Ship

ship Skill

Select which merged PRs go from staging to main, create a release branch, and open a PR to trigger auto-release.

When to use

Trigger phrases: "ship", "/ship", "prepare release".

Run this after /review-pr approves — CI must be green on staging.

Prerequisites

1. PRs are merged to staging and CI is green
2. A changeset file (.changeset/*.md) exists in staging

Workflow overview

0. Reset       — return to main and pull latest
1. List        — show PRs merged to staging since last release
2. Select      — user selects which PRs go to main
3. Branch      — create release branch with selected PRs
4. PR          — open PR to main
5. Done        — user merges → push → auto-release

§0 — Reset (always)

git checkout main && git pull origin main

§1 — List merged PRs

Find PRs merged to staging since the last release tag:

LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 origin/main 2>/dev/null || echo "none")

# Get the next version from changeset
NEXT_VERSION=$(cat .changeset/*.md | grep -oP '(?<=^## )\d+\.\d+\.\d+' || echo "patch")

# Create release branch from main
RELEASE_BRANCH="release/v${NEXT_VERSION}"

List the PRs that contributed those commits:

gh pr list --base staging --state=merged --limit=50 \
  --json number,title,author,labels,mergedAt

Present to the user in a clear format:

PRs merged to staging since {LAST_TAG}:

1. #123 — Add authentication — @author — labels: type:feature, area:auth
2. #124 — Fix login bug — @author — labels: type:bug, area:auth
3. #125 — Update dependencies — @author — labels: type:chore

Select which PRs should go to main for this release.

§2 — Select

Ask the user to select which PRs go to main.

Option A — All PRs

If the user wants all PRs in staging:

"Include all {n} PRs in the release?"

Option B — Specific PRs

If the user wants to select specific PRs:

"Which PRs should go to main? (e.g., #123, #124, skip #125)"

Option C — Exclude specific PRs

If the user wants most PRs but excludes a few:

"Include all except which PRs? (e.g., all except #125)"

Document the selection for the release notes.

§3 — Create release branch

Create a release branch with the selected PRs:

# Get the selected PR numbers
SELECTED_PR_NUMS="{1,2,3}"

# Create release branch from main
RELEASE_BRANCH="release/v${NEXT_VERSION}"
git checkout -b "$RELEASE_BRANCH" origin/main

# Cherry-pick commits from the selected PRs
for pr in $SELECTED_PR_NUMS; do
  # Get the merge commit SHA for each PR
  SHA=$(gh api "repos/<org>/<repo>/pulls/{pr}/merge" --jq '.merge_commit_sha')
  git cherry-pick "$SHA"
done

# Push release branch
git push -u origin "$RELEASE_BRANCH"

If cherry-pick has conflicts:

1. Resolve conflicts
2. git add .
3. git cherry-pick --continue
4. If a PR shouldn't be included due to conflicts, note it for the user

§4 — Open PR to main

gh pr create \
  --base main \
  --head "$RELEASE_BRANCH" \
  --title "Release {date}" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Release Summary

This PR ships the following changes from staging:

{List of selected PRs with titles and authors}

### Included
{PR list}

### Changeset
A `.changeset/*.md` file is included to trigger version bump and auto-release.

### Next step
Review and merge this PR. Auto-release will trigger on push to main.

---
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
EOF
)" \
  --label "release"

§5 — Done

Tell the user:

"Release PR opened: {PR URL}. Merge it to main to trigger auto-release."

Error handling

Situation	Action
No PRs merged since last release	Tell user: "No PRs merged since last tag. Nothing to ship."
Cherry-pick conflict	Resolve conflicts, or skip the conflicting PR
Release branch already exists	Delete and recreate
No changeset in staging	Warn user: "No changeset found. Auto-release may not trigger."

Constraints

• Run after /review-pr — PRs must be merged to staging first.
• Always create a release branch — never merge staging directly to main.
• Cherry-pick, don't merge — staging may have PRs that shouldn't go to main.
• Test the release branch locally before opening the PR if possible.
• Adapt <org>/<repo> to your project conventions.