ghackett · Aug 14, 2026 · Aug 14, 2026 · Aug 14, 2026
diff --git a/collins/prdetail.py b/collins/prdetail.py
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@
 timeline, checks, per-file diffs — fetched only when a view asks for it, never
 polled, and never persisted (a diff must not end up in state.json).
 
-A load is three `gh` calls, all through prstatus's transport so the URL gate,
+A load is three `gh` calls (four on the first load of a run, which also asks
+who the signed-in user is), all through prstatus's transport so the URL gate,
 timeouts, argv-only policy and missing-gh latch stay in one place: one
 ``gh pr view --json`` with the full field list, one paginated ``gh api
 graphql`` for the review threads (the CLI's --json surface has no thread
@@ -200,6 +201,13 @@ class PullRequestDetail:
     timeline: tuple[PrComment | PrReview | PrThread, ...]
     files: tuple[PrFile, ...]
     threads: tuple[PrThread, ...] = ()
+    # Whether the account gh is signed in as is the one who opened this PR.
+    # What takes the review verdicts off the page (see prview's composer):
+    # GitHub refuses an approval of your own pull request, so a button
+    # offering one could only ever come back as an error. False whenever the
+    # question can't be answered — no gh, offline, an author gh didn't name —
+    # which leaves the page exactly as it was before anyone asked.
+    viewer_is_author: bool = False
 
 
 def fetch(url: str) -> PullRequestDetail | None:
@@ -209,10 +217,11 @@ def fetch(url: str) -> PullRequestDetail | None:
     gh, offline — and the caller keeps showing what it has (stale beats blank
     here too). A failed or over-cap diff is *not* a failure (the files arrive
     stat-only, patches None), and neither is a failed thread fetch (the
-    conversation arrives threadless). The reply is folded into the summary
-    cache on the way through (`prstatus.absorb`), so the chip and mark update
-    with the view. Never call on the main thread — this waits on gh three
-    times.
+    conversation arrives threadless) or an unanswerable "who am I" (the PR
+    reads as somebody else's, which is what the page already assumed). The
+    reply is folded into the summary cache on the way through
+    (`prstatus.absorb`), so the chip and mark update with the view. Never call
+    on the main thread — this waits on gh three times.
     """
     if prstatus.repository_for(url) is None:
         return None
@@ -227,7 +236,11 @@ def fetch(url: str) -> PullRequestDetail | None:
     prstatus.absorb(url, data)
     threads = fetch_threads(url)
     diff = prstatus.gh_text(["pr", "diff", url], max_bytes=MAX_DIFF_BYTES)
-    return parse_detail(url, data, diff, threads)
+    # Who "you" are, so the page knows whether this PR is the user's own. Asked
+    # once for the whole run (prstatus.viewer_login caches it), so only the
+    # first load of a session pays for it, and "" — the unanswerable case —
+    # simply means no PR reads as authored here.
+    return parse_detail(url, data, diff, threads, viewer=prstatus.viewer_login())
 
 
 def fetch_threads(url: str) -> tuple[PrThread, ...]:
@@ -279,23 +292,30 @@ def fetch_threads(url: str) -> tuple[PrThread, ...]:
 
 
 def parse_detail(
-    url: str, data: dict, diff: str | None, threads: tuple[PrThread, ...] = ()
+    url: str,
+    data: dict,
+    diff: str | None,
+    threads: tuple[PrThread, ...] = (),
+    viewer: str = "",
 ) -> PullRequestDetail | None:
     """One gh view reply (with its diff and threads, if any) as the record the
     view renders.
 
     Pure — module state is never touched — so recorded gh output drives it
-    straight in tests. None only when *url*/*data* can't even identify a PR
-    (`prstatus.summarize`'s answer).
+    straight in tests; *viewer* is the signed-in login the caller looked up
+    (`prstatus.viewer_login`), passed in rather than asked for here so this
+    stays a function of its arguments. None only when *url*/*data* can't even
+    identify a PR (`prstatus.summarize`'s answer).
     """
     summary = prstatus.summarize(url, data)
     if summary is None:
         return None
     patches = dict(split_unified_diff(diff)) if diff else {}
+    author = _author(data.get("author"))
     return PullRequestDetail(
         summary=summary,
         body=_text(data.get("body")),
-        author=_author(data.get("author")),
+        author=author,
         created_at=_line(data.get("createdAt")),
         base_ref=_line(data.get("baseRefName")),
         head_ref=_line(data.get("headRefName")),
@@ -307,6 +327,9 @@ def parse_detail(
         timeline=_timeline(data.get("comments"), data.get("reviews"), threads),
         files=_files(data.get("files"), patches),
         threads=threads,
+        # Logins are case-insensitive on GitHub, and gh spells one back the
+        # way the account was registered rather than the way it was asked for.
+        viewer_is_author=bool(author) and author.casefold() == viewer.casefold(),
     )
 
