- PR Writer
- Create pull requests following Sentry's engineering practices.
- Requires
- GitHub CLI ( gh ) authenticated and available. Prerequisites Before creating a PR, ensure all changes are committed. If there are uncommitted changes, run the sentry-skills:commit skill first to commit them properly.
Check for uncommitted changes
git status --porcelain If the output shows any uncommitted changes (modified, added, or untracked files that should be included), invoke the sentry-skills:commit skill before proceeding. Process Step 1: Verify Branch State
Detect the default branch — note the output for use in subsequent commands
gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name'
Check current branch and status (substitute the detected branch name above for BASE)
git status git log BASE .. HEAD --oneline Ensure: All changes are committed Branch is up to date with remote Changes are rebased on the base branch if needed Step 2: Analyze Changes Review what will be included in the PR:
See all commits that will be in the PR (substitute detected branch name for BASE)
git log BASE .. HEAD
See the full diff
git diff BASE .. .HEAD Understand the scope and purpose of all changes before writing the description. Step 3: Write the PR Description Use this structure for PR descriptions (ignoring any repository PR templates): < brief description of what the PR does
< why these changes are being made - the motivation
< alternative approaches considered, if any
< any additional context reviewers need
Do NOT include: "Test plan" sections Checkbox lists of testing steps Redundant summaries of the diff Do include: Clear explanation of what and why Links to relevant issues or tickets Context that isn't obvious from the code Notes on specific areas that need careful review Step 4: Create the PR gh pr create --draft --title "
( ): " --body " $( cat << 'EOF' EOF ) " Title format follows commit conventions: feat(scope): Add new feature fix(scope): Fix the bug ref: Refactor something PR Description Examples Feature PR Add Slack thread replies for alert notifications When an alert is updated or resolved, we now post a reply to the original Slack thread instead of creating a new message. This keeps related notifications grouped and reduces channel noise. Previously considered posting edits to the original message, but threading better preserves the timeline of events and works when the original message is older than Slack's edit window. Refs SENTRY-1234 Bug Fix PR Handle null response in user API endpoint The user endpoint could return null for soft-deleted accounts, causing dashboard crashes when accessing user properties. This adds a null check and returns a proper 404 response. Found while investigating SENTRY-5678. Fixes SENTRY-5678 Refactor PR Extract validation logic to shared module Moves duplicate validation code from the alerts, issues, and projects endpoints into a shared validator class. No behavior change. This prepares for adding new validation rules in SENTRY-9999 without duplicating logic across endpoints. Issue References Reference issues in the PR body: Syntax Effect Fixes #1234 Closes GitHub issue on merge Fixes SENTRY-1234 Closes Sentry issue Refs GH-1234 Links without closing Refs LINEAR-ABC-123 Links Linear issue Guidelines One PR per feature/fix - Don't bundle unrelated changes Keep PRs reviewable - Smaller PRs get faster, better reviews Explain the why - Code shows what; description explains why Mark WIP early - Use draft PRs for early feedback Editing Existing PRs If you need to update a PR after creation, use gh api instead of gh pr edit :
Update PR description
gh api -X PATCH repos/ { owner } / { repo } /pulls/PR_NUMBER -f body = " $( cat << 'EOF' Updated description here EOF ) "
Update PR title
gh api -X PATCH repos/ { owner } / { repo } /pulls/PR_NUMBER -f title = 'new: Title here'
Update both
gh api -X PATCH repos/ { owner } / { repo } /pulls/PR_NUMBER \ -f title = 'new: Title' \ -f body = 'New description' Note: gh pr edit is currently broken due to GitHub's Projects (classic) deprecation. References Sentry Code Review Guidelines Sentry Commit Messages