Escalation deadlock risk with shared tokens #29

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opened 2026-05-02 06:13:22 +00:00 by rodin · 0 comments
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With shared tokens and parallel CI jobs, a deadlock can occur:

  1. sonnet → REQUEST_CHANGES, security → escalates to REQUEST_CHANGES
  2. Dev fixes, pushes
  3. sonnet wants APPROVED but sees security REQUEST_CHANGES → re-escalates
  4. security wants APPROVED but sees sonnet REQUEST_CHANGES → re-escalates

Mitigated by the stale flag (reviews from old commits are skipped), but within the same CI run with parallel jobs, the race is theoretically possible.

Best fix: separate tokens per role (see sister issue). Alternative: don't check siblings at all and let each role post its honest verdict.

With shared tokens and parallel CI jobs, a deadlock can occur: 1. sonnet → REQUEST_CHANGES, security → escalates to REQUEST_CHANGES 2. Dev fixes, pushes 3. sonnet wants APPROVED but sees security REQUEST_CHANGES → re-escalates 4. security wants APPROVED but sees sonnet REQUEST_CHANGES → re-escalates Mitigated by the `stale` flag (reviews from old commits are skipped), but within the same CI run with parallel jobs, the race is theoretically possible. Best fix: separate tokens per role (see sister issue). Alternative: don't check siblings at all and let each role post its honest verdict.
rodin closed this issue 2026-05-02 16:46:06 +00:00
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Reference: rodin/review-bot#29