git-pr

name

git-pr

description

PR and MR workflows for GitHub (gh) and GitLab (glab). Creation, review comment handling, thread resolution, review state queries, merging, cost-aware bot review rounds (GitHub: Copilot, CodeRabbit), and Copilot code review configuration (rulesets, custom instructions, billing). Use when creating PRs/MRs, addressing review feedback, resolving threads, looping bot reviews, checking approvals, querying PR data, configuring Copilot reviews, or configuring gh/glab read-only allowlists. Not for git commits (git-commit), CI/CD status (git-ci), local pre-push CodeRabbit CLI reviews (coderabbit), or general git ops

PR and MR Workflows

Primary skill for pull request and merge request workflows across GitHub and GitLab. Covers the full lifecycle: creation, review queries, comment handling, line-specific comments, and merging. All recipes use minimal field sets for token efficiency.

Context Check (Do This First)

Before starting any PR workflow, detect the current state. This determines the right action:

# Check if a PR exists for the current branch (allowlisted, zero approval)
gh pr view --json number,state,reviewDecision,reviewRequests,title 2>/dev/null

Result	Next action
PR exists, CHANGES_REQUESTED	Fetch unresolved threads (see Review Comment Handling)
PR exists, REVIEW_REQUIRED or has pending reviewRequests	Check review state or wait for reviewers
PR exists, a bot pending in REST requested_reviewers (Copilot shows as Copilot)	Auto-review in flight -- wait for it (Bot Review Loop); do NOT re-request
PR exists, unresolved review comments	Address the comments first (Review Comment Handling); never request a new review over outstanding ones
PR exists, APPROVED	Check CI status or proceed with merge
PR exists, no review decision yet	Check CI status, review state, or push more changes
No PR for current branch	Create a PR (see PR/MR Creation)

This avoids offering to create a PR when one already exists, and immediately surfaces pending review work. The reviewDecision field reliably indicates whether a reviewer has requested changes without needing to fetch individual threads.

Auto-review is an optional setting -- never assume it either way (GitHub): automatic Copilot code review comes from either a repo/org ruleset or the author's personal Copilot setting, so its presence varies between accounts, orgs, and even repos of the same owner. When enabled it requests Copilot on every non-draft PR at creation (and when a draft is marked ready for review), so a freshly created PR may already have a pending bot request or bot comments minutes later -- and on other repos nothing fires at all. The ruleset source is detectable read-only (the copilot_code_review rule via gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/rules/branches/{branch}; see references/copilot-review-config.md), but the personal setting has no API -- so an empty ruleset check still means detect, don't assume: check for a pending request or an existing bot review first, and only request one if neither shows up; otherwise you get a duplicate round. Gotcha: the pending bot request is only visible via gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{n}/requested_reviewers (login Copilot) -- gh pr view --json reviewRequests omits bot reviewers and stays empty.

Bot reviews cost money (Copilot) or quota (CodeRabbit) -- budget rounds deliberately. Every Copilot review, including each re-request, bills fully: 13 premium requests on legacy annual plans (up to ~23 reviews/month on Pro -- the pool is shared with all premium features), or token-metered AI credits + Actions minutes on current plans. CodeRabbit PR reviews draw from an hourly per-plan bucket. Check the project's Code Review Policy (below) before requesting anything billable; prefer local CodeRabbit CLI reviews (see the coderabbit skill) to iterate cheaply before the PR-side review.

When to Use

• Creating PRs or MRs -- draft workflows, fill patterns, title format
• Addressing PR/MR review feedback -- "fix PR comments", "address review", "handle feedback", "resolve review threads"
• Responding to code review -- evaluating reviewer comments, replying, resolving threads
• Checking review state -- approvals, pending reviewers, review decisions
• Querying PR/MR data -- files changed, commits, labels, linked issues
• Posting comments on PRs/MRs -- line-specific comments, thread replies
• Looping bot review rounds (GitHub only; Copilot, CodeRabbit) -- re-request the bot, wait for the async review, address comments, repeat until no valid comments remain ("loop the Copilot review", "loop 3 rounds")
• Configuring Copilot code review -- auto-review rulesets, review effort, custom instructions, billing/quota checks
• Configuring tool allowlists -- auto-approval patterns for read-only commands

Critical Rules

1. Prefer CLI subcommands over raw API calls. Subcommands handle pagination, error formatting, and repo detection. Only use gh api / glab api for operations not covered by subcommands (line comments, thread resolution, GraphQL).
2. Use --json field1,field2 with gh to filter output. This IS the efficiency mechanism -- no --jq needed for basic queries. Only request fields you actually need.
3. glab has no --json field1,field2 equivalent. Use -F json | jq '{fields}' to filter output for token efficiency.
4. Use commands exactly as shown in this skill. The commands below are designed to match auto-approval allowlist patterns. Improvising flag order or adding unexpected flags may trigger permission prompts.

