Publish versioned issue and pull request reviewer rules #2680

Problem

The accepted Base governance design and implementation plan identify package 16a as a required deliverable. This issue translates that package into a reviewed, bounded issue/PR train; it does not authorize implementation before the issue reaches Ready.

Expected behavior

Publish versioned issue and PR reviewer rule sets/prompts under the optional first-party governance/ location. Define how a fresh reviewer session receives only the issue, PR, code, active decisions and rules; record reviewer tool/model/session; require each finding to cite a rule; prohibit agents from posting or granting maintainer overrides. Base-supported consumers use the accepted fresh-session defaults and are not required to add governance/.

Scope and non-goals

Scope: Publish versioned issue and PR reviewer rule sets/prompts under the optional first-party governance/ location. Define how a fresh reviewer session receives only the issue, PR, code, active decisions and rules; record reviewer tool/model/session; require each finding to cite a rule; prohibit agents from posting or granting maintainer overrides. Base-supported consumers use the accepted fresh-session defaults and are not required to add governance/.

Non-goals: Do not silently expand scope, activate unreviewed policy, mirror issue fields onto PRs, grant agents merge/release authority, or make changes outside the named affected areas. Any new product decision or materially new work gets a separate issue and decision record.

Affected areas

• optional first-party governance rules/prompts, AGENTS.md and docs/review-governance.md.
• Accepted source: governance design and implementation plan, PR #2664
• Parent tracker: #2665

Impact and evidence

1. Product intent: Implements only the accepted governance design and plan; any product-requirement change must be filed separately.
2. Architecture and contracts: Destination is the package-specific section of the merged governance design/implementation plan plus the affected canonical contract named above.
3. User guidance: The issue identifies likely guidance paths; the implementation PR must name updated user/FAQ/README paths or give a change-specific reason why none is affected.
4. CLI/API and reference: The affected-area list determines whether CLI/API/reference docs change; the implementation PR must cite the exact reference path or justify no impact.
5. Operations and safety: No privileged automation or merge authority is implied; the PR must list operational/security effects and any rollback.
6. Validation and testing: The issue lists the planned tests; the PR must report executed validation and explain any unavailable test.
7. Examples and downstream use: The implementation PR must identify affected examples/consumers or give evidence that this change has no downstream surface.
8. Governance and contributor process: This package changes or preserves the contributor/governance contract as described in Scope; links must point to the canonical rules.
9. Decision records: No new decision is accepted by this issue; any durable deviation requires a proposed decision record and explicit maintainer acceptance.
10. Release notes: The PR must include a user-facing release-note line or a reasoned none; this issue does not pre-decide that disposition.

These are issue-stage dispositions to refine during Triage. Before Ready, every category must have its exact destination or evidence-based no-impact reason; the PR repeats the ten-category evidence for actual changes.

Open questions

• None known. If implementation exposes an unresolved contract, return this issue to Triage and record the decision before implementation continues.

Plan

• S1: One focused PR for this issue. Use Fixes #N only if no additional slice is needed; if the maintainer approves multiple PRs, name each S1…Sn here before the first is opened and use Part of #N.
• Dependencies: the P1 issue
• Acceptance criteria:
• Issue and PR rule sets cover the accepted impact contract, review evidence, thread response/resolution and maintainer escalation.
• Prompts state the fresh-session/no-author-memory boundary and cite rule identifiers for findings.
• Agent permissions explicitly exclude merge, release, Project/status writes and maintainer override authority.
• Base ecosystem defaults select the accepted different-tool mode; consumer profile uses fresh-session mode unless configured otherwise.
• Rules and prompts are versioned, reviewed and mapped from canonical process docs.
• Validation:
• Review prompts against issue/PR fixtures with correct, missing and disputed evidence.
• Verify a clean reviewer session can follow the rules without author transcript or persistent memory.
• Check no prompt instruction grants authority absent from the security contract.
• Risks and rollback: Prompt text can drift from policy; link rules to accepted decisions and keep a reviewed version map. Revert prompt changes if they broaden permissions.
• Decision impact: No decision is accepted merely by implementing the issue. Record the relevant accepted decision/ADR and file a superseding record if the maintainer approves a change.