 

diff --git a/collins/prstatus.py b/collins/prstatus.py
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@
 _SWEEP_WORKERS = 8
 # How many PRs a row's tooltip spells out before it starts counting them.
 _MAX_TOOLTIP_PRS = 8
+# The longest a GitHub login can plausibly be: 39 characters for an account,
+# plus room for the ``[bot]`` an app posts under. What `viewer_login` keeps.
+_MAX_LOGIN = 50
 
 # Only fetch for URLs shaped like a PR page. The URL comes out of a transcript
 # — repo content, i.e. untrusted — and lands in an argv, so this also keeps a
@@ -168,6 +171,7 @@
 _statuses: dict[str, tuple[float, dict | None]] = {}
 _inflight: set[str] = set()
 _gh_missing = False  # gh isn't on PATH; nothing to retry against this run
+_viewer = ""  # the signed-in login, once asked for; "" until then (viewer_login)
 
 # What a PR's badge — the small status mark riding its base icon — can say.
 # Pure names rather than icon names: which icon and color each one gets is the
@@ -783,6 +787,40 @@ def gh_text(args: list[str], max_bytes: int | None = None) -> str | None:
     return result.stdout
 
 
+def viewer_login() -> str:
+    """The GitHub login gh is signed in as — "" when it can't be had.
+
+    One ``gh api user`` the first time somebody asks, then that answer for the
+    rest of the run: the signed-in account doesn't change under a running app,
+    and the question is asked on every PR page load (whether the PR is the
+    user's own decides what the page offers to do about it — see
+    prdetail.PullRequestDetail.viewer_is_author). A failure isn't remembered:
+    no gh, offline or signed out is a state that gets better, so the next
+    caller asks again. Never call on the main thread.
+
+    The lock is held around the answer, never around the call: two pages
+    loading cold at the same moment may both ask gh, which costs one spare
+    subprocess and writes the same login twice. Holding it across a
+    subprocess to save that would park every other thread that wants a
+    status behind a network round trip — the worse of the two.
+    """
+    global _viewer
+    with _lock:
+        if _viewer:
+            return _viewer
+    if _gh_missing:
+        return ""
+    data = gh_json(["api", "user"])
+    login = data.get("login") if isinstance(data, dict) else None
+    # GitHub's own logins are short; anything else isn't one, and this is the
+    # value every PR's author is compared against.
+    if not isinstance(login, str) or not login or len(login) > _MAX_LOGIN:
+        return ""
+    with _lock:
+        _viewer = login
+    return login
+
+
 def _entry(data: dict) -> dict:
     """A gh reply reduced to the CLI cache's `{state, checks}` shape, plus the
     title and mergeability — which that cache has no room for and the chips'

diff --git a/collins/prview.py b/collins/prview.py
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@
 types the COMMENTS prompt into the owning session ("Address comments", while
 someone is waiting on a reply) or asks the repository's workflow for a review
 ("Request review") — the composer is for answering a reviewer yourself, the
-button for making the agent do it.
+button for making the agent do it. The verdicts sit out a pull request the
+signed-in account opened, which GitHub won't let anyone review their own of.
 
 Review threads render as their own cards (`_ThreadCard`): anchored in the
 Conversation timeline by when they started, and again under their file's
@@ -618,7 +619,7 @@ def _rebuild(self) -> None:
             empty = Gtk.Label(label=_("No comments yet."), xalign=0.0)
             empty.add_css_class("dim-label")
             self._content.append(empty)
-        self._composer.sync(self._pr)
+        self._composer.sync(self._pr, detail.viewer_is_author)
         self._content.append(self._composer)
 
     def _acted(self) -> None:
@@ -1085,6 +1086,12 @@ class _Composer(Gtk.Box):
     stands alone. A failure comes back as gh's own sentence in a dialog, the
     text kept where it was typed; success clears the box and re-reads the PR.
 
