Practical AI workflow checklists · September 13, 2026
A real Colibri decision
This is a dated walkthrough of Bill’s actual contribution work, not a script to execute. The original review combined several updates; this edition separates the September 4–7 case from the later outcome.
1. Start with the useful result
The aim was to keep Bill’s public Colibri fork appropriately current while preserving a tested, exact change. On September 4, 2026, the prepared target would move only the fork’s dev branch from a642a8b6… to f58a2679…. The dated review recorded a 17-commit fast-forward and passing checks. Preparation alone did not authorize a public push.
2. Check what changed
By the September 7 check, the fork was still at the old starting point. Upstream dev had reached 9bc991e3…, 98 commits ahead of that fork and 81 beyond the reviewed target. The earlier target was still technically reachable, but it no longer met the current upkeep goal. That is the useful distinction: “can apply” does not always mean “still the right action.”
3. Keep the old record; make a fresh decision
The reviewed case records preserving the September 4 packet rather than silently expanding it. It also records a separately approved later main/dev update with force=false and exact public readback. Those are historical facts from the dated review, not permission to move a branch today.
4. Refresh the outcome, too
The September 13, 2026 public API snapshot at 12:22:45 UTC reports 16 merged Bill-authored Colibri pull requests and zero open Bill-authored pull requests. It confirms that #1389, #1421 and #1439 merged on September 12. The earlier review’s “13 merged” and “#1389 open” statements must stay tied to their earlier checks; they are not the September 13 state.
For one concrete example, PR #1439 is titled “test(planner): avoid materializing zero-filled shard payloads.” The recorded author is bherald, head commit is 1c549b1299f2e9c54c80755621fb94dd70e0cb34, and merged_at is September 12 at 22:45:04 UTC. A merge proves the contribution was accepted into upstream history. It does not prove a faster model response on Bill’s machine or that a particular host has deployed it.
Try it on your own work
Write the exact target on sheet 1, the source and date on sheet 2, and the approval boundary on sheet 3. Immediately before acting, check that the target still matches. Afterward, use sheet 6 to read the actual result. If a fact changed, update the decision and keep the earlier record.
No new model run, branch update or public action was performed to prepare this walkthrough. The September 13 status is a captured snapshot, not a live counter.