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Per-Author Open-PR Budget Close Policy

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Per-Author Open-PR Budget Close Policy

Read when changing automatic trimming for external authors with unusually large open pull-request backlogs.

author_pr_budget_exceeded is PR-only and dark by default. The review path does not fetch an author's repository-wide open-PR count: doing so would add one GitHub Search request to every PR review. Reviews may propose the reason only when that count is already present in context. Normally, apply promotes an eligible kept-open report after deterministic live verification.

Enable closes with CLAWSWEEPER_AUTHOR_PR_BUDGET_CLOSE_ENABLED=true. The live budget defaults to 15 and can be overridden with CLAWSWEEPER_AUTHOR_PR_BUDGET. The policy closes at most five PRs per author per apply run; override that gradual-trim cap with CLAWSWEEPER_AUTHOR_PR_BUDGET_MAX_CLOSES_PER_RUN.

Apply requires all of these conditions:

  • external author association, never OWNER, MEMBER, or COLLABORATOR;
  • more live open PRs than the configured budget, from one bounded GitHub Search

    • query for the candidate;

  • a D/F overall rating or missing, mock-only, or insufficient real behavior

    • proof;

  • PR age of at least seven days and no current-head commit, status, check-run,

    • source-run, or force-push activity for at least seven days;

  • no protected or PR auto-close-exempt label and no maintainer assignment,

    • requested review, comment, review, or inline review comment.

S/A/B-rated PRs with sufficient or overridden proof always stay open. Missing, malformed, incomplete, or failed GitHub reads fail closed. Trusted-comment routing never performs this close directly; apply-decisions owns the live count, inactivity proof, and per-run cap.

The close comment reports the live count and budget, identifies the PR as a lowest-signal trim, explains that finishing or closing other PRs frees budget, and invites reopening once the author is under budget or real proof is added.