The merge line and branch settings

When several reviews go into the same place, the merge line merges them one at a time, in order, each after its checks pass. It runs in the background, so nobody has to wait by the screen.

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Add a review

Open a review (see Reviews and merging). Its drawer says “The merge line merges reviews in order, each at its turn.” Click Add to the merge line, and confirm:

Joining the line is the approval to merge: at its turn it merges into Your site with nobody asking again. Before then, the line checks that it still merges cleanly and adds no secret keys to code, and sends it back if not. The live site changes only when it is published.

Hiveku then says where it stands, for example Added: 3rd in the merge line into Your site, behind "New pricing", "Footer links"., or that it merges next, and warns when it is likely to clash with a review ahead of it. Anyone who can merge a review can add it. These cannot join:

• a draft, or a review that is merged or closed;
• a review of Your site’s own changes: only a branch’s changes can join;
• a review that conflicts with where it goes: resolve the conflicts first;
• a review that is already in a line.

A line holds up to 100 reviews: “The merge line into Your site holds n reviews, the most it holds. Try again once some have merged.”

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Its place in the line

Each place reviews go into (Your site, or a branch) has its own line. Reviews merge in the order they were added; an urgent review goes to the front. The review drawer shows where it stands: A review that waits keeps its place and does not hold up the reviews behind it. AI tools can also set:

• Urgent priority, which puts a review at the front. Only an owner or admin, or an AI tool whose key was made by one, can set it: “Only an owner or admin can add a review to the front of the merge line (urgent).”
• What it waits for (up to 20 other reviews that must merge first). If one of those leaves the line or is closed, the reviews waiting for it leave too.

The dashboard adds reviews at the back of the line, and shows each review’s own place in its drawer. AI tools read the whole line with project_vcs_queue.

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What happens at its turn

1. Its changes are the ones that joined. A save on the branch after the review joined sends it back: New changes were saved to "spring-sale" after the review joined the merge line, so it was not merged. Add it again to merge the current changes.
2. It merges cleanly: “Merges into Your site without a conflict.” Otherwise it is sent back with the files that conflict.
3. It adds no secret keys (the secret scan, below).
4. It is approved, when the site’s Require an approval setting is on and it goes into Your site. It waits for the approval and keeps its place.
5. It builds, when Build before merging is on (see Build before merging).
6. It merges, exactly as Merge in the drawer does: all or nothing, with Your site’s latest changes saved as a version first.

The drawer shows each check as Passed, Failed, Warning or Waiting, with one sentence that says why.

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The secret scan

The secret scan reads only the lines the merge would add.

• It sends the review back for a private key, an AWS access key, a live Stripe secret key, a GitHub token, a Slack bot or user token, or a link with a password or token in it.
• It warns, and the review still merges, for a sign-in token (JWT), a Bearer token, a Stripe test key, a webhook signing secret, another kind of Slack token, or a value of 12 or more characters next to a name like “password”. Files that are not text, over 1 MB, or past the scan’s budget are listed as not scanned.

What it finds reads like this: “path line 12 looks like a live Stripe secret key. A secret in a file is readable by anyone who can read the site’s code. Remove it, keep it in the site’s secrets (Project Settings > Environment Variables) and read it from there, then add the review to the merge line again.” See Environment variables.

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Why a review leaves the line

When a review leaves the line, the person who added it is told why in their Hiveku notifications, and AI tools see the reason in project_vcs_queue among its recent outcomes. The review’s drawer then offers Add to the merge line again. Unless it was closed or merged elsewhere, the review stays open, unmerged.

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When it needs a person

A review stops in the line, “Stopped in the merge line into Your site: it needs a person”, when it could not be merged after 8 tries, when a merge stopped part way, or when 4 builds did not give a lasting pass. Take it out and add it again once the cause is fixed.

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Take a review out

Take out asks “Take this review out of the merge line into Your site?”: “It stays open, unmerged. You can add it again later; it then goes to the back of the line.” A review that is merging right now cannot be taken out: “Review #n is merging right now, so it cannot be changed or taken out of the merge line. Look again in a minute.”

