Github pr

GitHub Pull Request Creator

You are helping the user open a pull request on GitHub. Work through the steps below, adapting to what you already know from context — if the user already told you the title or target branch, use it rather than asking again.

Prerequisites

Verify gh is installed and authenticated before doing anything else:

gh auth status

If not authenticated, tell the user: "You need to authenticate first — run gh auth login in your terminal. It'll open a browser prompt to connect your GitHub account, then you can come back and I'll create the PR." Stop there.

Step 1: Gather branch context

Run these together to understand the current state:

git branch --show-current
git remote get-url origin
gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name'
git status --short
git ls-remote --heads origin develop

From this, determine:

• Current branch — this becomes the PR's head branch

• Base branch — resolved as follows (unless an explicit base was passed by the calling skill, in which case use that and skip detection):

  If the caller provided an explicit base branch: use it directly.

  Otherwise, detect strategy:

  • git ls-remote --heads origin develop returned output → GitFlow. Route by current branch pattern:
    • feature/*, fix/*, chore/*, refactor/*, docs/*, test/*, ci/*, perf/*, style/* → base: develop
    • release/*, hotfix/* → base: GitHub default branch (from gh repo view)
  • No develop branch → trunk-based → base: GitHub default branch (from gh repo view)

  If both detection methods fail, ask the user.

• Commit summary — all commits since the branch diverged from base:

git log --oneline $(git merge-base HEAD origin/<base-branch> 2>/dev/null)..HEAD 2>/dev/null | head -20

Pre-flight: branch and commit (if on default branch)

If the current branch equals the repo's default branch and there are uncommitted changes, do not proceed to push or create a PR yet. The user likely forgot to branch first. Handle it automatically:

1. Check whether conventional-commits appears in the available skills list.

   • If it does, invoke it via the Skill tool with args explicitly requesting a new branch and a commit (e.g., "create a new branch and commit: <brief description of the changes>"). This ensures conventional-commits creates a branch rather than committing directly to the default branch. Resume from Step 2 once it's done.
   • If it does not, run the fallback steps below.

2. Fallback — branch, commit, push:

   • Derive a short branch name from the staged/unstaged changes (e.g., feat/add-login-page, fix/null-pointer-crash). Follow the type/short-description convention using lowercase kebab-case.
   • Run:

     git checkout -b <branch-name>
     git add -A
     git commit -m "<type>(<scope>): <short description>"
     git push -u origin HEAD
     

   • Use a conventional commit message format: type(scope): description. Infer the type (feat, fix, chore, etc.) from the nature of the changes.

Tell the user what branch was created and what was committed before moving on.

If the current branch is the default branch but there are no uncommitted changes (e.g., commits already exist locally), tell the user: "You're on <default> with unpushed commits — this will PR directly from <default>, which is unusual. Did you mean to branch first?" and wait for confirmation before continuing.

Step 2: Ensure the branch is pushed

Check whether the current branch has a remote tracking branch:

git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name @{u} 2>&1

If there's no upstream (you'll see an error like "no upstream configured"), push the branch:

git push -u origin HEAD

If the branch is behind the remote, tell the user and ask how they want to proceed before continuing.

Step 3: Generate a PR title and description

Use the commit history to draft both. The goal is something a reviewer would find useful — clear about what changed and why.

Title generation rules:

• If there's only one commit, use it (cleaned up) as the title
• If there are multiple commits, synthesize a title that captures the overall change (e.g., "Add OAuth2 login flow" not "various auth changes")
• Keep it under 72 characters
• Use present tense imperative ("Add", "Fix", "Remove", not "Added", "Fixed", "Removed")

Description: check for a repo template first

test -f .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md && cat .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

• If the file exists, read it and use it as the body structure. Fill in every placeholder section using the commit history and changed files — do not leave placeholder text unfilled.
• If the file does not exist, use the default template in assets/default-pr-template.md. Fill in every section using the commit history and changed files — do not leave placeholder text unfilled.

Generate the title and description and proceed directly to Step 4 — do not show the draft or ask for confirmation. Only show the title and description first if the user explicitly asked to review it (e.g., "show me the description", "let me review it first", "I want to check the PR body").

Step 4: Determine draft mode

Default to a regular PR — do not ask the user about this. Only add --draft if the user explicitly said "draft", "draft PR", "not ready for review", or similar language in their original request.

Step 5: Create the PR

gh pr create \
  --base <base-branch> \
  --head <current-branch> \
  --title "<title>" \
  --body "<description>" \
  [--draft]

After creating, output:

• The PR URL (so the user can click it)
• A one-line summary: branch → base, number of commits, draft or not

Edge cases to handle

Detached HEAD: Tell the user they're not on a named branch and ask them to check out one before continuing.

Already-open PR: gh pr view will show it. Tell the user a PR already exists and show the URL — offer to update the description if they want.

No commits ahead of base: Tell the user the branch has no new commits compared to <base> and ask if they're on the right branch.

Push rejected: Show the error message verbatim and suggest they pull first or check if the branch has diverged.

No remote configured: Tell the user there's no git remote and they'll need to set one up before creating a PR.

Private/no-access repo: The gh error will explain it. Surface it clearly and don't retry silently.

Co-authorship

Never add Co-Authored-By: Claude ... (or any variant) to commit messages or PR bodies. The user does not want Claude attributed in commits or PRs.

Tone

Be direct and efficient. The user is trying to ship something — don't ask unnecessary questions or add ceremony. If something is obvious from context, just do it. Surface decisions only when they genuinely require input.