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Design: a PLATE-native way to close and manage Question issues (Closes fails on release branches)

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
github, python
Domain
devtools

Research direction

Read the related issues #427 and #469, then review the documented Question closing path and the evidence in this issue. Evaluate the listed options against the decision criteria, including how adopters handle integration branches and preserve committed answer artifacts. Done means a short design doc under docs/ and child issues for the selected mechanism.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

area:cli area:docs Design need:decision

Related: #427 (closed), #469.

Andrew (2026-10-27): it's confusing for PLATE adopters that GitHub only auto-closes an issue when a Closes #N PR merges into the default branch (main), not into release. Find another way to manage open Question-type issues. Until this is designed, closing PRs for one adopter repo's answered Questions are on hold: don't open them and don't close those Questions.

Problem

PLATE's rule is that a Question closes only through a PR with Closes #N that commits docs/research/<slug>.md. Adopter repos that use a release integration branch merge those PRs into release, and GitHub ignores closing keywords on non-default branches. So answered Questions stay open, the answer is committed, and nothing signals that it's done.

Evidence (examples only)

  • Titans-of-Kasperia: PRs #9 and #23 merged into release on 2026-07-28 and closed none of the 12 answered Questions (#2–4, #10–13, #15–19).
  • u.ai: release is about 173 commits ahead of main, so its closing keywords won't fire until a release is cut.
  • akasper/plate itself has an extra workflow step that closes linked issues on merge to release (#427). That step isn't in the template adopters get, so PLATE behaves differently from adopters' repos.
  • gh plate qanda --record posts the answer as a comment but opens no PR. plate-core 0.8.4 writes answer files to the wrong location and only parses PLATE-ANSWER blocks, not PLATE-QANDA-ANSWER.

Why it confuses adopters

The documented closing path silently does nothing on the branch they actually merge into. Answered Questions pile up as open, inventories overcount open decisions, and people start closing issues by hand, which goes around the rule.

Options to evaluate (no choice made yet)

  1. Port the #427 close-on-merge-to-release step into the adopter payload template.
  2. A PLATE-native close step or command (for example gh plate question close) that closes the Question when the answer artifact merges into any configured integration branch.
  3. Add an "answered" status label or state instead of closing, and close at release time.
  4. Document the release-branch workflow and the expected delay until the release merges into main.
  5. Have the gate or a doctor check detect and warn about Questions whose answer artifact merged but whose issue is still open.
  6. Some combination of these. Also fix the qanda --record and plate-core answer parsing and path gaps above.

Decision criteria

Works the same for adopters with or without a release branch. Keeps the answer as a committed git artifact. Low setup. No manual closing.

Expected git artifact

A short design doc under docs/ and child issues for the chosen mechanism.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
1
Forks
0
Avg merge
2d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
40

Getting set up

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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