Github merge stack

Skill edfenton/claude-skills/shared/github-merge-stack

A collection of Claude Code skills for iOS, MERN, NEAN, and shared development workflows

Install

npx -y skills add edfenton/claude-skills --skill github-merge-stack

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

2 stars2 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Merge stacked feature branches from Ralph into main, preserving full feature history. Handles PR base updates, sequential squash merges, and branch cleanup.

SKILL.md

3.3 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Purpose

After Ralph completes with RALPH_CREATE_PR=true, merge all stacked PRs into main while preserving visibility of when and why each feature was implemented.

Arguments

--dry-run — Show what would be merged without making changes
--no-cleanup — Skip local branch cleanup after merging

Prerequisites

gh CLI authenticated (gh auth status)
On a branch in the repo with open PRs
PRs created by Ralph with stacked branches

Template

The merge logic is implemented in templates/merge-stack.sh. This script can be:

Run directly from the skill's templates folder
Copied to a project's scripts/ directory for convenience

Workflow

1. Copy Script to Project (Optional)

cp /path/to/skills/shared/github-merge-stack/templates/github-merge-stack.sh scripts/
chmod +x scripts/github-merge-stack.sh

2. Run the Script

# Preview what will happen
./scripts/github-merge-stack.sh --dry-run

# Execute merges
./scripts/github-merge-stack.sh

# Execute without local cleanup
./scripts/github-merge-stack.sh --no-cleanup

What the Script Does

Checks prerequisites — Verifies gh CLI is authenticated
Lists open PRs — Sorted by number (oldest first = merge order)
Dry run (if --dry-run) — Shows plan without executing
Merges PRs sequentially — For each PR:
- Updates base to main (previous base may be deleted)
- Squash merges with gh pr merge --squash --delete-branch
Syncs local — Pulls main, prunes remote refs
Cleans up (unless --no-cleanup) — Deletes local feat/* branches
Reports results — Shows merged commits and any remaining branches

Understanding the Stack

Ralph creates stacked branches where each PR's base is the previous feature branch:

main
 └── feat/story-001  →  PR #1 (base: main)
      └── feat/story-002  →  PR #2 (base: feat/story-001)
           └── feat/story-003  →  PR #3 (base: feat/story-002)

Why Squash Merge

One commit per feature — Clean main history
Full context preserved — Ralph's detailed commit messages (description, acceptance criteria, files) become the squash commit body
Traceability — git blame traces to originating story, git log --grep finds features

Output

The script reports:

Number of PRs merged
Commits now in main (with hashes and titles)
Branches cleaned up
Any failed PRs (conflicts to resolve manually)
Commands for viewing history

Viewing History Later

# See all features
git log --oneline

# Full details of a feature  
git show <commit-hash>

# Find specific story
git log --grep="story-003"

# Why was this line changed?
git blame path/to/file.ts

Error Handling

PR has conflicts: Skipped, reported at end for manual resolution
gh not authenticated: Exits with instructions to run gh auth login
No open PRs: Reports nothing to merge
Branch delete fails: Continues, reports at end

Reference

See reference/github-merge-stack-reference.md for troubleshooting and manual procedures.