Activation Contract
Load this skill when a planned PR may exceed 400 changed lines, SDD forecasts 400-line budget risk: High or Chained PRs recommended: Yes, or the user asks for chained/stacked PRs, review slices, or reviewer-load control.
Hard Rules
- Split PRs over 400 changed lines unless a maintainer explicitly accepts
size:exception.
- Keep each PR reviewable in about ≤60 minutes.
- Use one deliverable work unit per PR; keep tests/docs with the unit they verify.
- State start, end, prior dependencies, follow-up work, and out-of-scope items in every chained PR.
- Every child PR must include a dependency diagram marking the current PR with
📍.
- In Feature Branch Chain, create a draft/no-merge tracker PR; child PR #1 targets the tracker branch, later children target the immediate parent branch.
- Treat polluted diffs as base bugs: retarget or rebase until only the current work unit appears.
- Do not mix chain strategies after the user chooses one.
Decision Gates
| Condition |
Action |
| PR ≤400 changed lines and focused |
Keep single PR. |
| PR >400, each slice can land independently |
Use Stacked PRs to main. |
| PR >400, feature must integrate before main |
Use Feature Branch Chain with tracker. |
| Generated/vendor/migration diff cannot split cleanly |
Ask maintainer for size:exception. |
SDD provides delivery_strategy |
Follow it before apply/PR creation. |
Execution Steps
- Estimate changed lines and identify independent work units.
- Ask for a chain strategy when none is cached and the budget is exceeded.
- Create branches/PRs using the chosen strategy only.
- Add Chain Context to each PR without replacing the repo PR template.
- Verify each PR independently: CI/tests/docs/manual checks, rollback scope, and clean diff.
- Keep tracker PR draft/no-merge until all child PRs are reviewed and integrated.
Output Contract
Return the chosen strategy, PR order, current PR boundary, dependency diagram, review budget (additions + deletions), verification plan, and any size:exception rationale.
References
- references/chaining-details.md — strategy diagrams, PR body section, branch commands, and reviewer guidance.
1---2name: gentle-ai-chained-pr3description: Trigger: PRs over 400 lines, stacked PRs, review slices. Split oversized changes into chained PRs that protect review focus.4license: Apache-2.05---6
7## Activation Contract
8
9Load this skill when a planned PR may exceed **400 changed lines**, SDD forecasts `400-line budget risk: High` or `Chained PRs recommended: Yes`, or the user asks for chained/stacked PRs, review slices, or reviewer-load control.
10
11## Hard Rules
12
13- Split PRs over **400 changed lines** unless a maintainer explicitly accepts `size:exception`.
14- Keep each PR reviewable in about **≤60 minutes**.
15- Use one deliverable work unit per PR; keep tests/docs with the unit they verify.
16- State start, end, prior dependencies, follow-up work, and out-of-scope items in every chained PR.
17- Every child PR must include a dependency diagram marking the current PR with `📍`.
18- In Feature Branch Chain, create a draft/no-merge tracker PR; child PR #1 targets the tracker branch, later children target the immediate parent branch.
19- Treat polluted diffs as base bugs: retarget or rebase until only the current work unit appears.
20- Do not mix chain strategies after the user chooses one.
21
22## Decision Gates
23
24| Condition | Action |
25|---|---|
26| PR ≤400 changed lines and focused | Keep single PR. |
27| PR >400, each slice can land independently | Use Stacked PRs to main. |
28| PR >400, feature must integrate before main | Use Feature Branch Chain with tracker. |
29| Generated/vendor/migration diff cannot split cleanly | Ask maintainer for `size:exception`. |
30| SDD provides `delivery_strategy` | Follow it before apply/PR creation. |
31
32## Execution Steps
33
341. Estimate changed lines and identify independent work units.
352. Ask for a chain strategy when none is cached and the budget is exceeded.
363. Create branches/PRs using the chosen strategy only.
374. Add Chain Context to each PR without replacing the repo PR template.
385. Verify each PR independently: CI/tests/docs/manual checks, rollback scope, and clean diff.
396. Keep tracker PR draft/no-merge until all child PRs are reviewed and integrated.
40
41## Output Contract
42
43Return the chosen strategy, PR order, current PR boundary, dependency diagram, review budget (`additions + deletions`), verification plan, and any `size:exception` rationale.
44
45## References
46
47- [references/chaining-details.md](references/chaining-details.md) — strategy diagrams, PR body section, branch commands, and reviewer guidance.
Gentleman-Programming