🐛 Activity Monitor: no consistent way to settle a human gate — scattered needs-human chevron, sentinel chip, Approve and Let hive decide; sentinel and decision gates have no verb #17504

Maintainer screenshots 2026-11-10 01:44Z / 01:50Z (full board): "I don't see a consistent way to settle each of these using the UI. Some are confusing, others have no controls to take action, others have too many."

Observed across six rows:

• docs#686 / hive#17470 (PR 🌱 dco: waive the #17464 squash whose sign-off address differs from its author #17481): dim Needs human · review chevron in the PR-in-progress slot while CI is lit 61/73 · 12 running, plus a sentinel chip, Approve ▸ and Let hive decide ▸ — three controls for one gate, and nothing that answers the sentinel alert.
• crux#139 / PR Clickable repo cards + fix vanishing intensity gauge #140: CI lit 18/19 · tide running AND Merge queue lit ⏸ Held · sentinel · confirm… at the same time (two lit chevrons), Approve ▸ / Let hive decide ▸, but no "confirm" action anywhere.
• hive#17451 / PR 🐛 dashboard: show Tide's reason on a CI chevron with a missing Prow presubmit #17480 "needs decision": Approve ▸ + Let hive decide ▸, the actual question only in the expander line, no "Decide" verb.
• secondary rows [shared-ci] mutation failing across hivecommons/hive #17463 / [scanner] 🐛 dashboard: link Tide's status description so a missing Prow presubmit is distinguishable from a failing check #17476 of the shared PR 🐛 dashboard: show Tide's reason on a CI chevron with a missing Prow presubmit #17480: a passive "decision pending on 🐛 dashboard: show Tide's reason on a CI chevron with a missing Prow presubmit #17480" chip that is not a link, yet their own lit Needs human · decisi… chevron.

Spec (decision made):

1. Exactly ONE human-gate control per gated row: a segmented pill 👤 Needs human · <reasons> (reasons review / decision / sentinel / hold, comma-separated when stacked; hover = the reviewer's question or the sentinel rule; the question stays in the expander line too).
2. Verbs fixed per reason — review: Approve · Request changes… · Let hive decide; decision: Decide… (question pre-filled) · Approve as-is · Let hive decide; sentinel: Confirm safe · Let hive decide; hold: Release hold · Let hive decide. Stacked reasons union, de-duplicated, max 3 visible + … overflow menu.
3. "Needs human" / "Held · …" / "Sentinel alert · needs human" are never chevron words; the lit chevron is the real stage with the amber ham-human-gated outline as the bar's only cue (one lit chevron, 🐛 Activity Monitor: exactly one lit stage chevron per row #17337).
4. Secondary rows of a shared PR render no gate and no needs-human chevron; the decision pending on #N chip links to the primary row (✨ Activity Monitor: shared-PR issues group under their primary row #17333 anchoring).
5. In-app modals/toasts only; optimistic settling… until the next snapshot. A sentinel confirmation endpoint next to the approve path, audited.
6. Docs: a "Settling a human gate" table (reason → verbs → what gets posted); tests per reason's verb set, stacking, secondary suppression, and fixtures for 🌱 dco: waive the #17464 squash whose sign-off address differs from its author #17481 and crux Clickable repo cards + fix vanishing intensity gauge #140.

Related: #17334, #17337, #17457, #17453, #17327.