, are treated as transient infrastructure issues. The skill returns a transient_failure sentinel so the supervisor retries, rather than mislabeling the PR as blocked.

Can gator push commits or approve PRs on its own?▼

No. It never pushes to contributor branches unless a maintainer explicitly instructs it, and maintainer-only actions like /ok to test require verified maintainer authority via team membership, CODEOWNERS, or repository permissions.