feat: keep merge picks through auto-merge and automatic merge-queue kick-outs

README.md

@@ -345,6 +345,7 @@ merge-state dirty
 review-decision -
 auto-merge -
 merge-queue -
+landing-stopped -
 checks success passed=14 failing=0 pending=0
 review stale commented kixelated 2026-10-16T06:14:04Z https://github.com/kixelated/quest/pull/128#pullrequestreview-5543745302
 review current commented chatgpt-codex-connector 2026-10-16T17:57:16Z https://github.com/kixelated/quest/pull/128#pullrequestreview-5551703054
@@ -360,6 +361,7 @@ comes last, and a missing value prints as `-`:
 | `mergeable`, `merge-state`, `review-decision` | GitHub's values, lowercased. |
 | `auto-merge` | Method, who enabled it, and when. |
 | `merge-queue` | Queue state, position, and when it was enqueued. |
+| `landing-stopped` | GitHub's reason the latest merge-queue entry or auto-merge ended (such as `merge_conflict`, `failed_checks`, `manual`, `manually_disabled`, or `merged`), who ended it, and when. |
 | `checks` | The head's rollup state and `passed=`, `failing=`, `pending=` counts. |
 | `check` | `failing` or `pending`, `required` or `optional`, the result, details URL, and name. |
 | `review` | `current` or `stale` against the head, state, reviewer, time, and URL of each reviewer's latest review. |
@@ -371,7 +373,7 @@ The node ID is what GraphQL's `addPullRequestReviewThreadReply` and
 is one branch protection or a ruleset requires for this PR. `--json` prints the
 same facts as one object with the fields `url`, `state`, `draft`, `head`,
 `mergeable`, `mergeState`, `reviewDecision`, `autoMerge`, `mergeQueue`,
-`checks` (`state`, `passed`, `failing`, `pending`), `reviews`, `reactions`, and
+`landingStopped`, `checks` (`state`, `passed`, `failing`, `pending`), `reviews`, `reactions`, and
 `threads`. Long lists are paged; reactions are the newest 100 per PR or review,
 as in `quest wait`. Any PR state exits 0, invalid arguments exit 2, and other
 failures exit 1.

assets/skills/complete.md

@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ Ask synchronously with one question per PR, never grouping PRs into one question
 
 Include a brief summary of each PR.
 Act on a PR only after the user picks its action in this session, including PRs found on a later refresh.
+GitHub auto-merge is that pick: enabling it takes write access, and GitHub disables it when anyone without write access pushes.
+Do not ask about a PR with auto-merge enabled; watch it like an enqueued PR, and dispatch `/quest-merge` only when a conflict, failing check, or review finding stalls it.
 A pick covers the PR until it lands or needs the user: when its push draws new review findings, send the agent back without asking, and apply the merge skill's design checkpoint across those rounds.
 Review comments are input, not approval, even a merge verdict on the maintainer's account.
 Consider ordering, queuing any merges if they would result in conflicts.
@@ -33,9 +35,10 @@ Limit the number of active agents to the CPU core count.
 Tell each merge sub-agent that you watch its merge queue, so it reports once
 auto-merge is enabled. Wait on each such PR with `quest wait`, as `quest skill merge`
 describes, until it merges.
-If it leaves the queue unmerged or auto-merge is disabled, confirm with
-`quest status <pr>`, then ask about the PR again; never dispatch `/quest-merge` without
-the user's choice, since a new head needs fresh approval.
+If it leaves the queue unmerged or auto-merge is disabled, read `landing-stopped` from
+`quest status <pr>`. After `merge_conflict` or `failed_checks`, the pick still holds:
+dispatch `/quest-merge` again. Any other reason, such as a person removing it, is the
+user's call, so ask about the PR again.
 
 Keep going until all PRs have been decided, then wait for all spawned sub-agents and enqueued PRs to finish.
 Before finishing, refresh the open PR list and process any new PRs in scope.

assets/skills/merge.md

@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ It makes a merge commit; add `--squash` or `--rebase` when the repository's root
 The `quest:merge` label stays on while the PR is queued or auto-merging.
 If your caller said it watches the merge queue, report once it is landing.
 Otherwise wait until the PR merges. If it leaves the queue unmerged or auto-merge
-is disabled, confirm with `quest status <pr>`, release the PR, then report why
-instead of landing it again; a new head needs the user's approval.
+is disabled, read `landing-stopped` from `quest status <pr>`. After `merge_conflict`
+or `failed_checks`, take the PR again, fix it, and land it; any other reason, such as
+a person removing it, is the user's call, so report why instead of landing it again.
 Never close a PR to unstick it, and never work around a refused merge; ask instead.