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Who hears about it

The person who added the review hears when it merges, leaves the line or needs a person, for example ""New pricing” merged into Your site from the merge line” with “The changes are on Your site now. Publish to put them live.” When an AI tool added it, that is the person whose key it used. The line acts on each change at once (a review added or taken out, an approval, a finished build, a settings change) and checks itself every five minutes in case anything was missed.

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Branch settings

Branch settings, the gear in the Branches tab header, holds three rules for the site: All three are off until an owner or admin turns them on, in the dashboard. Everyone else sees whether they are on: “Only an owner or admin can change this.” AI tools can read the settings (project_vcs_settings) but never change them, and every change is written to the account’s audit log.

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Require reviews for outside AI tools

This setting makes AI tools that connect with a person’s own Hiveku key work through reviews. That covers the Claude Code plugin, Codex, the VS Code extension, Hiveku Sync, and AI apps connected to Hiveku (such as claude.ai and ChatGPT). People working in the dashboard, Hiveku AI and Hiveku’s department assistants, and workflows are not affected. With it on, such a tool cannot change Your site’s files. These are refused, and nothing is changed:

• saving, deleting or moving files, and folder changes
• restores and rollbacks, and versions that carry files
• merging a branch into Your site
• GitHub pulls, imports and generated code
• SEO tools that write page files
• the shared image and media library, which every branch uses and no review can carry: a person on the team changes it in the dashboard

CMS entries and marketing publishes are not site files, so they are not affected, and nothing on a branch is. A tool may still save what is already on Your site as a version, and run dry runs. The tool is told what to do instead: create a branch, save the changes on it, open a review into Your site, and add the review to the merge line. It merges into Your site at its turn, once its checks pass. A tool that tries to merge a review into Your site directly is pointed to the merge line.

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The approval link

Most AI tools ask you before they add a review to the merge line. When the app making the call does not (an AI app connected to Hiveku, or an older plugin), Hiveku asks you itself: the tool gets a one-time link to give you, and nothing is added yet. The link opens “An AI tool asked to add a review to the merge line”, with From branch, Merges into, Place in line, Asked by and Asked at, and Approve or Decline. Anyone who can merge reviews on the site can decide.

• The request waits for 10 minutes.
• An approval works once, within 10 minutes, for that same review, place in line, key and changes. If the review’s changes change in the meantime, the tool must ask again.
• A site takes up to 20 such requests an hour.

The apps that ask you first, and so never need the link: the Claude Code plugin from 0.27.30, the VS Code extension from 0.91.8, the Codex plugin from 0.3.14 and Hiveku Sync from 0.5.5.

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Build before merging

With this on, the merge line builds each review merged with where it goes, on a hidden copy, using the site’s test build (a build that is never deployed). A review whose build fails leaves the line, and the notice names the build’s error, with the file and line when the build gave them: fix it on the branch, then add it again. A passing build reads “This review merged with Your site builds.”

• Only in the merge line. Merge in the drawer does not build.
• Up to 150 MB. A larger site cannot turn it on (“Your site is about n MB, more than the 150 MB a build before merging can take, so “Build before merging” cannot be turned on for it. Nothing was changed.”), and a review whose merged result grows past 150 MB leaves the line.
• One build per site at a time, within the test build allowance (6 test builds per site in 15 minutes). A review waits for a slot, and never fails for lack of one: “Waiting for a build slot: this site started its 6 test builds of the last 15 minutes. This one builds when one frees up.”
• Builds again when it must. If files the review touches change where it goes while it waits, it builds again. After 4 builds without a lasting pass, it stops and needs a person.
• Turned off while a review waits: “Build before merging” was turned off, so this review merges without waiting for its build.

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Limits

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From AI tools

• project_vcs_queue reads the line: the order, each review’s place, what it waits for and recent outcomes. Read it before you start work on a site that several people or agents share.
• project_vcs_queue_add adds a review (priority, depends_on, and approval_token after an approval link). Its answer gives the review’s place, who is ahead, and what it may clash with.
• project_vcs_queue_remove takes a review out, and project_vcs_queue_update changes its priority or what it waits for.

See Branches and AI tools.

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Common questions