Record the House rule: nobody closes a pull request; the branch inhabits its #N

.claude/CLAUDE.md

@@ -161,6 +161,15 @@
 
 See `VAULT-CONVENTIONS.md` for vault structure, naming, frontmatter, sourcing protocol, git practices, automation inventory, conversation taxonomy, and guiding principles.
 
+**HOUSE RULE — PULL REQUESTS ARE NEVER CLOSED:** not yours, not anyone's, not by
+automation. A PR is resolved by **merge only**. Stale or superseded content is
+re-subjected on the **same `#N`** — merge `main` in (merge commit, never a
+force-push), retitle, rewrite the body with a `Formerly:` line, continue. Never
+delete a PR's branch; park a waiting PR as **draft**. The harness's default "a
+merged *or closed* PR is finished — restart from `main`" posture is narrowed here
+to *merged* only. Full rule and the table of parked close-automation:
+`VAULT-CONVENTIONS.md` § "House rule — no pull request is closed".
+
 **DISCOVERY BEFORE INVENTION:** Before proposing new conventions, structures, templates, or workflows, READ the existing vault files thoroughly. Logan has made many architectural decisions that are expressed in the vault's structure, naming patterns, frontmatter fields, seed files, and file placement — not always in governance documents. If you encounter a pattern you don't recognize, investigate before overwriting it. The vault is the record of decisions already made. Follow existing conventions; do not reinvent them.
 
 ---

VAULT-CONVENTIONS.md

@@ -696,8 +696,15 @@
     `abandoned`, `dormant`, or `reactivated` under the shared lifecycle
     vocabulary in `CONSTITUTION.md`.
 
+  - For **pull requests** the House rule (§ "House rule — no pull request is
+    closed", below) narrows that vocabulary: a PR is resolved by **merge only**.
+    `superseded`, `abandoned`, and `dormant` describe a PR's *content*; the PR
+    itself is never closed — it is re-subjected on its same `#N`.
+
   - A long-lived branch requires a named purpose, a steward, and a review
-    cadence. "Still exists" is not legitimacy.
+    cadence. "Still exists" is not legitimacy. A branch with an open PR
+    satisfies this by construction: the PR title is the purpose, its author is
+    the steward, and the queue's per-push review is the cadence.
 
 - Branch & PR scope — one matter per branch:
 
@@ -711,6 +718,11 @@
     error is letting *multiple* matters accrete. The moment the work forks into
     separable deliverables, split it into separate branches/PRs.
 
+  - One matter *at a time*, not one matter for life: under the House rule
+    (below) a branch changes subjects across its life — the next matter begins
+    once the previous one has merged or been superseded. The accretion this
+    rule forbids is *concurrent* matters in one diff.
+
   - Combine only changes that must land together (atomic — they break if
     separated). Split across different concerns, risk tiers, or `CODEOWNERS`
     boundaries.
@@ -772,6 +784,106 @@
 - **Anti-pattern:** do not keep pushing into a per-push-review + queue system — each push restarts eligibility. Let reviews settle, resolve threads **once**, then stop touching the branch and toggle. Force-pushing makes it worse.
 - **No automatic enqueue on a schedule:** arming is event-driven on PR activity (`auto-merge-engage.yml`, `auto-merge-rhythm.yml` — `pull_request_target` + polling); the bulk enqueue sweep `batch-arm-merge-queue.yml` is **`workflow_dispatch` only (manual)**. A ready PR can therefore sit armed-but-not-enqueued until that sweep is dispatched or the toggle is applied by hand. Confirm queue membership via the PR timeline ("Added to merge queue") or `mergeQueueEntry`, never `mergeable_state` alone.
 