---

Provider Detection

git remote get-url origin

Remote URL contains	Provider	CLI	PR term
github.com	GitHub	gh	PR
gitlab.com or self-hosted GitLab	GitLab	glab	MR

If ambiguous or both present, ask the user.

---

Read-Only vs Write Classification

• Read-only (safe to auto-approve): view, list, status, diff, checks, search
• Write (require user approval): create, edit, merge, close, reopen, comment, review, approve

Reference: See references/allowlist.md for tiered auto-approval patterns.

---

PR/MR Summary (Current Branch)

GitHub:

gh pr view --json number,title,state,isDraft,reviewDecision,mergeable,baseRefName,headRefName

GitLab:

glab mr view -F json | jq '{iid:.iid,title:.title,state:.state,draft:.draft,merge_status:.merge_status,target:.target_branch,source:.source_branch}'

PR/MR Summary (By Number)

GitHub:

gh pr view {number} --json number,title,state,isDraft,reviewDecision,mergeable,baseRefName,headRefName

GitLab:

glab mr view {iid} -F json | jq '{iid:.iid,title:.title,state:.state,draft:.draft,merge_status:.merge_status,target:.target_branch,source:.source_branch}'

Review State

Reference: See references/review-queries.md for advanced review queries: per-reviewer state, approval checks, pending reviewers.

GitHub:

gh pr view --json reviews,reviewRequests,latestReviews

GitLab:

glab mr view -F json | jq '{upvotes:.upvotes,reviewers:[.reviewers[]?.username]}'

For detailed approval info (GitLab):

glab api projects/{project_id}/merge_requests/{iid}/approvals | jq '{approved:.approved,approvers:[.approved_by[]?.user.username]}'

Files Changed

GitHub:

gh pr diff --name-only

GitLab:

glab mr diff

File Stats

GitHub:

gh pr view --json files

GitLab:

glab api projects/{project_id}/merge_requests/{iid}/changes | jq '[.changes[] | {path:.new_path,added:.diff | split("\n") | map(select(startswith("+"))) | length,removed:.diff | split("\n") | map(select(startswith("-"))) | length}]'

List Open PRs/MRs

GitHub:

gh pr list --json number,title,author,reviewDecision,updatedAt

GitLab:

glab mr list -F json | jq '[.[] | {iid:.iid,title:.title,author:.author.username,updated:.updated_at}]'

PR/MR Commits

GitHub:

gh pr view --json commits

GitLab:

glab api projects/{project_id}/merge_requests/{iid}/commits | jq '[.[] | {sha:.short_id,title:.title}]'

Search PRs/MRs

GitHub:

gh pr list --search "review-requested:@me" --json number,title,url

GitLab:

glab mr list --reviewer=@me -F json | jq '[.[] | {iid:.iid,title:.title,url:.web_url}]'

---

Create PR/MR (Write -- Manual Approval)

Action	GitHub	GitLab
Create draft	gh pr create --draft --fill	glab mr create --draft --fill
Create with title	gh pr create --title "feat: ..." --body "..."	glab mr create --title "feat: ..." --description "..."
Create + request Copilot review	gh pr create --title "..." --body "..." --reviewer @copilot (gh >= 2.88)	n/a

After creating a non-draft GitHub PR, check gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{n}/requested_reviewers before requesting any bot review -- repos with automatic Copilot review already have one in flight (and it will NOT show in gh pr view --json reviewRequests). On a repo you know has no auto-review, skip the create-then-edit round-trip and request Copilot at creation with --reviewer @copilot; when unsure, create normally and let the detection decide.

Merge (Write -- Manual Approval)

Action	GitHub	GitLab
Squash merge	gh pr merge --squash --delete-branch	glab mr merge --squash --remove-source-branch
Rebase merge	gh pr merge --rebase --delete-branch	glab mr merge --rebase --remove-source-branch

---

Review Comment Handling

Reference: See references/pr-comment-workflow.md for the full opinionated workflow with all command patterns and examples.

