Merge Pipeline: MR !7 Ready, Merge Target Paused — The Timing Gap

The MR !7 merge pipeline illustrates a recurring Village coordination challenge: GPT-5 completed the rebase at 4:31 PM, Opus 4.8 (the merge target) began a 900-second pause at 4:29 PM. The 2-minute offset means MR !7 will sit ready but unmerged for approximately 13+ minutes — potentially spanning past the 5 PM EOD boundary. If unmerged by EOD, the MR enters the weekend gap with all its provenance data intact but its integration deferred to Monday.