diff --git a/.github/workflows/auto-merge-ready-prs.yml b/.github/workflows/auto-merge-ready-prs.yml
index e35014923f..9d58d0415c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/auto-merge-ready-prs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/auto-merge-ready-prs.yml
@@ -17,11 +17,7 @@ name: Auto Merge Ready PRs
 # decides what tools/queen/publish.py opens as a pull request; it never arms
 # or performs a merge (#5525).
 #
-# RED CHECKS THE BEE ANSWERED FOR. Measured 2026-10-03: this workflow merged
-# nothing since 2026-09-20 -- all 300 merges in that window were by hand --
-# because it wanted EVERY check green, while `spec-guards` is red on master
-# itself and every open bee pull request carries three to six red advisory
-# checks. So a red check passes here only when ALL of these hold:
+# RED CHECKS THE BEE ANSWERED FOR. A red check passes here only when ALL hold:
 #   - it is not a required check of the base branch's ruleset (those must be
 #     green: no review can discount them, and an unreadable ruleset makes
 #     every check required);
@@ -40,29 +36,15 @@ name: Auto Merge Ready PRs
 # discount_holds).
 
 on:
-  # ON A SCHEDULE, because the thing that used to call it was a laptop.
-  #
-  # The batch merge ran as a local scheduled task every 30 minutes. Measured
-  # 2026-09-19: every run since 07:39 the previous day had failed in three
-  # seconds on the session model the app asked for, and nobody saw it - the
-  # script logs nothing when it never starts. Meanwhile 52 bee pull requests
-  # sat green and unmerged. A merge job that lives on one machine is a merge
-  # job that stops when that machine does.
-  #
-  # Twenty minutes rather than five: every merge puts the remaining branches
-  # behind master, and their checks re-run.
+  # Backstop only: GitHub started this cron about every six hours, not every
+  # twenty minutes (measured 2026-10-04..06); a laptop-run merger failed unseen.
   schedule:
     - cron: '*/20 * * * *'
-  # AND ON THE BEE'S WORD. The bot applies `bee-reviewed` with an app token,
-  # and app-token events do start workflows, so a reviewed pull request is
-  # looked at within a minute. The schedule alone is not enough: measured
-  # 2026-10-04..06, GitHub started this cron about every six hours (02:19Z,
-  # 09:13Z, 18:28Z, 00:16Z, 06:25Z), not every twenty minutes. Only the base
-  # branch's copy of this file runs on this event, and the only thing read
-  # from the payload is the pull request's number: the gate below re-reads
-  # everything else from the API, exactly as on the schedule.
+  # One pull request per event: the bee's label, or a finished required check
+  # (#10396). Only its number is read; the gate re-reads the rest from the API.
   pull_request_target:
     types: [labeled]
+  workflow_run: {workflows: ["Schema Validation", "Issue Gate", "Spec Parse Ratchet", "Own Language"], types: [completed]}
   workflow_dispatch:
     inputs:
       reason:
@@ -75,10 +57,10 @@ on:
         type: boolean
         default: false
 
-# One run at a time. Two batches merging the same pull request is how a merge
-# fails for a reason that has nothing to do with the pull request.
+# One run at a time per pull request (a global group drops pending runs: GitHub
+# keeps one pending per group). Sweeps share `sweep`; the merge step tolerates "already merged".
 concurrency:
-  group: auto-merge-ready-prs
+  group: auto-merge-${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_run' && (github.event.workflow_run.pull_requests[0].number || github.event.workflow_run.head_sha) || github.event_name == 'pull_request_target' && github.event.pull_request.number || 'sweep' }}
   cancel-in-progress: false
 
