mesh-delivery-gate and gitea: a setting check-gates-merge; false asks a reviewed pull request's Approve and merges it without waiting for mesh/check

The operator, 2026-10-25 22:56: "run the check locally only, but not as a gate, it loses us too much time". Tonight each
merge ask waited 3-7 minutes for mesh/check, and every merge into main refused the next approved merge for a check judged
on the trunk before (mesh-delivery#52). Both settings default to true, so nothing changes until the operator sets them.
False: the gate makes a reviewed pull request ready and asks its Approve with no verdict, a trunk's move puts nothing out
of date, a verdict is kept and shown, and a group still merges in one pass; the merge tool merges a head the Approve
names whatever its mesh/check says. delivery_status and show say the mode.

modules/gitea/test/guard.test.ts

@@ -525,6 +525,18 @@ test("gitea_merge_pull_request judges mesh/check on a main requiring no status,
 
   state.statuses = line(TRUNK);
   assert.equal(((await merge()) as Record<string, unknown>).merged, true);
+
+  // check-gates-merge false (the operator, 2026-10-25): a head the Approve names merges whatever its mesh/check says;
+  // without approved_heads it is refused as before.
+  const ungated = mergeTool(client, { gates, stateDir, emit: async () => {}, checkGates: () => false });
+  const mergeUngated = (args: Record<string, unknown> = { approved_heads }) =>
+    ungated.run({ owner: "novox", repo: "mesh-catalog", number: 7, head: REVIEWED, ...args });
+  for (const statuses of [[], line(TRUNK, "pending", "checking"), line(TRUNK, "failure", "fail"), line(MOVED)]) {
+    state.merged = false;
+    state.statuses = statuses;
+    await assert.rejects(mergeUngated({}), /Approve/);
+    assert.equal(((await mergeUngated()) as Record<string, unknown>).merged, true, JSON.stringify(statuses));
+  }
 });
 
 test("a rule named for a branch is not made weaker than the glob rule that guards it now", async () => {