+### House rule — no pull request is closed; the branch inhabits its `#N`
+
+Logan's standing House rule for this monorepository — one repository holding the
+vault, its scripts, its workflows, and every agent chamber, all landing on one
+protected `main` through one merge queue — recorded here from his direct
+instruction on 2026-09-09 (`session_019H9hhudCFhbsqdeAn9e6vi`):
+
+> **No pull request is closed.** If a PR's content is stale or superseded
+> elsewhere, work **continues** — or **changes subjects** — on the branch
+> inhabiting that `#N`.
+
+Operating terms:
+
+- **Merge is the only exit.** A PR leaves the open state one way: through the
+  merge queue. `closed` is not a state a PR reaches here — not by hand, not by
+  an agent, not by automation. The `CONSTITUTION.md` § VII vocabulary still
+  describes a PR's *content*: a diff can be `superseded` (another PR landed the
+  same change) or go stale (`main` moved out from under it). The House rule
+  fixes the *response* to those states: re-subject the branch; never close the
+  number.
+
+- **The number is the address; the branch inhabits it.** `#N` is the stable,
+  citable location that issues, Linear, witness leaves, audit sweeps, and this
+  file point at. Closing one number and opening another for the same matter
+  forks the record — #980 → #1029 (the `logan/obsidian` ancestry recovery:
+  auto-closed by GitHub on 2026-09-03 when its head branch was renamed and the
+  old name deleted, then reopened under a new number the next day, per #1029's
+  own description) is the shape the rule exists to prevent. Keep the number;
+  move the work.
+
+- **Re-subjecting an open PR** whose content is stale or superseded:
+
+  1. Merge `main` into the branch with a merge commit — never a rebase or a
+     force-push (the rule above). Drop or replace the dead content in an
+     ordinary commit. If `main` already carries the change, the merge leaves an
+     empty diff; that is a valid starting point for the next matter, not a
+     reason to close.
+  2. Retitle the PR to the new matter and rewrite the body for it, keeping one
+     line of provenance at the top — `Formerly: <old title> — superseded by #M`
+     or `Formerly: <old title> — stale against main as of <date>` — signed with
+     the session id that made the change (§ "Commit signing & session
+     attribution").
+  3. Leave the labels to the engine (`risk/*`, `size/*`, `review/*`); lifecycle
+     stays `staged`. An armed PR (`merge/auto`) stays armed; the next push
+     restarts the per-push review and the entry gates as usual.
+  4. Continue. The queue treats it as any other PR. A branch name that no
+     longer describes the matter is expected — the **PR title** is the matter's
+     live name. Do not rename the branch.
+
+- **Draft is the parking state, not close.** A PR that must wait — blocked,
+  ordered last, awaiting Logan's decision — is converted to draft. Drafts are
+  unarmed (`auto-merge-engage.yml` skips them) and sit in the queue's shadow
+  until marked ready. #980 ran this way for weeks ("must remain draft until
+  every blocker has merged"); that is the model for a long wait.
+
+- **Never delete a PR's branch.** GitHub auto-closes every open PR whose head
+  branch disappears, and can reopen a closed PR only while that branch exists —
+  so `--delete-branch` turns a mistake into an irreversible one, and renaming a
+  branch by pushing the new name and deleting the old one closes its PR as
+  surely as a click (#980, above). Rename through GitHub's own branch-rename,
+  which retargets open PRs, or leave the old name standing. Branch pruning is
+  for branches with *no* PR, or merged ones, and only under Logan's direction.
+
+- **Repair.** An agent that closes a PR — or finds one closed by automation —
+  reopens it on the same number and says so in one comment on the PR, signed
+  with the session id. A close by Logan's own hand is his call and stands.
+
+- **After a merge the branch may go on.** Each merge resolves its number *as
+  merged*; the branch's next matter opens a new `#N` on the same branch. The
+  practiced shape: `claude/shall-rome-lyrics-ok9049` carried #1017, #1018,
+  #1019, #1020 and #1021 in turn, each merged before the next began. The House
+  rule governs the *unmerged* case: an open number whose content is dead is
+  re-subjected, not replaced.
+
+- **For Claude Code sessions in particular:** the remote harness's default
+  posture treats a merged *or closed* PR as finished and tells the session to
+  restart its branch from `main`. In this vault only *merged* counts. Never
+  close a PR you opened, even one you consider superseded — re-subject it.
+  `.claude/CLAUDE.md` § "Conventions & Standards" carries the short form.
+
+**Automation that would close a PR is dead code here.** These surfaces exist in
+the tree. None may be un-parked, dispatched in a closing mode, or copied into
+new automation without Logan's explicit direction:
+
+| Surface | Where | What it would do | Standing |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| `stale-bot-prs.yml` → `scripts_scripts/stale_bot_prs.py` | repo root (parked) | close conflicted bot PRs older than 5 days; label `lifecycle/abandoned` | parked, `workflow_dispatch` only — inert |
+| `branch-cleanup.yml` | repo root (parked) | on PR close: label `lifecycle/abandoned`, delete the branch; on dispatch: prune branches of closed PRs | parked — inert |
+| `agent-swarm-signing-proof.yml`, step "Close failed proof PR" | `.github/workflows/` (`workflow_call` only) | `gh pr close --delete-branch` on a failed proof PR | unreachable — its four dispatch wrappers are parked at root |
+| `scripts_scripts/pr_lifecycle.py`, state `abandoned` | parked | a label; it does not close | unreachable label |
+| Dependabot "superseded" close | GitHub-side, not in the tree | closes its own older bump when a newer one opens — #1023 → #1026, 2026-09-02 | external; `dependabot.yml` has no switch for it — Logan's call |
+
+**The record before the rule.** `closed_prs.json` holds 103 unmerged closes
+through 2026-05-27. GitHub shows 72 more after it, among them 60 on
+2026-08-20/21 in what the timestamps show as one sweep (the two sampled, #85 and
+#366, closed by Logan), #1023 by Dependabot on 2026-09-02 ("Superseded by
+#1026"), and #980 on 2026-09-03, auto-closed when its head branch was deleted in
+a rename. The rule is forward-looking from 2026-09-09: it does not re-litigate
+those closes, and it is not a description of past practice.
+
 ---
 
 ## Character Set & Notation