The pull request card
The Done view shows one card per pull request. Its header holds the title, the PR number, the Watch toggle and View on GitHub, in every state, so the pull request is always one click away. Merge PR, View Changes and the ⋯ menu stay below the card. Under the header, one neutral line says what the watch is doing, for example “Round 6 · 1 of 5 this run · fixing ci / Test”, with Pause or Resume and Stop beside it. Below that come the pull request’s checks and reviews, and the round log. Turning Watch off stops future rounds without changing the piece’s settings. Turning it back on carries on from where it stopped.What a round does
Each round reads the pull request and builds a list of what needs work:- new review comments, line threads and review bodies alike;
- failing checks;
- a branch that is behind its base;
- merge conflicts with the base.
Runs and the round budget
A run is one stretch of watching, from the moment you start the watch until it stops. Each run gets its own budget of rounds, five by default, and the line counts against it: “Round 6 · 1 of 5 this run” is the sixth round in the piece’s history and the first of this run. Round numbers never repeat. They count up across the piece’s whole history, so a watch you stop and start again carries on at the next number. The round log marks each new run with a “Watch restarted” divider and its time, and folds the earlier runs into one row you can open with Show earlier runs. Pausing is not a restart. Pause lets a running round finish first, and paused time uses up no rounds. Resume carries on in the same run with the same budget. Stop asks first (“Stop watching this PR?”); the round log stays, and turning the watch back on starts a new run. A run ends on its own when one of these holds. The line then reads “Watch stopped · ” followed by the reason.Check rows
Every check row on the card says what the watch is doing about it, so a check is never red without a reason next to it. Passed checks fold into one row (“4 passed”) that opens on a click; failing checks always show.
A failing check is always treated as work. The agent fixes it or says why it can’t; a check with no answer is never quietly skipped. “Re-running after push” only counts when the round actually pushed something.
Each round in the log shows the worst row it left behind. A round never shows green while one of its checks is red.
Conflicts and a branch behind its base
When the branch conflicts with its base, or is behind it, the round brings the base in. By default it rebases the branch onto the base, lets the agent resolve any conflict commit by commit, runs the same checks as any round, and pushes with lease protection: the push only goes through if the branch on GitHub still sits where it was when the round started. If anyone pushed in between, nothing is overwritten and the watch pauses with “Push failed”. Retry push tries the same protected push again and never forces. A rebase rewrites the branch, so the watch only rebases a branch that nobody else pushes to. It merges the base in instead, and says why on the card, in these cases:
If the project or app sets Conflict resolution to Merge in Settings → Git & Worktrees, the watch always merges and states no fallback.
While a conflict is being resolved, the watch can stop and hand it to you. The card then offers Take over in a session, which hands you the conflict and lets the watch carry on once you resume it, and Abort, which undoes the rebase or merge and puts the branch back as it was.
With the watch off, a conflicting pull request shows a “Conflicts with main” row with Rebase onto main, or Merge main in when one of the reasons above applies. Both ask first and name the push before anything happens.
When the agent disagrees
Sometimes the agent reads a review comment and decides the change is not needed. It does not make the change; it records its reason, and the review row on the card reads “The agent disagrees:” followed by that reason. That row carries two actions. Agree and reply… sides with the agent and tells the reviewer. It opens a confirmation card titled “Agree and reply to” and the reviewer’s name that lists every step Fermata will post to GitHub, in order, with the exact text of each. A line comment is answered in its thread; a review body or a top-level comment has no thread, so the reason goes out as a comment on the pull request that links to it. You can edit the reply before you send it. Nothing is posted until you press Send, and Fermata posts as you, stopping at the first step that fails. Afterwards the row reads “Agreed and replied”. While the reviewer’s review still requests changes it reads “Waiting for CodeRabbit to re-check” instead, with that reviewer’s name. If a step fails, the row says which one and what was already posted, and offers Open on GitHub to finish by hand. Dismiss (local only) marks the disagreement as seen and posts nothing on GitHub. Use it when you will handle the comment yourself. The row then reads “Dismissed here only”, and if the reviewer still requests changes, it says so. In the round log, a disagreement with a person reads “Needs you”; one with a bot reads as a “Note”, since a bot’s comment is context rather than a question for you. Bot notices are dimmed there with a “bot notice” tag.Settings
The watch’s settings live in Settings → Pieces, under “PR watch”. Each one can be set for the app, for a project, and for a single piece in its Flow Configuration sheet.
Watch pull requests applies when a piece opens its pull request. Pull requests that were already open are not swept in; turn Watch on in their card to start one.
With “Ask before each push”, each round commits locally and the watch waits for you on the card (“Ready to push”). The round clock stops until you choose Push or Discard.
For how the pull request opens in the first place, see Review the diff and open the pull request.