src/cli/hold.ts

@@ -317,8 +317,8 @@ class Labels {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * A PR that left the merge queue unmerged waits on the maintainer again, so
-	 * its `quest:merge` label is spent once a landing started after it was added.
+	 * A landing that ended unmerged ends the merge session's hold, so a
+	 * `quest:merge` label is spent once a landing started after it was added.
 	 */
 	async dequeued(snapshot: Snapshot): Promise<Snapshot> {
 		const added = latest(snapshot, MERGE);
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ class Labels {
 		if (!landed) return snapshot;
 		await this.remove(MERGE);
 		this.deps.warn(
-			`${snapshot.url} left the merge queue unmerged, so ${MERGE} was removed; it waits on the user again`,
+			`${snapshot.url} left the merge queue unmerged, so ${MERGE} was removed; quest status shows why under landing-stopped`,
 		);
 		return { ...snapshot, labels: snapshot.labels.filter((name) => name !== MERGE) };
 	}

src/cli/main.ts

@@ -369,8 +369,11 @@ export function main(argv: string[], out: Output): number | Promise<number> {
 			"Print a pull request's head, checks, merge state, reviews, reactions, and unresolved review threads " +
 				"in one call. It reports facts; it does not decide whether the PR is ready or whose review counts.\n\n" +
 				"Plain output prints one record per line, its type first and any free text (a check name or path) last: " +
-				"url, state, draft, head, mergeable, merge-state, review-decision, auto-merge, merge-queue, and checks; " +
-				"then a check line per failing or pending check, marked required or optional; a review line per " +
+				"url, state, draft, head, mergeable, merge-state, review-decision, auto-merge, merge-queue, " +
+				"landing-stopped, and checks; landing-stopped is the latest exit from the merge queue or auto-merge, " +
+				"with GitHub's reason (such as merge_conflict, failed_checks, manual, or manually_disabled), " +
+				"actor, and time. Then " +
+				"a check line per failing or pending check, marked required or optional; a review line per " +
 				"reviewer's latest review, marked current or stale against the head; a reacted:<content> line per " +
 				"reaction on the PR or a review; and a thread line per unresolved review thread, led by its node ID. " +
 				"A missing value prints as -. --json prints the same facts as one deterministic object.\n\n" +

src/cli/status.ts

@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ const STATUS = `query($owner: String!, $repo: String!, $number: Int!,
 			url state isDraft headRefOid mergeable mergeStateStatus reviewDecision
 			autoMergeRequest { enabledAt mergeMethod enabledBy { login } }
 			mergeQueueEntry { state position enqueuedAt }
+			timelineItems(last: 1, itemTypes: [REMOVED_FROM_MERGE_QUEUE_EVENT, AUTO_MERGE_DISABLED_EVENT]) { nodes {
+				... on RemovedFromMergeQueueEvent { createdAt reason actor { login } }
+				... on AutoMergeDisabledEvent { createdAt reasonCode actor { login } }
+			} }
 			reactions(last: 100) { nodes { ...reaction } }
 			commits(last: 1) { nodes { commit { oid statusCheckRollup { state
 				contexts(first: 100, after: $checks) @include(if: $moreChecks) {
@@ -100,6 +104,8 @@ export interface Status {
 	reviewDecision: string | null;
 	autoMerge: { method: string; enabledBy: string; enabledAt: string } | null;
 	mergeQueue: { state: string; position: number; enqueuedAt: string } | null;
+	/** The latest exit from the merge queue or auto-merge, and GitHub's reason for it. */
+	landingStopped: { reason: string; actor: string; at: string } | null;
 	checks: { state: string | null; passed: number; failing: Check[]; pending: Check[] };
 	/** Each reviewer's latest submitted review, oldest first. */
 	reviews: Review[];
@@ -229,6 +235,7 @@ function summarize(
 
 	const autoMerge = pull.autoMergeRequest === null ? null : object(pull.autoMergeRequest);
 	const queue = pull.mergeQueueEntry === null ? null : object(pull.mergeQueueEntry);
+	const stopped = array(object(pull.timelineItems).nodes).at(-1);
 	return {
 		url,
 		state: lower(pull.state) as Status["state"],
@@ -249,6 +256,14 @@ function summarize(
 			queue === null
 				? null
 				: { state: lower(queue.state), position: Number(queue.position), enqueuedAt: string(queue.enqueuedAt) },
+		landingStopped:
+			stopped === undefined
+				? null
+				: {
+						reason: lower(stopped.reason ?? stopped.reasonCode),
+						actor: actor(stopped.actor),
+						at: string(stopped.createdAt),
+					},
 		checks,
 		reviews: [...latest.values()],
 		reactions,
@@ -298,6 +313,9 @@ export function statusLines(status: Status): string[] {
 		status.mergeQueue === null
 			? "merge-queue -"
 			: `merge-queue ${status.mergeQueue.state} ${status.mergeQueue.position} ${status.mergeQueue.enqueuedAt}`,
+		status.landingStopped === null
+			? "landing-stopped -"
+			: `landing-stopped ${status.landingStopped.reason} ${status.landingStopped.actor} ${status.landingStopped.at}`,
 		`checks ${dash(status.checks.state)} passed=${status.checks.passed} failing=${status.checks.failing.length} pending=${status.checks.pending.length}`,
 		...status.checks.failing.map((c) => check("failing", c)),
 		...status.checks.pending.map((c) => check("pending", c)),

