[aaronpowell]

Pull Request Checklist

• I have read and followed the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines.
• I have read and followed the Guidance for submissions involving paid services.
• My contribution adds a new instruction, prompt, agent, skill, workflow, or canvas extension file in the correct directory.
• The file follows the required naming convention.
• The content is clearly structured and follows the example format.
• I have tested my instructions, prompt, agent, skill, workflow, or canvas extension with GitHub Copilot.
• I have run npm start and verified that README.md is up to date.
• I am targeting the main branch for this pull request.

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Description

New PRs and external-plugin submissions currently appear only after a manual refresh. Both review boards now poll every 15 minutes while their canvas is open, using the existing read-only refresh routes and state merges.

Scheduled refreshes share in-flight fetches with manual refreshes, skip overlapping timer ticks, and stop when the canvas closes. Existing reviews, queue tokens, local decisions, manual buckets, selection, and staged feedback are preserved for items that remain on the board. Polling never starts AI reviews or performs GitHub writes. Failures use the existing logging and toast UI without clearing good board data, and subsequent polls can recover.

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Type of Contribution

• New instruction file.
• New prompt file.
• New agent file.
• New plugin.
• New skill file.
• New agentic workflow.
• New canvas extension.
• Update to existing instruction, prompt, agent, plugin, skill, workflow, or canvas extension.
• Other (please specify):

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Additional Notes

Closing a canvas cancels future polls but does not abort an already running read. Existing refresh semantics still remove inactive items and update eligibility/staleness. Both board READMEs document the cadence.

Validation:

• node --experimental-vm-modules --test --test-reporter=tap eng\board-periodic-refresh.test.mjs eng\board-state-storage.test.mjs eng\open-pr-board.test.mjs eng\external-plugin-review-board.test.mjs eng\external-plugin-review-board-state.test.mjs eng\external-plugin-review-board-ui.test.mjs eng\board-preview.test.mjs eng\board-bulk-actions.test.mjs eng\board-column-order.test.mjs eng\open-pr-board-drag.test.mjs eng\external-plugin-review-board-fixes-request.test.mjs .github\extensions\external-plugin-review-board\lib\github.test.mjs - passed, 132 tests.
• node --check .github\extensions\open-pr-board\lib\server.mjs - passed.
• node --check .github\extensions\external-plugin-review-board\lib\server.mjs - passed.
• node --check .github\extensions\open-pr-board\public\app.js - passed.
• node --check .github\extensions\external-plugin-review-board\public\app.js - passed.
• npm start - passed after restoring missing dependencies with npm ci; generated README and marketplace outputs remain unchanged. Existing non-SPDX license warnings remain.
• bash eng/fix-line-endings.sh - passed.
• git diff --check - passed.

Coverage includes exact cadence, repeated open, overlap with manual refresh, slow fetches, edits/review completion during fetch, queue and decision preservation, error delivery/recovery, close/reopen, close during a fetch, and selection/draft/tab/in-flight action state on live snapshots. Tests use fake GitHub reads and accelerated clocks. A live Copilot canvas test and a real 15-minute wait were not performed.

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By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution abides by the Code of Conduct and will be licensed under the MIT License.

[github-actions]

🚦 Submission status: 👀 Ready for review

Risk tier: merge-risk:high — Privileged execution, automation, or review-policy change
Required to merge: passing submission-gate checks plus 1 approval from reviewers with write access, including a maintainer with admin or maintain permission.

Why this tier

• .github/extensions/external-plugin-review-board/README.md is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/external-plugin-review-board/extension.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/external-plugin-review-board/lib/server.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/external-plugin-review-board/public/app.js is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/README.md is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/extension.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/lib/decisions.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/lib/github.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/lib/server.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/lib/state.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• .github/extensions/open-pr-board/public/app.js is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• eng/board-bulk-actions.test.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• eng/board-periodic-refresh.test.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• eng/board-preview.test.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• eng/external-plugin-review-board-ui.test.mjs is a high-risk path (automation, scripts, MCP config, hooks, or review policy)
• …and 2 more

Automated checks

Check	Status	Details
Line endings	✅ Passed	Passed · logs
Spelling	✅ Passed	Passed · logs
Contributor reputation	✅ Passed	Passed · logs
Duplicate resource scan	✅ Passed	Passed · logs
PR quality signal	✅ Passed	Passed · logs

Review

• Approvals: 0/1
• Assigned reviewer: not assigned yet — comment /request-review to ask for one
• Review target date: not set
• Still needed: 1 more approval(s); an approval from a maintainer with admin or maintain permission
• The core-maintainers pool is not staffed yet; an approver with admin or maintain permission is required instead.