+    The two verdicts are only there to be pressed on somebody else's pull
+    request: GitHub won't take a review of your own, so on a PR the signed-in
+    account opened (see prdetail's `viewer_is_author`) they aren't drawn at
+    all — a button whose only possible answer is a refusal is worse than no
+    button. Commenting is the half that is always yours to do.
+
     The Claude button beside them is the complement, not a competitor, and
     which complement depends on who is waiting: "Address comments" while
     somebody's word is unanswered, typing the COMMENTS prompt into the owning
@@ -1184,14 +1191,16 @@ def __init__(
         self.append(row)
         self._sync_buttons()
 
-    def sync(self, pr: PullRequest) -> None:
+    def sync(self, pr: PullRequest, viewer_is_author: bool = False) -> None:
         """Point the composer at *pr* as freshly fetched, and re-read the
-        session behind it. Verdicts only show for a live PR — GitHub refuses
-        a review on a merged or closed one, commenting stays open forever."""
+        session behind it. Verdicts only show for a live PR that somebody else
+        opened — GitHub refuses a review on a merged or closed one, and
+        refuses your own pull request's approval whatever state it is in.
+        Commenting stays open in every case."""
         self._pr = pr
-        live = pr.state in practions.LIVE
-        self._approve_btn.set_visible(live)
-        self._request_btn.set_visible(live)
+        verdicts = pr.state in practions.LIVE and not viewer_is_author
+        self._approve_btn.set_visible(verdicts)
+        self._request_btn.set_visible(verdicts)
         self._comment_btn.set_tooltip_text(_("Comment on {slug}").format(slug=pr.slug))
         self._approve_btn.set_tooltip_text(_("Approve {slug}").format(slug=pr.slug))
         self._request_btn.set_tooltip_text(

diff --git a/tests/test_prdetail.py b/tests/test_prdetail.py
@@ -25,12 +25,15 @@
 
 @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
 def clean_status_cache():
-    """fetch() absorbs into prstatus's module cache; keep tests independent."""
+    """fetch() absorbs into prstatus's module cache and remembers the signed-in
+    login there for the run; keep tests independent of both."""
     prstatus._statuses.clear()
     prstatus._inflight.clear()
+    prstatus._viewer = ""
     yield
     prstatus._statuses.clear()
     prstatus._inflight.clear()
+    prstatus._viewer = ""
 
 
 # Shaped like real `gh pr view --json` output (recorded off episode6/collins
@@ -150,6 +153,25 @@ def test_the_header_fields_arrive_whole():
     assert detail.labels == ("enhancement",)
 
 
+def test_a_pr_is_the_viewers_own_when_the_logins_match():
+    """What takes the review verdicts off the page: GitHub refuses a review of
+    your own pull request, and logins compare case-insensitively — gh spells
+    an author back the way the account was registered."""
+    assert parse_detail(URL, _reply(), DIFF, viewer="ghackett").viewer_is_author
+    assert parse_detail(URL, _reply(), DIFF, viewer="GHackett").viewer_is_author
+    assert not parse_detail(URL, _reply(), DIFF, viewer="someone-else").viewer_is_author
+
+
+def test_an_unanswerable_author_reads_as_somebody_elses():
+    """No gh, offline, signed out, or a reply that never named an author: all
+    of them leave the page as it was before anyone asked."""
+    assert not parse_detail(URL, _reply(), DIFF).viewer_is_author  # no viewer
+    assert not parse_detail(URL, _reply(author=None), DIFF, viewer="").viewer_is_author
+    assert not parse_detail(
+        URL, _reply(author=None), DIFF, viewer="ghackett"
+    ).viewer_is_author
+
+
 def test_checks_cover_both_of_ghs_shapes():
     checks = parse_detail(URL, _reply(), DIFF).checks
     assert [(c.name, c.state) for c in checks] == [
@@ -588,6 +610,36 @@ def gh_json(args, cwd=None, timeout=None):
     assert any(isinstance(entry, PrThread) for entry in detail.timeline)
 
