From 0cdfff879e0bd87e9f613cd7f5ddab346b35eb8c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Steve Yegge <steve.yegge@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2026 15:46:32 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] feat(witness): Implement ephemeral polecat model for
 immediate recycling (#81)
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Updates HandlePolecatDone to auto-nuke polecats immediately after MR submission
when cleanup_status=clean. This separates polecat lifecycle from MR lifecycle:

- Polecat lifecycle: spawning → working → mr_submitted → nuked
- MR lifecycle: created → queued → processed → merged (handled by Refinery)

Key changes:
- Try auto-nuke for ALL POLECAT_DONE messages regardless of MR status
- If cleanup_status=clean (branch pushed), nuke immediately
- If dirty state, create cleanup wisp for manual intervention
- Cleanup wisps are now exception handling, not the normal flow

Conflict resolution is handled by the Refinery, which creates NEW tasks
for NEW polecats when merge conflicts are detected.

(gt-si8rq.9)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>