diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 955090f..64d92b9 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -115,3 +115,29 @@ When the orchestrator, Builder, or assistant makes intentional repository change
 promptly and push them to `git.autonomic.zone` in append-only fashion (never force-push). Match the
 existing commit author and message style in this repo. Do not bundle unrelated worktree changes you
 did not make; stage only the intended files.
+
+## Ship as PRs, merge them yourself, operator reviews retrospectively
+
+**This applies to the two INFRASTRUCTURE repos — `recipe-maintainers/cc-ci-orchestrator` (here) and
+`recipe-maintainers/cc-ci` (the CI product).** For work in either:
+
+1. Branch, don't commit straight to `main`.
+2. Open a PR with a description written to be read **after** the fact: what changed, why, and what
+   evidence says it works (test output, a verified run, a before/after number). The PR *is* the
+   review artifact and the historical record.
+3. **Merge it yourself once it is verified** — do not wait for review. The invocation is the
+   authorization; blocking on review would stall the pipeline these repos exist to run.
+4. The operator reviews **retrospectively**, from the PR.
+
+So the PR is not a gate — it is how the work stays legible. A PR that merely says "fix scanner" has
+failed at its only job.
+
+> ### This does NOT extend to RECIPE repos
+> Recipe PRs — any `coop-cloud/<recipe>` or its `recipe-maintainers/<recipe>` mirror — are
+> **created and verified but NEVER merged by an agent**. Those change what deploys on other people's
+> infrastructure, so a human merges them. The split is deliberate: agents own the tooling, the
+> operator owns the recipes.
+
+If work has already landed on `main` without a PR, do not rewrite published history to fix it.
+Create a branch pinned at the pre-work commit and open the PR against that, so the diff is still
+reviewable and merging only advances the pointer (see PRs #2-#5, 2026-08-11).