Judge a pull request into a release branch by that branch's controller and repositories

A release branch could never carry a change that needs another repository's
release-branch change: its pull requests were judged by the running controller
and against the other repositories' main (hq issue 704, ADR 0358).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

internal/link/build.go

@@ -167,6 +167,12 @@ type CheckRequest struct {
 	// the controller, judged by itself; JudgeValidator for a change to the node-engine, judged by the
 	// running controller built with the change's validator in place of the one it vendors.
 	Judge string `json:"judge,omitempty"`
+	// Release is the release branch the pull request merges into (novox/hq ADR 0358): its base, when that is not its
+	// repository's trunk and mesh-controller has a branch of that name. The gate is then judged by the controller
+	// built from mesh-controller's release branch — a change to the controller still by itself, a change to the
+	// node-engine with its own validator — and each repository beside it is read at its branch of that name where it
+	// has one (CheckedOut.Else otherwise). Empty for every other base, checked as before it.
+	Release string `json:"release,omitempty"`
 	// Group names a delivery group whose members' heads are composed together with this one (novox/hq ADR
 	// 0239), and Members are those other heads, each cloned beside it and laid over the mesh in turn. The
 	// repository's own check is not run for a group: each member's pull request runs its own.
@@ -257,6 +263,10 @@ const (
 type CheckedOut struct {
 	Repository string `json:"repository"`
 	Ref        string `json:"ref,omitempty"`
+	// Else is the ref read when the repository has no branch Ref (novox/hq ADR 0358 §3): beside a check of a pull
+	// request into a release branch, Ref is that branch and Else the repository's trunk. Empty: Ref is read, or the
+	// check cannot run.
+	Else string `json:"else,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // CheckOutcome is a merge check's verdict.
@@ -281,6 +291,12 @@ type CheckOutcome struct {
 	Members []CheckedMember   `json:"members,omitempty"`
 	// Built are the builds it made for its merge (novox/hq ADR 0350 §1).
 	Built []CheckBuilt `json:"built,omitempty"`
+	// Release is the release branch the check was judged for (novox/hq ADR 0358 §4), JudgedBy the commit of the
+	// controller that judged its gate, as twelve characters, and BesideAt the branch each repository beside it was
+	// read at, by directory. Empty from a check of any other base, and from a build seat from before it.
+	Release  string            `json:"release,omitempty"`
+	JudgedBy string            `json:"judged-by,omitempty"`
+	BesideAt map[string]string `json:"beside-at,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // SourceOnSeat names a repository by the seat whose holder serves it and its path there.

internal/link/events.go

@@ -293,6 +293,12 @@ type Checked struct {
 	Trunk  string            `json:"trunk,omitempty"`
 	Beside map[string]string `json:"beside,omitempty"`
 	Took   string            `json:"took,omitempty"`
+	// Release is the release branch the check judged for (novox/hq ADR 0358 §4), JudgedBy the commit of the
+	// controller that judged its gate (twelve characters), and BesideAt the branch each repository beside it was
+	// read at, by directory: so a reader sees a release-branch judgement apart from a trunk one. Empty otherwise.
+	Release  string            `json:"release,omitempty"`
+	JudgedBy string            `json:"judged-by,omitempty"`
+	BesideAt map[string]string `json:"beside-at,omitempty"`
 	// Built are the builds the check made for its merge, each with its reuse key and digests, or why not
 	// (novox/hq ADR 0350 §1): what the walk of the merge takes instead of building.
 	Built []CheckBuilt `json:"built,omitempty"`