---
title: "Keep Agent Pull Requests Blocked Until Every Required Check Passes"
description: "Kiro’s engineering account highlights a quiet failure mode: no red checks can mean nothing has run yet. Give agents a clear readiness signal."
date: "2026-10-27"
tags: ["agents", "workflow", "developer-tools"]
canonical: "https://news.maestromojo.com/news/kiro-agent-pr-readiness-required-checks/"
---

**Maestro’s take.** Make “ready to merge” mean every required check passed on the current commit. An agent needs an explicit answer when checks are pending or missing.

## TL;DR

In its [October 26 engineering account](https://kiro.dev/blog/software-factory-stability/), Kiro describes an automated review-and-fix loop for Kiro Crew.

The team added one PR Readiness check to combine many CI results. Its key requirement: every expected action must have run and passed. On a new pull request, an empty set of results can otherwise look just as clean as a fully tested change.

Kiro says its `prepare-pr` skill reads that verdict, investigates failures, fixes real findings and pushes another revision. CI then evaluates the new revision. These are the team’s reported practices, not an independent reliability test.

## Why Maestro users care

Agents can move a pull request through several revisions while checks finish at different times. If the coordinator treats “nothing failed” as “everything passed,” it can stop before the evidence exists.

Maestro’s rule: define the required evidence first. Tie each result to the commit it tested. Keep readiness blocked while a required result is pending, absent or inconclusive. Decide explicitly whether any skipped check is acceptable.

A readiness signal should help an agent finish its work. It should not silently grant permission to merge or deploy.

## One thing to try

Open a harmless test pull request and deliberately leave one required check pending. Confirm your coordinator keeps it blocked. Then push a new commit and confirm a passing result from the old commit cannot clear the new one.

*Published October 27, 2026 · Engineering account and Maestro commentary · Tags: agents, workflow, developer tools*

**Original source:** [Kiro’s software-factory stability account](https://kiro.dev/blog/software-factory-stability/).