Gh Pr Ready

GitHub PR Ready Skill

Convert draft pull requests to ready-for-review status using the gh CLI.

When to Use

• User says "mark PR as ready" or "ready for review"
• Draft PR is complete and tests pass
• User wants to notify reviewers
• After addressing WIP/TODO items in draft PR

Prerequisites

Verify GitHub CLI is installed and authenticated:

gh --version
gh auth status

Execution Workflow

Step 1: Identify the PR

If user specifies PR number:

gh pr view 123 --json number,isDraft,title

If on a branch with PR:

gh pr view --json number,isDraft,title,url

If user doesn't specify (find draft PRs):

# List all draft PRs by current user
gh pr list --author "@me" --state open --json number,title,isDraft \
  | jq '.[] | select(.isDraft == true)'

Step 2: Verify Draft Status

Check if the PR is actually a draft:

IS_DRAFT=$(gh pr view 123 --json isDraft --jq '.isDraft')

if [ "$IS_DRAFT" != "true" ]; then
  echo "PR #123 is already ready for review"
  exit 0
fi

Step 3: Pre-Flight Checks

Before marking ready, verify:

1. All commits are pushed:

git status
git log origin/main..HEAD

2. CI checks status:

gh pr checks 123

3. No merge conflicts:

gh pr view 123 --json mergeable --jq '.mergeable'

Report any issues to user before proceeding.

Step 4: Mark as Ready

gh pr ready 123

Or for current branch:

gh pr ready

Step 5: Optional - Request Reviews

After marking ready, optionally request reviews:

# Request specific reviewers
gh pr edit 123 --add-reviewer user1,user2,team/backend

# Or request reviews from CODEOWNERS
gh pr edit 123 --add-reviewer $(gh api repos/:owner/:repo/contents/.github/CODEOWNERS --jq '.content' | base64 -d | grep -v '^#' | awk '{print $2}' | paste -sd,)

Step 6: Notify and Report

Present the result:

• PR number and URL
• New status (Ready for review)
• Reviewers (if added)
• CI check status
• Next steps

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: Simple Ready Conversion

# On feature branch with draft PR
git status
gh pr view --json number,title,isDraft

# Verify no issues
gh pr checks

# Mark ready
gh pr ready

echo "✓ PR marked as ready for review"
gh pr view --web  # Optional: open in browser

Scenario 2: Mark Ready with Reviewers

# Mark ready and request reviews in one flow
gh pr ready 123

gh pr edit 123 \
  --add-reviewer user1,user2 \
  --add-label ready-for-review

echo "✓ PR #123 ready and reviewers notified"

Scenario 3: Mark Ready After CI Passes

# Wait for CI checks
echo "Checking CI status..."
gh pr checks 123 --watch

# Once passed, mark ready
if gh pr checks 123 | grep -q "✓"; then
  gh pr ready 123
  gh pr edit 123 --add-reviewer team/reviewers
  echo "✓ CI passed, PR ready for review"
else
  echo "⚠ CI checks failing. Fix issues before marking ready."
  exit 1
fi

Scenario 4: Bulk Ready Conversion

# Mark multiple draft PRs as ready
for pr in $(gh pr list --author "@me" --json number,isDraft --jq '.[] | select(.isDraft == true) | .number'); do
  echo "Processing PR #$pr..."
  gh pr checks $pr --watch
  gh pr ready $pr
  echo "✓ PR #$pr marked ready"
done

Scenario 5: Ready with Summary Update

# Update PR description before marking ready
gh pr edit 123 --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
Feature implementation complete and tested.

## Changes
- Implemented user authentication
- Added JWT token handling
- Created login/logout flows

## Testing
- ✓ All unit tests pass
- ✓ Integration tests pass
- ✓ Manual testing completed

## Checklist
- [x] Tests added
- [x] Documentation updated
- [x] No breaking changes
- [x] CI passing

Ready for review!

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

# Then mark ready
gh pr ready 123

Advanced Options

Conditional Ready

Only mark ready if certain conditions are met:

# Check CI status
CI_STATUS=$(gh pr checks 123 --json state --jq '.[].state' | sort -u)

# Check coverage (example)
COVERAGE=$(grep -o 'Coverage: [0-9]*%' coverage/report.txt | grep -o '[0-9]*')

# Mark ready only if CI passes and coverage > 80%
if [[ "$CI_STATUS" == "SUCCESS" ]] && [[ "$COVERAGE" -gt 80 ]]; then
  gh pr ready 123
  echo "✓ PR ready (CI passed, coverage: $COVERAGE%)"
else
  echo "⚠ Not ready: CI=$CI_STATUS, Coverage=$COVERAGE%"
  exit 1
fi

Ready with Auto-merge

Mark ready and enable auto-merge:

gh pr ready 123
gh pr merge 123 --auto --squash
echo "✓ PR ready with auto-merge enabled"

Team Notification

Mark ready and notify team in Slack/Discord:

gh pr ready 123

PR_URL=$(gh pr view 123 --json url --jq '.url')
PR_TITLE=$(gh pr view 123 --json title --jq '.title')

# Example Slack webhook notification
curl -X POST https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR/WEBHOOK/URL \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d "{\"text\":\"PR ready for review: $PR_TITLE - $PR_URL\"}"

Tips

• Check CI first: Always verify CI passes before marking ready
• Update description: Ensure PR body reflects final state
• Remove WIP markers: Update title to remove "[WIP]" or "[Draft]"
• Add reviewers immediately: Don't wait for automatic CODEOWNERS assignment
• Use labels: Add "ready-for-review" label for better visibility
• Notify team: Consider notifying team in chat for urgent reviews

Error Handling

Error: "PR is not a draft"

• Cause: PR is already ready for review
• Solution: Verify with gh pr view 123 --json isDraft

Error: "Not found"

• Cause: PR doesn't exist or you don't have access
• Solution: Check PR number with gh pr list

Error: "CI checks failing"

• Cause: PR has failing CI checks
• Solution: Fix issues first, or mark ready with warning

Error: "Merge conflicts"

• Cause: PR has conflicts with base branch
• Solution: Resolve conflicts first with git merge origin/main

Error: "GraphQL error"

• Cause: GitHub API issue or rate limit
• Solution: Wait and retry, or check gh auth status

Best Practices

1. Pre-flight checks: Always verify CI and tests before marking ready
2. Update description: Ensure PR body is current and complete
3. Remove TODO markers: Clear all WIP/TODO comments from code
4. Add reviewers immediately: Don't rely solely on CODEOWNERS
5. Clean up commits: Consider squashing or rebasing before marking ready
6. Update title: Remove "[Draft]" or "[WIP]" prefixes
7. Check dependencies: Ensure dependent PRs are merged first
8. Verify no conflicts: Resolve merge conflicts before review
9. Documentation: Ensure all docs are updated
10. Self-review: Review your own PR once more before marking ready

Related Skills

• gh-pr-create - Create new pull requests
• gh-pr-view - View PR details
• gh-pr-review - Review and approve PRs
• gh-pr-merge - Merge approved PRs

Limitations

• Requires GitHub CLI installed and authenticated
• Can only mark your own PRs or PRs you have write access to
• Cannot mark ready if PR has required checks that are failing (depends on repo settings)
• Some organizations may require specific workflows before marking ready

See Also

• GitHub CLI docs: https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_pr_ready
• Draft PRs: https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests#draft-pull-requests