**The worst symptom in this family: the branch landed, and the board
says the task failed.**
`project-engine`'s merge-confirmed finalization spread the task's
**real** column into `getTaskHardMergeBlocker` with no `reviewColumns`,
so the identity check ran against the literal `in-review`. On a renamed
board it returned `task is in 'signoff', must be in 'in-review'`, and
the caller parked the card:
```
status: "failed"
error: "Merge confirmed but finalization blocked: task is in 'signoff', must be in 'in-review'"
```
For work that had already merged.
## Its sibling had already solved this
`auto-merge-finalization.ts` passes the **review-eligible sentinel**
instead of the card's own column, with the reasoning recorded at that
site: `getTaskHardMergeBlocker` asks *"is this card blocked by anything
other than where it sits?"*, and its callers are recovery paths for
landed work that a graph crash can leave resting in any column.
`project-engine` simply never got the same treatment.
## One name instead of two spellings
Rather than write the sentinel a second time, it is exported once as
`REVIEW_ELIGIBLE_SENTINEL_COLUMN` next to the helper whose contract
gives it meaning, and both recovery paths use it. **Two sites
independently spelling a magic value is how one of them came to be
missing it** — that is the actual root cause here, not the literal
itself.
This also answers the census, which flagged the new literal — correctly.
Its guidance (which I wrote, in #2909) is to hoist a deliberate literal
into a *declaration*, where a `DELIBERATE-LITERAL` marker actually
attaches, instead of leaving it mid-expression where the marker is
silently ignored. The shared constant is exactly that, and it lowers
`auto-merge-finalization`'s literal count too.
## Revert result
| | reverted → |
| --- | --- |
| sentinel replaced by the card's own renamed column | reproduces the
shipped string |
The middle test asserts that string deliberately — it is what landed in
`task.error`, so a regression reports what the operator would actually
have seen. A third case checks the sentinel does **not** suppress
genuine blockers: incomplete steps still block finalization in any lane.
These drive the helper directly; reaching `project-engine`'s
finalization end to end needs a live engine, a merge run and a real
repo, while the defect is entirely in *what the blocker is asked*.
## Verification
`pnpm test:gate` 161 + 487 + 13 + 71; `project-engine` +
`auto-merge-finalization` + the new suite, 207; `tsc` clean on core and
engine; lint, census `--strict`, FNXC gate, changesets all clean.
<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit
* **Bug Fixes**
* Fixed merge-confirmed tasks being finalized correctly when boards use
renamed workflow columns.
* Prevented already-merged tasks from being incorrectly marked as failed
due to custom review-column names.
* Preserved enforcement of genuine incomplete-step blockers.
* **Tests**
* Added coverage for finalization on renamed lanes and legitimate merge
blockers.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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