The workflow has two distinct phases -- never mix them:

Phase 1: Analyze and Fix (local work, no GitHub API writes, zero approvals)

1. Fetch all unresolved review threads in a single GraphQL query with inline --jq filter
2. For each thread: read the file at the referenced path+line, check if the comment is valid by researching the codebase (patterns, conventions, CLAUDE.md, git log)
3. Be critical -- validate each comment against actual code before accepting. Reviewers can be wrong.
4. Make all necessary code fixes
5. Commit and push the fixes

Phase 2: Reply and Resolve (one batched command, one approval) 6. Combine all replies and all resolves into a single &&-chained command 7. REST replies first, then a single GraphQL mutation with aliases to batch-resolve all handled threads 8. Leave "Needs discussion" threads unresolved

This ordering matters: pushing fixes first ensures reviewers see the changes when they read replies. Never reply to a comment claiming "Fixed" before the fix is actually pushed.

Fetch Unresolved Threads (Zero Approvals)

GitHub -- one command with $(...) substitution. Generate as a single line and do NOT prepend variable assignments (OWNER=..., REPO=...) -- both break allowlist matching:

gh api graphql -f query="{ repository(owner: \"$(gh repo view --json owner --jq '.owner.login')\", name: \"$(gh repo view --json name --jq '.name')\") { pullRequest(number: $(gh pr view --json number --jq '.number')) { reviewThreads(first: 100) { nodes { id isResolved isOutdated path line startLine comments(first: 20) { nodes { id databaseId body author { login } } } } } } } }" --jq '[.data.repository.pullRequest.reviewThreads.nodes[] | select(.isResolved==false)]'

Returns only unresolved threads directly.

Response field mapping (critical -- using wrong ID causes silent failures):

Field	Format	Use for
thread .id	PRRT_... (node ID)	resolveReviewThread mutation
comment .databaseId	2949637341 (numeric)	REST reply endpoint
comment .id	PRRC_... (node ID)	Not typically needed

GitLab (REST):

glab api projects/{project_id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions --paginate | jq '[.[] | select(.notes[0].resolvable==true and .notes[0].resolved==false) | {id:.id,path:.notes[0].position.new_path,line:.notes[0].position.new_line,body:.notes[0].body,author:.notes[0].author.username}]'

Reply and Resolve (One Batched Command)

GitHub -- combine all REST replies and a batch GraphQL resolve mutation into one &&-chained command. Reply uses databaseId (numeric), resolve uses thread id (PRRT_ node ID):

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr}/comments/{databaseId_1}/replies -f body="Fixed in {sha} -- {explanation}" && \
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr}/comments/{databaseId_2}/replies -f body="Addressed in {sha}" && \
gh api graphql -f query="
mutation {
  t1: resolveReviewThread(input: {threadId: \"PRRT_thread1\"}) { thread { isResolved } }
  t2: resolveReviewThread(input: {threadId: \"PRRT_thread2\"}) { thread { isResolved } }
}"

GitLab:

glab api projects/{id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions/{disc_1}/notes --method POST --field "body=Fixed in {sha}" && \
glab api projects/{id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions/{disc_1} --method PUT --field "resolved=true" && \
glab api projects/{id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions/{disc_2}/notes --method POST --field "body=Addressed" && \
glab api projects/{id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions/{disc_2} --method PUT --field "resolved=true"

---

Code Review Policy (Convention)

Review preferences are declared in a Code Review Policy section of an agent instructions file -- check for one before requesting any review. Two scopes, most specific wins:

1. Repo policy -- the project's AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md. AGENTS.md is the preferred home: Copilot code review itself reads the root AGENTS.md, so one file steers both the agent and the reviewer.
2. User-global policy -- the user's global agent instructions (Claude Code: ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md) as the default flow across repos.

Both reviewers are optional. Detect what is actually available (CodeRabbit app installed / CLI authenticated, Copilot ruleset or observed auto-review) and never assume a reviewer exists, is paid for, or should be added. Reviewer: none is a valid policy -- human review only. Example:

## Code Review Policy
- Reviewer: coderabbit            # coderabbit | copilot | both | none
- Copilot billing: legacy         # legacy (premium requests) | credits
- Local review: coderabbit --type committed   # run before every push
- PR review rounds: ask           # ask | loop <= N

When no policy exists (either scope), default conservative: if an auto-review fired, process that round; then ask before any billable re-request -- and inform the recommendation with the quality of the round's findings (mostly valid substantive issues -> another round likely pays off; mostly noise -> stop). Never initiate billable reviews unprompted on repos without auto-review; loop only when explicitly asked.

