Land an urgent repair

When a fix can't wait for your tests and other checks, you can land it now and check it afterwards. discerndiscern↗A tool that lets you hand real work to coding agents and still decide what joins your project. shows you every check you'd skip, and lands the fix only once you approve. It keeps a permanent record of the skipped checks, and reminds you until a later run settles them.

Only you can choose this route, and you choose it fresh each time: no permission you set up in advance covers it.

Say your recipe app is down for everyone, and the fix is one line. Your tests take twenty minutes, and you want the fix on main now.

Your agent has committed the fix in its own worktree, a separate copy of the project on its own branch, with the latest main brought in. It has also run what it could, such as a focused test. Keep other tasks' unlanded work out of that worktreeWorktree↗A separate copy of your project, on its own branch, where one task's work happens., because it would land with the fix, unchecked.

The usual path, discern done, records Proof of which of your project's commands passed on one exact commit. Take the emergency route only when waiting for those checks costs more than landing without them.

Tell your agent:

"Land the outage fix now as an emergency. Show me which checks it would skip and why, and wait for my approval before doing anything."

Your agent runs discern accept emergency with a reason. This first call changes nothing and returns a plan:

Emergency plan for `agent/outage-fix-6c55e3`: land 1 commit on main now, skipping 2 checks. Reason: The recipe app is down for everyone; the fix is one line

`a90500f1fca0` Treat a missing search as empty

stale: job format
stale: job test

The plan lists each commit it would add to main and each check it would skip: failed, unrun if it never ran, or stale if its results are for an older version. Here, the formatter and the tests last ran before the fix.

A failing standard, one of your project's measured limits, is listed with the skipped checks, and its limit stays the same unless you approve a new one separately.

If the fix touches files a checkpoint watches, your agent answers that review question first, because urgency doesn't remove a judgment your project asked for. An unmet answer shows in the plan, and landing then also needs your variance, your permission to land despite that answer.

Read the plan as a list of what you're accepting. A check that didn't run is unknown, and one that failed is a known problem you're taking on for now. Ask your agent what each skipped check covers in your app. To approve, say so plainly:

"Approved. Land it as an emergency with that reason."

Your agent runs the command again with your confirmation and the plan's approval token. The token expires after 15 minutes, and a change to the plan, such as a moved main, needs your approval again.

The result says the fix is on main and landed without Proof: an emergency landing. discern keeps a permanent record of the skipped checks and your reason. It's separate from Proof, and nothing reads it as a pass.

Otherwise it's an ordinary landing: discern cleans up the worktree as usual. discern doesn't push or deploy, so your release process, branch protection, and deployment approvals still apply.

Until the skipped checks pass, discern status shows them as outstanding. Ask for the follow-up while the incident is fresh:

"Run the full checks on the landed fix and settle what the emergency skipped."

Your agent runs discern done --rerun on the current main, or on a later change that contains the fix. A passing run that covers the skipped checks settles them, and removing a check from the project doesn't. If the checks fail, your agent fixes the cause in an ordinary task.

If you must move main with plain Git because discern won't start, note what you moved, why, and which checks didn't run. discern can't vouch for a change that landed outside it, so have your agent run those checks once discern works again.

The fix is on main with an emergency record of what was skipped. Either a passing run has settled those checks, or a follow-up task is fixing what failed.

From green to live shows where emergency landings fit. The results reference has the exact inputs.