Pass the gates and open the PR
You have a signed, well-formed commit. Now let the checks run, make the change docs-complete, and open the pull request.
Let the pre-commit hooks run
When you commit, a pre-commit runner runs a standard set of checks against your staged files, and the same commands run in CI so local and CI stay in parity. Cogitave uses lefthook, a single polyglot runner, across its estate; its hooks-precommit standard defines the full set:
| Stage | What runs |
|---|---|
| Formatters | rustfmt, gofumpt, biome (TS/JSON/CSS/MD) |
| Linters | clippy (-D warnings), golangci-lint, biome lint |
| Hygiene | trailing-whitespace, final newline, large-file block, merge-conflict and YAML/JSON validity |
| Secret scan | gitleaks on staged files, offline |
| commit-msg | commitlint (Conventional Commits) |
Formatters that fix files re-stage them, so most style problems are corrected before you even see them.
IMPORTANT
The hook is a bypassable convenience - the real gate is CI. A contributor can skip the local hook, but the same checks run again on the pull request and block the merge there. So a green hook is a head start, not a guarantee; a passing PR is what counts. In CI the secret scan is also deeper (full history), not just staged files.
Satisfy docs-as-code
Docs-as-code is the discipline: if code changes, docs change, and a gate enforces it mechanically rather than on the honor system. Cogitave's version of the rule is blunt - if code changes, docs change - and its docs-required CI gate fails a pull request that touches code but does not touch docs/, a *.md file, or the CHANGELOG. That is written into Cogitave's floor (AGENTS.md, rule 4) and its documentation standard; a docs-exempt label exists for the genuine exceptions, but reaching for it is the exception, not the habit. Separately, schema validation and any broken xref, link, or bookmark are blocking errors, so the docs you write have to resolve, not just exist.
Practically: before you open the PR, ask what a reader needs to know because of your change, and write that down in the same branch.
Open the pull request
Push your branch and open the PR. You are proposing a change - opening a GitHub PR and stopping for review is exactly the propose-only shape you learned in the request lifecycle. The reviewer and the CODEOWNER hold the merge gate; agents propose and humans enact (AGENTS.md, rules 6-7).
TIP
Never push to a protected branch. Open a branch and a PR, let every gate go green, and let a human merge. That is the finish line.