clownfish/instructions/closure-policy.md

Closure Policy

Only close when:

• the item is open;
• it is a true duplicate or superseded by a clear canonical item;
• it is clearly covered by a candidate fix that should own validation and follow-up;
• a clear comment has been posted first;
• the comment preserves credit and gives a reopen path;
• the action is allowed by the job frontmatter.

Default close comment shape:

Thanks for this. I am closing this as a duplicate of #CANONICAL because both reports track the same root cause: REASON.

I am keeping the canonical thread open there so fixes, validation, and follow-up stay in one place. If this has a different reproduction path or still reproduces after the canonical fix lands, please reply and we can reopen or split it back out.

Never close:

• an item that is already closed in live GitHub state;
• unclear root cause;
• unique reproduction detail;
• unique affected platform/version;
• active maintainer discussion;
• assigned work in progress;
• contributor PR with useful code that should be merged or credited.

Useful contributor PR replacement exception:

• close or supersede the PR only after the run has a concrete replacement fix plan or PR path;
• the close comment must say why Clownfish cannot safely update or land the branch;
• the comment must name the replacement path and state that the contributor will be credited;
• the comment must explicitly contain credit wording such as credit, attribution, Thanks @user, or source PR;
• the fix artifact must include the contributor username, original PR URL, validation plan, and changelog attribution when the fix is user-facing.

Auto-closure payloads must include target_updated_at. The applicator will re-fetch live GitHub state and skip the close if the target changed after review.