Ceratops Repo Lifecycle

Ceratops Repository Lifecycle

Goal

Route repository compatibility, local Git, GitHub, release publication, and deployment lifecycle work to the narrowest action reference. Keep repository state transitions in one skill while each repository owns declared remote release publication, artifact identity, and local deployment in sdlc/sdlc.yml.

Context

Action References

• Create or publish a repository: references/create-or-publish.md
• Make an existing repository Ceratops-compatible: references/make-repo-compatible.md
• Review GitHub, code, PR, artifact, registry, and release contracts: references/contracts-review.md
• Validate or apply a CodeQL alert disposition: references/codeql-disposition.md
• Audit or repair repository health: references/health-audit.md
• Maintain dependency PRs or alerts: references/dependency-maintenance.md
• Promote selected branches with or without deployment: references/promote-change.md
• Ship, synchronize, publish, deploy, and finalize selected work: references/ship.md
• Finalize an already-ready PR: references/merge-pr.md

Inputs To Capture

• Target repository, checkout, task worktree, branch, selected source branches, PR, artifact, dependency queue, compatibility gap, or creation request that identifies the action.
• Whether promotion should stop after assembling release/local, run an explicit ordered selection of deploy.operations, or continue directly into terminal shipping with selected release and deployment operations only at their lifecycle-owned phases.
• Required live GitHub, local repository, CI, artifact, credential, and deployment context named by the selected action reference.

Constraints

Skill-Specific Rules

• Keep local promotion, GitHub publication, guarded merge, synchronization, deployment routing, repository compatibility, and selected-source cleanup in this skill.
• Execute only named structured operations from the release and deploy sections of sdlc/sdlc.yml through the operation runner. Do not interpret prose as executable commands.
• Use references/merge-pr.md for standalone PR finalization. Integrated ship must preserve every readiness, CI, Codex-review, and exact-head gate before its final admin merge.
• Inspect only branches and worktrees named by the selected pending-work scope.

Boundaries

• Use this skill for repository creation, compatibility, local Git promotion, GitHub lifecycle work, deterministic deployment, dependency maintenance, CodeQL disposition, and PR merge decisions.
• Use $ceratops-skill-lifecycle for skill-domain creation, mutation, managed deployment, contract review, or consistency review; accept its promotion or shipping handoff and return the managed-skill phase.
• Use references/contracts-review.md for contract review rather than lifecycle execution.
• Use a generic GitHub capability only when no Ceratops repository action fits or the selected reference explicitly requires it.

Workflow

1. Classify the action

• Use create-or-publish, make-repo-compatible, contracts-review, codeql-disposition, health-audit, or dependency-maintenance for their named repository surfaces.
• Use promote when selected committed branches should join a local release/local branch without deployment.
• Use promote-and-deploy when the same promotion should run explicitly selected repository operations in order, execute returned handoffs in that order, and report managed skills when no handoff is declared.
• Use composed promotion and shipping when selected committed branches should enter the complete ship workflow immediately after promotion; only shipping may publish a release or deploy in this mode.
• Use ship for the complete staged-branch PR, gate, merge, main sync, ordered remote release publication, ordered local repository deployment, returned handoff handling, late recheck, and selected-source cleanup workflow.
• Use merge-pr only when standalone PR finalization is the whole task.

2. Close from action evidence

• Report retained branches, worktrees, scopes, PRs, artifacts, or external side effects only when the selected action requires them.

Done When

Completion Gate

• Repository, release-publication, deployment, GitHub, artifact, and local-state claims are limited to the checks and live data actually verified.

Output Contract

Report only:

• selected action and final outcome
• intentionally retained branches, scopes, PRs, artifacts, worktrees, or external side effects with reasons

Example Invocation

Use $ceratops-repo-lifecycle to promote these task branches into release/local without deployment.