A required pre-merge step is not necessarily a content review. Review-column
workflows also require a deterministic verification gate (exit codes) and a
documentation/delivery gate; neither records a `reviewInputFingerprint` because
neither binds a diff. `evaluatePreMergeApprovals` compared them against the merge
content anyway, classified both as `unprovable-content`, and `canMergeTask`
answered "task has no provable approval for the content being merged" — an
unsatisfiable gate, so NOTHING could ever merge on such a workflow. Cards reached
the merge, were refused, and looped through verification-remediation.
The carve-out is narrow: a step that is neither `code-review` nor a
`reviewKind: "code"` result AND recorded no fingerprint of its own is not
diff-bound and passes on its status. A content review that DID record a
fingerprint is still compared, and a code review missing one is still refused, so
FN-180's guarantee is untouched. Reverting the carve-out fails the new tests.
builtin:review-gated-coding carried the identical latent defect and never reached
its merge to expose it.
Proven end to end: pipeline-smoke now drives S01 on builtin:coding-ideas-v2 from
the Ideas intake through promotion, planning, plan review, implementation,
verification, documentation, summary and code review to `merged-done` —
63 tests, 19/19 scenarios, 74.7s against the 90s budget. S01 keeps that workflow
permanently, because all five defects fixed in this effort passed structural
review and only a real card reaching `merged-done` exposed them.