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Review Fallback is Conditional on Same-Identity Collisions

The Broader Goal at the End of the Previous PR

The #1436 identity-routing arc separated autonomous GitHub operations across distinct role GitHub Apps (qa, dev, pm, etc.), ensuring autonomous writes no longer leak into the human operator's personal GitHub identity. Live verification proved that synlynk-synlynk-qa[bot] successfully submits approving reviews (gh pr review --approve) and squash-merges PRs authored by both human and sibling role bots (#1455).

However, historical configurations encoded a blanket #423 fallback (review_fallback: comment_checklist), originally introduced when all dispatches shared the repository owner's GitHub identity and self-approval failed. With distinct App identities in place, qa App approvals are the default when reviewer and author identities differ; comment-checklist fallback is needed only on same-login collisions.

Strategic Shifts in This PR

None. Reconciles policy and instructions with the target end-state defined in §5, §6.4, and §7 of docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-06-workspace-agent-identity-routing-design.md.

What This PR Shipped

  1. Policy Configuration:

    • Updated .synlynk/policy.json and default workspace policy in synlynk/policy.py to set review_fallback: "same_identity_comment_checklist".
    • Updated policy test fixtures in tests/test_policy.py to reflect the new default value and added assertions validating it.

  2. Living Instructions and SOPs:

    • Updated _PR_REVIEW_SOP and _repair_pr_review_sop in synlynk/probe.py so the #423 identity note explicitly documents that qa APPROVE (gh pr review --approve) is the default whenever reviewer identity differs from PR author login, reserving comment-checklist fallback strictly for same-identity collisions. Sessions are instructed never to skip --approve by default.
    • Synchronized living agent directives (GEMINI.md, GROK.md, AGENTS.md) with the updated PR review discipline SOP.

  3. UX Core Helper:

    • Updated synlynk/uxcore.py's approve_pr docstring and comment-checklist message to reflect that --approve is the default and formal comment review is triggered only upon same-login collision.

  4. Design Spec Alignment:

    • Marked §5's #423 sentence and §7's Policy follow-up item in docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-06-workspace-agent-identity-routing-design.md as addressed in this PR (#1436 leftover).

Brainstorm Visuals Used

None. Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-06-workspace-agent-identity-routing-design.md.

What This Achieved on the Path to Autonomy

Formal approvals are now the unambiguous default across both policy configuration and agent directives when reviewing across distinct personas. The #423 comment fallback is properly scoped to true identity collisions (same author and reviewer logins), ensuring GitHub pull request review gates receive real approvals from authorized verification agents.

Strategic Note: The Goal at the End of This PR

With the review_fallback policy, living SOPs, and spec tracking reconciled, #1436 leftover tasks are resolved without modifying jobs.py, dispatch environments, or sibling execution paths.

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