Creating Pull Requests

Create pull request

Create a draft PR on GitHub with appropriate labels after user approval.

Critical constraints:

• MUST wait for user approval before running gh pr create
• MUST show complete PR content in chat before creating
• MUST follow the writing and labeling rules below

Step 1: Choose mode

Always ask the user first:

How would you like to proceed with creating the PR?

1. Already Ready: I have a feature branch with all changes committed and pushed
2. Automated: Handle branch creation, committing, and pushing automatically

Wait for user response before proceeding.

Step 2: Execute git workflow

Mode A: Already ready

Validate readiness:

git branch --show-current
git status
git branch -r | grep $(git branch --show-current)

Confirm with user, then proceed to Step 3.

Mode B: Automated

Assumes user has already staged changes with git add.

git status
git checkout develop
git checkout -b {type}/{descriptive-name}
git commit -m "{imperative-verb} {what} {where}"
git push --set-upstream origin $(git branch --show-current)

Branch naming: {type}/{brief-description} in kebab-case. Types: feature, fix, refactor, chore, docs. Examples: feature/add-height-plotly-charts, fix/dataframe-memory-leak-scrolling.

Commit message: <imperative verb> <what> <where>, ≤50 chars, no period. Examples: Add height parameter to plotly charts, Fix memory leak in dataframe scrolling.

Step 3: Compose and create PR

3.1 Determine labels

All PRs require these labels:

Note: security-assessment-completed is added by the reviewer after security assessment, not by the PR author.

3.2 Generate PR title

Format: [type] Description of change, ≤63 chars (fits squash-merge commit subjects).

Examples: [feature] Add height parameter to plotly charts, [fix] Extra padding on button.

3.3 Compose PR description

Read .github/pull_request_template.md for the required sections, then fill them in.

Writing rules:

• Highlight what matters. Omit the obvious.
• 2-4 bullets maximum for listing changes.
• No meta-commentary ("This PR...", "We have...", "I added..."). State what changed directly.
• Don't list: added tests, updated types, added validation, fixed linting (all obvious).
• DO explain non-obvious decisions (deprecations, unit choices, fallback behavior).

Good:

Adds height parameter to st.plotly_chart() using Height type system.

• Deprecates use_container_height (removed after 2025-12-31)

Bad (lists every change):

• Added height parameter to signature
• Updated layout config dataclass
• Added validation for height values
• Added unit tests

Testing section — detect from changed files:

Check the matching boxes in the PR template. If no test files changed, explain why. Leave "manual testing" unchecked (user fills in).

3.4 Write PR for user review

Write complete PR details to work-tmp/pr_description.md:

---
title: [PR title from 3.2]
labels: impact:{users|internal}, change:{type}
---

[PR description from 3.3]

Ask user: "I've written the PR details to work-tmp/pr_description.md. You can edit the title, labels, or description directly in that file. Reply 'yes' when ready to create the PR, or provide feedback for changes."

3.5 Create PR (after user approval only)

Read work-tmp/pr_description.md to get the (potentially edited) title, labels, and description:

# Parse frontmatter from the reviewed file
title=$(grep '^title:' work-tmp/pr_description.md | sed 's/^title: //')
labels=$(grep '^labels:' work-tmp/pr_description.md | sed 's/^labels: //' | sed 's/, /,/g')

# Extract body (everything after the closing --- of frontmatter)
awk '/^---$/{if(++count==2) flag=1; next} flag' work-tmp/pr_description.md > work-tmp/pr_body.md

# Create PR using parsed values
gh pr create \
  --title "$title" \
  --body-file work-tmp/pr_body.md \
  --base develop \
  --label "$labels" \
  --draft

# Clean up temporary files
rm work-tmp/pr_description.md work-tmp/pr_body.md

Reference

For full details on writing principles, labeling, branch naming, and testing plans, see the Pull requests wiki.