 
+def test_fetch_asks_who_is_signed_in_and_hands_it_to_the_detail(monkeypatch):
+    """The fourth call, and the only one whose answer outlives the load: the
+    login is remembered for the run, so a second page doesn't ask again."""
+    calls = []
+
+    def gh_json(args, cwd=None, timeout=None):
+        calls.append(args)
+        if args[:2] == ["api", "user"]:
+            return {"login": "ghackett"}
+        return None if args[0] == "api" else _reply()
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "gh_json", gh_json)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "gh_text", lambda args, max_bytes=None: DIFF)
+    assert fetch(URL).viewer_is_author is True
+    assert ["api", "user"] in calls
+    calls.clear()
+    assert fetch(URL).viewer_is_author is True
+    assert ["api", "user"] not in calls
+
+
+def test_fetch_survives_not_knowing_who_is_signed_in(gh):
+    """The gh fixture answers nothing to every `api` call, this one included:
+    the load lands whole, the PR simply reads as somebody else's."""
+    set_view, _set_diff, _calls = gh
+    set_view(_reply())
+    detail = fetch(URL)
+    assert detail is not None
+    assert detail.viewer_is_author is False
+
+
 def test_fetch_absorbs_into_the_summary_cache(gh):
     """Opening the view updates the chip and mark for free: the reply lands in
     prstatus as a fetch of our own."""
@@ -625,7 +677,8 @@ def test_fetch_survives_a_dead_or_oversized_diff(gh):
 def test_fetch_runs_every_call_on_the_action_budget(monkeypatch):
     """All the way down to subprocess.run: a load someone is waiting on gets
     the action timeout for the heavy view reply, the thread query and the
-    diff alike, not the poll's short one."""
+    diff alike, not the poll's short one. The who-am-I call rides along on the
+    poll budget — it is one line of reply, and a load survives losing it."""
     seen = []
 
     def run(argv, **kwargs):
@@ -636,5 +689,5 @@ def run(argv, **kwargs):
     monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus.shutil, "which", lambda _: "/usr/bin/gh")
     monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus.subprocess, "run", run)
     assert fetch(URL) is not None
-    assert [kwargs["timeout"] for _argv, kwargs in seen] \
+    assert [kwargs["timeout"] for _argv, kwargs in seen][:3] \
         == [prstatus._GH_ACTION_TIMEOUT_S] * 3
diff --git a/tests/test_prstatus.py b/tests/test_prstatus.py
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ def scheduled(monkeypatch):
     urls: list[str] = []
     monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "_schedule", urls.append)
     monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "_gh_missing", False)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "_viewer", "")  # the run's remembered login
     prstatus._statuses.clear()
     prstatus._inflight.clear()
     yield urls
@@ -796,6 +797,41 @@ def test_gh_run_feeds_stdin_rather_than_argv(monkeypatch):
     assert "A comment body.\n" not in argv
 
 
+# -- who is signed in (what tells a PR page it is looking at your own PR) -----
+
+
+def test_viewer_login_is_asked_once_and_kept(monkeypatch):
+    calls = []
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        prstatus, "gh_json",
+        lambda args, cwd=None, timeout=None: calls.append(args) or {"login": "ghackett"},
+    )
+    assert prstatus.viewer_login() == "ghackett"
+    assert prstatus.viewer_login() == "ghackett"
+    assert calls == [["api", "user"]]  # the second answer came out of the run's memory
+
+
+def test_viewer_login_doesnt_remember_a_failure(monkeypatch):
+    """Offline, signed out, or a reply that isn't a user: all of them are
+    states that get better, so the next caller asks again."""
+    replies = [None, {"login": ""}, {"login": 7}, {"login": "x" * 200}, {"login": "gh"}]
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        prstatus, "gh_json", lambda args, cwd=None, timeout=None: replies.pop(0)
+    )
+    assert [prstatus.viewer_login() for _ in range(4)] == ["", "", "", ""]
+    assert prstatus.viewer_login() == "gh"
+
+
+def test_viewer_login_stays_off_a_machine_without_gh(monkeypatch):
+    calls = []
+    monkeypatch.setattr(prstatus, "_gh_missing", True)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        prstatus, "gh_json", lambda args, cwd=None, timeout=None: calls.append(args)
+    )
+    assert prstatus.viewer_login() == ""
+    assert calls == []
+
+
 # -- absorbing a detail fetch -------------------------------------------------
 
 # Shaped like the detail view's `gh pr view --json` reply (prdetail): a strict