Land the release-PR skip for Review and Fix Passes on main ahead of #2054 #2170

This was generated by AI during triage.

Problem

Scheduled Review run (--author) and Fix run Passes take release bump pull requests. On 2026-11-13, during the 0.31.0 release with scripts/release.sh:

• Lima's review --author JacobStephens2 took release PR Release 0.31.0 #2165 at 17:16 and labelled it in-progress. release.sh's targeted Fix run was then refused ("pull request is already reserved or labelled in-progress"), and the release stopped until the review ended at 17:50.
• factory's review --author JacobStephens2 took Release 0.31.0 #2165 again at 18:08 and failed at 18:24 when the release merged it.

Neither pushed a commit this time. But a Review run that pushes a fix to a release branch breaks the exact-version-bump tree check, and a Fix run with merge could Self-merge the bump before its tag is published.

#2156 already fixes this (commit 04bf9bc, is_release_bump in src/github/review.rs, tests in tests/review_pass.rs and tests/fix_pass.rs). It is merged only into the #2054 Spec branch issue-2054, which reaches main when the whole Spec PR #2162 lands. Until then every manual release can be picked up again.

Agent Brief

Category: bug
Summary: Land #2156's release-PR skip on main ahead of the #2054 Spec, so background Review and Fix Passes stop taking release-* pull requests now.

Current behavior: On main, Review run (--author) and Fix run Pass candidate selection accept an open PR into main whose head branch starts with release-.

Desired behavior:

• Port only the admission skip from 04bf9bc: is_release_bump and its two uses in src/github/review.rs (the --author review candidates and fix_candidate), plus the matching tests in tests/review_pass.rs and tests/fix_pass.rs.
• Explicit targets keep working: thirdshift fix <pr-url> --no-merge --no-base-fix and thirdshift review <PR URL> on a release PR are unchanged.
• Leave the rest of Fence release bump PRs, session tag pushes, and workflow tag publication #2156 (session destructive-command signals, release workflow tag guard, setup-release-tags.sh, docs for those) on the Spec branch.
• Keep the code identical to the Spec branch's version, so merging the Spec later doesn't conflict or duplicate it.
• Update docs/guide.md where Review and Fix Pass candidate selection is described, with one sentence that release bump PRs are skipped.

Acceptance criteria:

• A Review run Pass with --author skips an open release-X.Y.Z → main PR by that author.
• A Fix run Pass skips it too, with and without merge.
• An explicit thirdshift fix <release PR URL> still runs.
• scripts/affected-tests main passes.

Out of scope: The rest of #2156 and the thirdshift release Command (#2054, #2157–#2160).

Related

• Fence release bump PRs, session tag pushes, and workflow tag publication #2156 (the original, on the Spec branch), Spec: thirdshift release Command and Pass for scheduled and on-demand releases #2054 story 18, PR Release 0.31.0 #2165 (the 0.31.0 release PR).