test/hold.test.ts

@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ describe("merge --land", () => {
 		expect(pull.labels).toEqual(["quest:merge"]);
 	});
 
-	test("a PR that left the queue unmerged drops quest:merge and waits on the user", async () => {
+	test("a PR that left the queue unmerged drops quest:merge", async () => {
 		const pull = new FakePull();
 		const { token } = await take(PR, "merge", undefined, pull.deps());
 		await land(PR, token, HEAD, "merge", pull.deps());
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ describe("merge --land", () => {
 		const warnings: string[] = [];
 		expect(await refused(land(PR, token, HEAD, "merge", pull.deps(warnings)))).toContain("no longer holds it");
 		expect(warnings).toEqual([
-			`${URL_} left the merge queue unmerged, so quest:merge was removed; it waits on the user again`,
+			`${URL_} left the merge queue unmerged, so quest:merge was removed; quest status shows why under landing-stopped`,
 		]);
 		expect(pull.labels).toEqual([]);
 		expect((await take(PR, "iterate", undefined, pull.deps())).label).toBe("quest:iterate");

test/status.test.ts

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ function pull(
 					reviewDecision: "REVIEW_REQUIRED",
 					autoMergeRequest: null,
 					mergeQueueEntry: null,
+					timelineItems: { nodes: [] },
 					reactions: { nodes: reactions },
 					commits: {
 						nodes: [
@@ -158,6 +159,7 @@ test("reports checks by requiredness, each reviewer's latest review against the
 		"review-decision review_required",
 		"auto-merge -",
 		"merge-queue -",
+		"landing-stopped -",
 		"checks failure passed=2 failing=3 pending=2",
 		"check failing required failure https://github.com/example/project/actions/runs/1/job/lint lint",
 		"check failing optional cancelled https://github.com/example/project/actions/runs/1/job/docs docs",
@@ -190,20 +192,44 @@ test("a queued PR with auto-merge and no checks reports both, and JSON is determ
 		threads: page([]),
 	});
 	const status = await pullRequestStatus(pr, setup([body]).deps);
-	expect(statusLines(status).slice(2, 10)).toEqual([
+	expect(statusLines(status).slice(2, 11)).toEqual([
 		"draft true",
 		`head ${A}`,
 		"mergeable mergeable",
 		"merge-state blocked",
 		"review-decision -",
 		"auto-merge squash kixelated 2026-10-07T12:00:00Z",
 		"merge-queue awaiting_checks 2 2026-10-07T12:01:00Z",
+		"landing-stopped -",
 		"checks - passed=0 failing=0 pending=0",
 	]);
 	expect(JSON.stringify(await pullRequestStatus(pr, setup([body]).deps))).toBe(JSON.stringify(status));
 	expect(status.mergeQueue).toEqual({ state: "awaiting_checks", position: 2, enqueuedAt: "2026-10-07T12:01:00Z" });
 });
 
+test("reports why the latest landing stopped, from a merge queue or auto-merge", async () => {
+	const stopped = async (node: Node) => {
+		const body = pull({ checks: null, reviews: page([]), threads: page([]), timelineItems: { nodes: [node] } });
+		return statusLines(await pullRequestStatus(pr, setup([body]).deps)).find((line) =>
+			line.startsWith("landing-stopped "),
+		);
+	};
+	expect(
+		await stopped({
+			createdAt: "2026-10-07T12:00:00Z",
+			reason: "MERGE_CONFLICT",
+			actor: { login: "github-merge-queue" },
+		}),
+	).toBe("landing-stopped merge_conflict github-merge-queue 2026-10-07T12:00:00Z");
+	expect(
+		await stopped({
+			createdAt: "2026-10-07T12:01:00Z",
+			reasonCode: "manually_disabled",
+			actor: { login: "kixelated" },
+		}),
+	).toBe("landing-stopped manually_disabled kixelated 2026-10-07T12:01:00Z");
+});
+
 test("long lists page only the connections that have more, keeping the first page's PR fields", async () => {
 	const fixture = setup([
 		pull({