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Enforce required human review when protected paths are modified #37

Description

@fullsend-ai-retro

What happened

On PR #36, the fullsend-ai review agent correctly identified that AGENTS.md was modified and flagged it as a protected path, stating it could not approve and that human review was required. The CODEOWNERS file assigns @fullsend-ai/core as owner of all paths (* @fullsend-ai/core). Despite this, the PR was self-merged by the author without any recorded human review approval. The review agent's second run (commit 05bd450e) explicitly noted: 'Protected paths detected: AGENTS.md modified — review agent cannot approve; human reviewer must approve.'

What could go better

The review agent's protected-path detection is advisory only — it posts a comment but cannot block merge. GitHub branch protection rules apparently do not enforce CODEOWNERS review on this repo, or the author's membership in @fullsend-ai/core allows self-approval. AGENTS.md controls agent behavior instructions for the entire repository; changes to it should require human oversight from someone other than the author. Without enforcement, the review agent's warning is easy to overlook or bypass. Confidence: high that enforcement is missing, moderate uncertainty about whether this is intentional (small team may prefer velocity over ceremony).

Proposed change

Enable the 'Require review from Code Owners' setting in the main branch protection rules on GitHub. Additionally, consider adding explicit CODEOWNERS entries for sensitive files to make protection visible: AGENTS.md @fullsend-ai/core and CODEOWNERS @fullsend-ai/core. If self-merge is intentional for velocity, at minimum add a CI check that warns (or fails) when AGENTS.md is modified without a review from someone other than the PR author.

Validation criteria

After enabling the branch protection setting, attempt to merge a PR that modifies AGENTS.md without a CODEOWNERS-approved review from a non-author. GitHub should block the merge. Verify on the next 3 PRs that touch AGENTS.md or CODEOWNERS that a human review is required before merge.


Generated by retro agent from #36

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