ship-changes

name	ship-changes
description	Ship staged or unstaged local changes: create a branch, make logical commits, push to origin, open a PR with the correct description and label, merge it, and delete the branch locally and on origin. Use whenever the user asks to commit, push, create a PR, ship, or land changes.

Ship Changes

This skill takes local modifications from the working tree and lands them on main via a properly structured branch, commits, and PR — following all project conventions for commits, PR descriptions, and labels.

Inputs

Collect the following before starting:

• Semantic label — patch, minor, major, or none. Skip labeling entirely if the user says no label or omits the label. Do not ask — infer from the nature of the change or follow the user's explicit instruction.
• Branch name suffix — short kebab-case description of the work, e.g. fix/testing-orleans-runtime-assemblies. Determine from the nature of the changes if not provided.
• Related GitHub issue — search GitHub issues if the change likely relates to one; use the real number or omit the reference when none exists. Never invent or reuse example numbers.

Step 1 — Review the working tree

git status
git diff

Read the full diff. Understand every changed file before touching git. Do not start staging until you know exactly how the commits will be split.

Step 2 — Create the branch

Branch off of current main. Always use a prefix:

Prefix	When to use
fix/	bug fixes, runtime errors, incorrect behavior
feat/	new features, new slices, new capabilities
chore/	build infra, tooling, docs, refactoring

git checkout -b <prefix>/<short-description>

Step 3 — Make logical commits

Commit splitting rules

Split commits so that each one is a single logical unit of work:

1. Infrastructure / plumbing first — new types, interfaces, MSBuild targets, shared build props — anything that later commits build on.
2. Core behavior second — the actual fix or feature that uses the infrastructure.
3. Specs / tests third — only when specs are clearly separate from the behavior change (e.g. new integration spec added after the source fix). Combine with behavior commit when tightly coupled.
4. Integration or wiring last — DI registration, routing, UI hookup.

Never mix unrelated changes in a single commit.

Staging discipline

Stage files explicitly — never git add . or git add -A:

git add <file1> <file2>
git diff --cached          # verify staged content before committing
git commit -m "<message>"

Commit message format

<imperative summary — 72-char max, no trailing period>

<optional body: WHY the change was made, context, trade-offs>
<use bullets for multi-part changes>

• Subject starts with a verb: Add, Fix, Remove, Rename, Extract, Update, Support.
• Body separated from subject by a blank line.
• Body explains why, not what — the diff shows the what.

Good examples:

Add _PackPrivateAssemblyGlobs target for runtime-only NuGet package embedding

Extend the shared client build infrastructure with a new MSBuild target.
The new PrivatePackageAssemblyGlob item type globs $(OutputPath) at pack
time and embeds matching DLLs into lib/{tfm}/ without a nuspec dependency.

Fix duplicate key crash in IdentityStorage.Populate

The upsert used InsertOne which threw on existing identities.
Replace with ReplaceOne using upsert: true.

Bad examples (never do these):

• Fix stuff
• WIP
• Added files
• Fix bug and add feature and update docs

Step 4 — Push the branch

git push -u origin <branch-name>

Step 5 — Create the PR

Use mcp_github_github_create_pull_request with:

• owner / repo: the current repository — derive it from the origin remote (git remote get-url origin); never hardcode a specific repo
• head: the branch name
• base: main
• title: short imperative sentence describing the overall change
• body: PR description (see below)

PR description format

Follow .github/pull_request_template.md. Include only non-empty sections.

## Added
- <release-note bullet> (#<actual-issue-number>)

## Changed
- <release-note bullet> (#<actual-issue-number>)

## Fixed
- <release-note bullet> (#<actual-issue-number>)

Rules:

• Bullets are short, release-note ready, written for a user reading the changelog.
• End every bullet with (#<N>) using the real GitHub issue number. Search issues first. If there is no issue, omit the reference entirely — never write (#issue) or reuse an example number.
• Remove any empty sections — no blank headings.
• Include a # Summary paragraph only when the bullets alone don't tell the full story.
• Never include any Copilot prompt transcript or "Original prompt" block.

Searching for a related issue

mcp_github_github_search_issues  query="<keywords> repo:<owner>/<repo>"

(Use the current repository's <owner>/<repo>, derived from the origin remote.)

If nothing relevant is found, omit the issue reference from affected bullets.

Step 6 — Add the label (optional)

Skip this step entirely if the user said no label or did not provide one.

Otherwise use gh pr edit <number> --add-label "<label>" with one of:

Label	When
patch	bug fixes, docs, refactoring with identical behavior
minor	new features, new slices, non-breaking additions
major	breaking changes to public APIs

Step 7 — Wait for CI to pass

Before merging, poll the PR checks with pull_request_read:

• Use method: get_check_runs (and get_job_logs on any failure).
• Merge only when all required checks are green. If a check fails, investigate, fix, and push again.
• Do not merge while red unless the user explicitly accepts confirmed pre-existing flakes unrelated to the change.

Step 8 — Merge the PR

Use mcp_github_github_merge_pull_request with:

• merge_method: merge
• owner / repo: the current repository (same as step 5)
• pullNumber: the PR number returned in step 5

Step 9 — Clean up the branch

git checkout main && git pull && git branch -d <branch-name> && git push origin --delete <branch-name>

Run all four commands in one shell invocation to avoid partial state. After this completes, main is fully up to date locally.

Full example sequence

An illustrative end-to-end run for a new slice (paths and numbers are placeholders — use the current repo's):

# 1. Review
git status
git diff

# 2. Branch
git checkout -b feat/authors-registration

# 3a. First commit — backend slice
git add Authors/Registration/Registration.cs
git diff --cached
git commit -m "Add author registration slice

Register command + AuthorRegistered event + uniqueness constraint."

# 3b. Second commit — specs
git add Authors/Registration/when_registering_an_author/
git commit -m "Add specs for author registration"

# 4. Push
git push -u origin feat/authors-registration

# 5. PR (via mcp_github_github_create_pull_request) — owner/repo from the origin remote

# 6. Label (optional)
gh pr edit <pr-number> --add-label "minor"

# 7. Wait for CI — pull_request_read get_check_runs until green

# 8. Merge (via mcp_github_github_merge_pull_request)

# 9. Clean up (pulls main as part of the same command)
git checkout main && git pull && git branch -d feat/authors-registration && git push origin --delete feat/authors-registration

Common mistakes to avoid

• Never git add . — always stage specific files and verify with git diff --cached.
• Never invent issue numbers — search first; omit the reference if nothing matches.
• Never leave placeholder text in PR bodies ((#issue), (#123)).
• Never commit code that does not compile — every commit must be a working state.
• Never push directly to main — always go through the branch + PR flow.
• Never skip branch cleanup — delete both the local and remote branch after merging.