Reviewer Feedback Reading

Independent Review Context

• This contract governs feedback disposition and release readiness
• An independent read-only review may use a bounded historical index to locate contracts and prior source identities; an index never disposes of feedback or establishes that it needs no action
• A fresh current-head review assesses current source independently; its verdict does not claim prior feedback was read or handled
• Before disposing of feedback or merging, the author/release handler still reads every full review body and inline comment through skills/release/poll-pr-reviews.sh and GitHub's original feedback; omitted or unavailable index entries remain unread

State Classifies Gating, Not Reading

• A review's state (APPROVED, CHANGES_REQUESTED, COMMENTED) classifies whether the review gates the merge — it never classifies whether the review's content must be read
• COMMENTED and "non-blocking" describe the merge gate, never permission to skip the review body
• Read every reviewer's review body in full and every inline comment body before judging that any item needs no action
• A COMMENTED review with zero inline comments still carries a body that must be read
• State classifies gating, severity classifies acting, neither classifies reading — read all, then act per rules/review-severity.md

Read the Text, Not the Tally

• Review states and inline-comment counts are loop-control and gate signals, never a substitute for the words a reviewer wrote
• Fetch the actual review body and inline comment text; conclude an item is non-blocking only after reading it
• "Non-blocking" is a conclusion reached after reading, never a reason to not read

Report the Substance

• Never report a reviewer as handled by its state label alone — "COMMENTED (non-blocking)" is not a summary of what the reviewer said
• Name each reviewer whose body you read and summarize the content, not the classification
• Lumping reviewers under one state label hides unread feedback — account for each reviewer's body separately