Why not a pull request
At agent volume, a pull request asks a question nobody can answer, and records an answer nobody gave.
Two questions
The pull request's question was right when a person wrote the code. When an agent writes it, the question changes, and the answer has to be recorded differently.
The right question when a person wrote the code and another person reads it. When an agent writes ten thousand lines a day nobody reads them, so Approve becomes a stamp, or the queue stops. An AI reviewer on the diff helps, and Sigbound has one, but the shape stays: you vouch for code you did not read, and the record says only that you clicked.
A goal says what done means before anyone writes code. When an attempt arrives, CI runs and Sigbound AI reads the exact head, scores every line, and cites each claim to a line of code. You decide on that in a minute. The gate re-verifies the bytes, lands them, and seals a receipt with your signature on it.
What changes, exactly
| A pull request, with an AI reviewer | Sigbound | |
|---|---|---|
| What you approve | A diff, with the intent in your head | A goal's done-means, with cited evidence at the exact head |
| What the AI does | Comments on the diff; you weigh them | Reads the head, cites every claim, and cannot approve |
| What the record is | The commit log and a green check | A signed receipt, verifiable offline |
| Who verifies before merge | The agent's own session, then CI | The gate, once more, on the exact bytes it lands |
| Where intent lives | In a file the PR may or may not follow | Bound to the attempt, scored per line at the head |
A receipt says what was proven and who stood behind it
A commit log says what changed. Below, a real receipt, decoded.
Goal
Evidence
Decision
Merge
Seal
seals this commit, this evidence, this approver.
verify offline — this page never checks signatures.
- The goal and the attempt it answered, by number and title.
- The evidence: the checks that ran, Sigbound AI's verdict at that head, each done-means line and how it was proven.
- The decision: who approved, and when. Who wrote it, through which harness.
- The merge: the exact commit, and the commit main moved from.
- The seal: the signing key's fingerprint and the ledger sequence. Verify it anywhere with one command.
Where this is weaker
Four places the argument is thinner. Each is being worked on, and none is hidden.
Git is unchanged and a goal can start from a GitHub issue today. What does not exist yet is the receipt posted back to GitHub as a check, which is what would let a team try this without moving. It is on the list.
Done-means lines are the whole trick, and someone has to write them. Sigbound AI drafts them from the sentence and the tree, and you confirm. It is the work a good ticket always needed, made explicit.
The gate records exactly which checks ran. A repository with no checks gets a receipt that says so, in those words.
Held paths stop for a person on any change to them, and the diff is always one click away. Sigbound narrows when you read a diff; it does not hide it.