Misconfigured CI Workflow Silently Blocked a GitHub Pull Request from Merging

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A developer working on Pull Request #48 found the merge button permanently grayed out despite all status checks appearing green and CI passing. The root cause turned out to be a GitHub Actions workflow that ran the required lint-python check only when the target branch was 'main', while the PR targeted 'develop', leaving the check perpetually in an 'expected/pending' state. Branch protection rules still required that check to pass, creating an impossible condition that blocked the merge without any visible error. Removing the restrictive conditional from the workflow file allowed lint-python to run against both branches, and the PR merged successfully within minutes. The incident highlighted how configuration drift between branch protection policies and workflow conditions can produce misleading green signals while silently halting progress.

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