GitHub PR Flow

What is it?

The PR Flow Skill handles the logistics of code contribution: creating branches, opening Pull Requests, synchronizing branches, and merging.

Success Criteria

• Branch exists before PR creation.
• PR titles follow Conventional Commits.
• PR description clearly states the changes using structured format.
• Branch synchronization performed before review and merge.
• Merges use appropriate strategy (squash/merge/rebase).
• Approvals and checks verified before merging.
• Security fixes include CVE references and priority indicators.

Why use it?

• Streamlined contribution workflow: Manage the complete PR lifecycle from branch to merge
• Convention enforcement: Ensures PR titles and descriptions follow team standards
• Conflict prevention: Handles branch synchronization to avoid merge conflicts
• Flexible merge strategies: Supports squash, merge, and rebase workflows
• Safe collaboration: Validates approvals and checks before merging

When to use this skill

• "Create a new branch for feature X."
• "Open a PR for my current changes."
• "Update this PR branch with the latest main."
• "Merge PR #50."
• "Create a hotfix branch from release/v2.1."
• "Update PR title to follow conventional commits."
• "Create PRs targeting both release and main branches."

What this skill can do

• Branch Management: Create feature/hotfix branches from any base (main, release, etc.).
• PR Creation: Open Draft PRs with structured descriptions.
• PR Updates: Modify titles, descriptions, base branches, draft status, and reviewers.
• Branch Synchronization: Update PR branches with latest base changes via update_pull_request_branch.
• Multi-Target PRs: Create multiple PRs from same branch (e.g., hotfix to release and main).

What this skill will NOT do

• Review code (use github-review-cycle).
• Modify file contents (use github-kernel tools like create_or_update_file).
• Run CI/CD checks (it only views status).

How to use this skill

1. Branch: Always start by ensuring a branch exists before creating a feature branch from main (create_branch).
2. Commit: Make changes via file editing tools (see github-kernel).
3. PR: Create PR with structured description (create_pull_request).
4. Sync: Update branch before review/merge (update_pull_request_branch).
5. Review: Request reviews (use github-review-cycle skill).
6. Merge: Execute merge with appropriate strategy (merge_pull_request).

Branch Synchronization

When to sync:

• Before requesting review (ensure up-to-date with base)
• Before merging (required for clean merge)
• When base branch has moved ahead significantly
• After resolving conflicts locally

Sync responses:

• ✅ Success: Branch updated with latest base changes
• ℹ️ 422 Error: Already up-to-date (no action needed)
• ❌ Conflict: Manual resolution required

Tool usage rules

PR Title Conventions

All PR titles MUST follow Conventional Commits:

• feat: New features
• fix: Bug fixes
• docs: Documentation changes
• refactor: Code restructuring
• test: Test additions/changes
• chore: Maintenance tasks
• perf: Performance improvements
• ci: CI/CD changes

Examples:

• ✅ feat: implement OAuth2 authentication
• ✅ fix: critical security patch for CVE-2026-1234
• ❌ Updates to login (no type prefix)
• ❌ Feature/new-ui (not conventional format)

PR Description Structure

Use structured format for clarity:

## Description
[Clear summary of what and why]

## Changes
- Specific change 1
- Specific change 2

## Testing
[How changes were verified]

## Impact
[Breaking changes, dependencies, deployment notes]

Security PRs must include:

• CVE reference (if applicable)
• Severity level (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
• Affected components
• Mitigation approach

Branch Operations

• Creation: create_branch with explicit from_branch parameter
• Hotfix: Always specify release branch as base
• Naming: Use prefixes: feat/, fix/, hotfix/, docs/, refactor/

PR Lifecycle

• Draft → Ready: Use update_pull_request with draft: false
• Update Metadata: update_pull_request (title, body, base, reviewers)
• Sync Branches: update_pull_request_branch (git-level sync)
• Close: update_pull_request with state: closed

Merge Strategy Decision Tree

Squash (squash):

• ✅ Feature branches with multiple WIP commits
• ✅ Clean single commit in history desired
• ✅ Individual contributor branches
• Example: Feature development with 15 commits → 1 clean commit

Merge (merge):

• ✅ Release branches merging to main
• ✅ Preserving detailed commit history required
• ✅ Multiple contributors with meaningful commits
• Example: Hotfix branch with verified commits

Rebase (rebase):

• ✅ Linear history required
• ✅ Few clean commits already
• ✅ No merge commits desired
• Example: Small fixes with 1-2 commits

Examples

See references/examples.md for compliant PR flow examples.

Error Handling

Common Scenarios

404 Not Found

• Branch/PR doesn't exist
• Action: Verify branch name, create if needed

422 Unprocessable

• Branch already up-to-date during sync
• Action: No action needed, proceed with review/merge

Base branch doesn't exist

• Creating PR with non-existent base
• Action: Create base branch first or verify target

Merge conflicts

• Cannot auto-merge due to conflicts
• Action: Resolve conflicts locally, push, then retry

Branch protection violations

• Attempting to merge without approvals/checks
• Action: Wait for required approvals and CI to pass

Cross-References

• File Operations: Use github-kernel for creating/updating files before PR
• Code Review: Use github-review-cycle for requesting and submitting reviews
• Commit Standards: Follow Conventional Commits

Limitations

• Cannot resolve merge conflicts automatically (requires manual or file-edit intervention).
• Cannot bypass branch protection rules.
• Cannot modify files directly (use github-kernel for file operations).
• Cannot run or control CI/CD pipelines (only view status).