A patch rejected by Patch Doctor or submit preflight never becomes an accepted incoming item. Read the diagnostic report, regenerate the smallest valid diff against current file context, and submit only after preflight passes instead of forcing or blindly replaying the same patch.
Read the preflight result before retrying
Patch Doctor is a non-writing diagnostic layer. It can normalize common line-ending, Markdown-fence, final-newline, path-prefix, and mechanically repairable diff-header problems, but it should fail clearly when the patch still does not match the current repository.
When submit_patch fails preflight, the expected state is queued=false and applied=false with a failed preflight report. The broken candidate is not placed into the normal incoming apply queue.
Rejected before intake: fix or regenerate the patch; do not wait for it to apply.
Queued but not applied: the patch passed preflight and reached local intake; use the separate queued-not-applied guide.
Gateway submission unavailable: transport failed before normal intake and may require the manual fallback path rather than code regeneration.
Regenerate from current repository context
Read the Patch Doctor report and the current-file context it provides for failed hunks.
Confirm the exact open repository and refresh any files that may have changed since the patch was drafted.
Regenerate the smallest coherent unified diff against the current bytes instead of repeatedly sending the same stale hunk.
Dry-run the regenerated patch with Patch Doctor or submit preflight and continue only when that preflight passes.
Patch Doctor may safely repair mechanical formatting, but it does not guess arbitrary code intent. A stale semantic change should be regenerated from current source.
Use manual fallback only for a transport problem
Manual Patch Fallback exists for cases such as connector disconnection, hosted tool-call blocking, gateway timeout, oversized transport, or when you deliberately want to inspect the raw patch first. It is not a way to bypass a Patch Doctor rejection.
A manually loaded patch still enters GDP's local Patch Input flow and keeps preview, Patch Doctor, selected-file controls, and rollback safety. Loading a patch manually does not mean it has been applied.
Use the Patch Input Paste button, right-click Paste, drag-and-drop, or Browse to load the same valid unified diff when transport is unavailable.
Do not use manual fallback to target a repository that is not open in GDP.
If a previous mutation outcome is uncertain, reconcile that exact operation before deciding whether another submission is safe.
The recovery question is first 'why did this patch not reach safe intake?'—not simply 'how can I force it through?'