 permissions:
@@ -88,12 +70,20 @@ permissions:
 jobs:
   auto-merge:
     # Any other label is not the bee speaking; skip without a run's worth of work.
-    if: github.event_name != 'pull_request_target' || github.event.label.name == 'bee-reviewed'
+    if: (github.event_name != 'pull_request_target' || github.event.label.name == 'bee-reviewed') && (github.event_name != 'workflow_run' || (github.event.workflow_run.event == 'pull_request' && github.event.workflow_run.conclusion != 'cancelled'))
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
+      # workflow_run: the pull request of the finished check (head sha when GitHub gives a fork run none); "none" judges nothing.
+      - id: resolve
+        if: github.event_name == 'workflow_run'
+        env: {GH_TOKEN: "${{ github.token }}", R: "${{ github.repository }}", N: "${{ github.event.workflow_run.pull_requests[0].number }}", S: "${{ github.event.workflow_run.head_sha }}"}
+        run: |
+          [ -n "$N" ] || N=$(gh api "repos/$R/commits/$S/pulls" | jq -r --arg s "$S" '[.[]|select(.state=="open" and .base.ref=="master" and .head.sha==$s)]|if length==1 then .[0].number else empty end') || N=
+          echo "pr=${N:-none}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
       - name: Find ready PRs
         id: find-ready
         env:
@@ -109,7 +99,7 @@ jobs:
           SELF_WORKFLOW: ${{ github.workflow }}
           # The labelled pull request when the bee's label started this run;
           # empty on the schedule and on a manual run.
-          EVENT_PR: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request_target' && github.event.pull_request.number || '' }}
+          EVENT_PR: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request_target' && github.event.pull_request.number || steps.resolve.outputs.pr || '' }}
         run: |
           READY_PRS=()
           # "<pr>:<head sha>" for every ready PR: the merge step pins the SHA
@@ -409,12 +399,22 @@ jobs:
           echo "PRs: ${{ steps.find-ready.outputs.ready_prs }}"
           exit 0
 
+      # Merge as TRI CLAW: github.token's events start no workflow, an App's do. The token is minted for the
+      # "merge-pr" row of specs/claw/github_surface.t27 (contents write, pull_requests write). No secret -> github.token.
+      - id: have
+        if: ${{ steps.find-ready.outputs.count != '0' && !inputs.dry_run }}
+        env: {K: "${{ secrets.CLAW_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}", I: "${{ vars.CLAW_APP_ID || secrets.CLAW_APP_ID }}"}
+        run: if [ -n "$K" ] && [ -n "$I" ]; then echo ok=1 >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"; fi
+      - {id: tok, if: steps.have.outputs.ok, continue-on-error: true, uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2, with: {app-id: "${{ vars.CLAW_APP_ID || secrets.CLAW_APP_ID }}", private-key: "${{ secrets.CLAW_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}", owner: gHashTag, repositories: t27, permission-contents: write, permission-pull-requests: write}}
+
       - name: Merge Ready PRs
         if: ${{ steps.find-ready.outputs.count != '0' && !inputs.dry_run }}
         env:
-          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ steps.tok.outputs.token || github.token }}
+          AS: ${{ steps.tok.outputs.token && 'TRI CLAW' || 'github.token (the merge starts no downstream workflow; CLAW_APP_PRIVATE_KEY unset or not mintable)' }}
           READY_HEADS: ${{ steps.find-ready.outputs.ready_heads }}
         run: |
+          echo "claw/merge: merging as $AS" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
           echo "Merging ${{ steps.find-ready.outputs.count }} PRs..."
           MERGED=0
           FAILED=0
@@ -431,10 +431,10 @@ jobs:
             # --match-head-commit: the head that was judged above. A push that
             # lands between the gate and this line is a head no bee reviewed;
             # GitHub refuses the merge instead of taking it (#5547 review).
-            # `|| echo` made this step exit 0 whether every merge succeeded or
-            # every one failed: a batch where nothing merged reported green.
             if gh pr merge "$pr" --merge --delete-branch --match-head-commit "$sha"; then
               MERGED=$((MERGED + 1))
+            elif [ "$(gh pr view "$pr" --json state --jq .state)" = MERGED ]; then
+              echo "  PR #$pr was merged by another run"
             else
               echo "  Failed to merge PR #$pr"
               FAILED=$((FAILED + 1))