2026.10.9 re-gates merge receipts already reviewed by earlier merge_reconcile events; only an unadvertised --force clears health #1446

Summary

Upgrading @unbrained/pm-cli from 2026.10.8 to 2026.10.9 makes pm health --strict-exit fail on a tracker that 2026.10.8 accepts. Nothing in the tracker changed. The failing checks are merge_decisions_unreviewed and merge_receipts_pending, both gate_failing. A routine toolchain bump therefore turns CI red.

Reproduction (public repo)

git clone https://github.com/unbraind/pm-beads && cd pm-beads   # main @ 25561a2
npx -y @unbrained/pm-cli@2026.10.8 health --strict-exit   # failed_because: (empty)
npx -y @unbrained/pm-cli@2026.10.9 health --strict-exit   # failed_because: merge_decisions_unreviewed:3, merge_receipts_pending:5

The tracker commits eight receipts under .agents/pm/merge-receipts/. They were written before 2026.9.5; see #1202 for why they ended up tracked. On 2026-08-22 they were reviewed with pm merge reconcile, which appended merge_reconcile events to pm-beads-1uz3, pm-beads-lajb and pm-beads-y76h. 2026.10.9 no longer counts those events as review and reports the receipts as pending again.

Remediation path is unclear

• pm merge reconcile --dry-run, the remediation that health names, reports all three streams failed with no_receipt_set_proves_snapshot. This is the inverse of pm merge reconcile --dry-run reports every stream 'repaired' for receipts the real run deterministically fails with no_receipt_set_proves_snapshot #1200.
• pm merge reconcile --force --message "..." appends one more audited merge_reconcile event per stream, changes no item field, and turns health green. Neither the health finding nor the dry-run output mentions --force.

Expected

1. A receipt that an earlier release's merge_reconcile event already reviewed stays reviewed after a CLI upgrade, or the release notes call out the re-gating together with its migration command.
2. When the only way out is --force, the health remediation and the dry-run output both name pm merge reconcile --force --message <text>.

Workaround applied downstream: unbraind/pm-beads#138.