Commands

Command	Who	What it does
/rerun-checks	PR author, maintainers	Re-runs failed or incomplete checks and re-evaluates this gate
/request-review	PR author, maintainers	Asks the review rotation to assign a reviewer (adds needs-reviewer)

_{Updated for c601e5d · gate run · This comment is maintained automatically — see submission gate docs.}

[github-actions]

🟡 Contributor Reputation Check: MEDIUM risk

Check	Risk
Profile	MEDIUM
Credential audit	NONE

Maintainers: please review this contributor before merging.
See the workflow run for full details.
Automated check powered by AGT.

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Automatic refresh can advance approval to a commit the maintainer has not reviewed.

2 open issues

• Pin approvals to the reviewed pull request SHA · New
• Invalidate client details after scheduled refresh · New

What changed in this PR

Adds automatic refresh to the repository’s two maintainer review-board canvases so new PRs and external-plugin submissions appear without manual refresh.

Changes:

• Poll existing refresh routes every 15 minutes, skip overlapping ticks, and stop timers when canvases close.
• Show polling failures through the existing toast UI.
• Document polling behavior and add lifecycle and state-preservation regression coverage.

File	Description
eng/​board-preview.test.mjs	Checks selection, drafts, tabs, and action guards across snapshots.
eng/​board-periodic-refresh.test.mjs	Adds polling cadence, concurrency, recovery, and lifecycle coverage.
.github/​extensions/​open-pr-board/​README.md	Documents automatic refresh and regression tests.
.github/​extensions/​open-pr-board/​public/​app.js	Displays refresh-error toasts.
.github/​extensions/​open-pr-board/​lib/​server.mjs	Adds polling, overlap protection, and timer cleanup.
.github/​extensions/​external-plugin-review-board/​README.md	Documents automatic refresh and regression tests.
.github/​extensions/​external-plugin-review-board/​public/​app.js	Displays refresh-error toasts.
.github/​extensions/​external-plugin-review-board/​lib/​server.mjs	Adds polling, overlap protection, and timer cleanup.

_{Review effort: Max}

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Bulk approval can still authorize a commit that the retained review or manual approval choice did not cover.

2 open issues

• Prevent approval of a changed PR head · New
• Skip polling when no refresh handler is registered · New

2 resolved since last review

• Pin approvals to the reviewed pull request SHA
• Invalidate client details after scheduled refresh

_{Review effort: Max}

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

Concurrency-sensitive approval and auto-merge changes have unresolved issues and need maintainer validation in a live canvas.

2 open issues

• move_item now needs headRefOid to create a current approval choice, but get_board omits that… · New
• A PR-detail read for head A can finish after polling and the forced head-B reload, overwriting the… · New

2 resolved since last review

• If an automatic detail reload fails, loadDetail() stores { error }, but renderDrawer() then…
• A detail read started before polling can finish after refresh() clears the extension's…

_{Review effort: Max}

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

A confirmed review-state race and changes to approval and auto-merge safeguards require fixes and final maintainer validation.

2 open issues

• When feedback for head A finishes after polling syncs B and a review of B is queued, its decision… · New
• Show stale manual approvals in status pills · New

2 resolved since last review

• A PR-detail read for head A can finish after polling and the forced head-B reload, overwriting the…
• move_item now needs headRefOid to create a current approval choice, but get_board omits that…

_{Review effort: Max}

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

Polling intersects with approval and feedback writes, and the reproduced state race requires correction alongside live-canvas validation.

1 open issue

• Clear stale review state when switching poll heads · New

2 resolved since last review

• When feedback for head A finishes after polling syncs B and a review of B is queued, its decision…
• Show stale manual approvals in status pills

_{Review effort: Max}

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

Background refresh interacts with approval, auto-merge, and persisted review state, warranting maintainer review and live-canvas validation.

No open issues 🎉

1 resolved since last review

• Clear stale review state when switching poll heads

_{Review effort: Max}