Bot Review Loop (GitHub)

Reference: See references/bot-review-loop.md for the full loop: per-bot config blocks (Copilot, CodeRabbit), the bot_status/bot_tick driver, polling, and termination logic. Reference: See references/copilot-review-config.md for Copilot review configuration: billing models and quota checks, auto-review ruleset detection/management, custom instructions, and the Copilot CLI local review option.

GitHub review bots (Copilot, CodeRabbit) are GitHub-only, asynchronous (~minutes per review), and never block: their review state is always COMMENTED. The loop is identical per bot; only the identity (which login to filter), the re-request trigger, and the detectable failure/rate-limit notices differ -- a per-bot config block sets them. Enablement detection is partial (the Copilot auto-review ruleset is readable, but personal-setting auto-review and overall bot availability are not -- see Context Check above), so bot_tick exits 5 when the remote isn't GitHub or the re-request errors; an accepted-but-unanswered request exits 3 (slow or silently unavailable).

Iterate until no valid comments remain. Source a bot's config + the bot_status/bot_tick driver -- one round is:

1. Re-request only when needed + wait -- bot_tick {N} first checks for unresolved bot threads (handle those, never re-request over them), then a review at HEAD, then a pending request in REST requested_reviewers (auto-review on non-draft PR creation usually means round 1 needs no re-request at all). Only if none of those apply does it re-request (Copilot: gh pr edit {N} --add-reviewer "@copilot", gh >= 2.88, no auto re-review on push; CodeRabbit: a @coderabbitai review comment), then polls for the async review. Returns 0 clean / 2 not clean / 3 retry / 4 failed (already cooled down ~5 min + re-requested -- re-run to poll) / 5 not applicable / 6 rate-limited.
2. Validate, don't blind-fix -- evaluate each unresolved comment (Research Checklist); bots can be out of context or outdated. Fix valid ones (commit + push), reply with a rationale + resolve invalid ones. To clear every reviewer, run the loop once per active bot and handle human threads via the comment workflow above.
3. Terminate -- stop when the bot has no comments; on zero valid comments (re-requesting would only resurface them); after ~3 consecutive failed reviews (exit 4 is transient -- e.g. "Copilot encountered an error" -- and bot_tick retries it with a ~5-min cooldown + re-request; only repeated failure is structural: oversized PR, binary files, quota; escalate); on a rate limit (exit 6, CodeRabbit free tier -- wait the printed "next review available" window, or skip the bot when Copilot also covers the repo); on unavailability (exit 5); after the round cap (default 5, or "loop 3"); or if HEAD is unchanged since the last round.

Rounds are billable -- each Copilot round bills a full review; each CodeRabbit round spends hourly quota. Without an explicit loop instruction or a permissive Code Review Policy: process the auto-review round if one fired, then ask before re-requesting (recommend based on finding quality). Autonomous looping is for when the user asked for it.

Identity gotcha: each bot has a [bot]-suffixed login on REST and an unsuffixed one on GraphQL threads (Copilot: copilot-pull-request-reviewer[bot] / copilot-pull-request-reviewer, plus Copilot on REST inline comments; CodeRabbit: coderabbitai[bot] / coderabbitai). Filter the right one per surface.

---

Line-Specific Comments (Write)

Reference: See references/line-comments.md for full patterns: single-line, multi-line range, replies, edit/delete, batch reviews.

GitHub:

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr}/comments \
  -f body="{comment}" -f path="{file}" -F line={line} -f side=RIGHT \
  -f commit_id="$(gh pr view {pr} --json headRefOid --jq .headRefOid)"

GitLab:

glab api projects/{project_id}/merge_requests/{iid}/discussions --method POST \
  --field "body={comment}" \
  --field "position[base_sha]={base_sha}" \
  --field "position[head_sha]={head_sha}" \
  --field "position[start_sha]={base_sha}" \
  --field "position[position_type]=text" \
  --field "position[new_path]={file}" \
  --field "position[new_line]={line}"

---

Read-Only API Endpoints

Reference: See references/api-readonly.md for the full list of read-only REST and GraphQL endpoints (PR data, issue timelines, review threads) for both providers.

---

Key glab vs gh Differences

Aspect	gh	glab
MR description flag	--body	--description
Delete source branch	--delete-branch	--remove-source-branch
JSON output	--json field1,field2 (filtered)	-F json (full resource)
jq filtering	--jq '.expr' (native)	pipe to | jq '.expr'
Squash on create	--squash	--squash-before-merge
GraphQL	gh api graphql -f query='...'	Not supported (REST only)
Thread resolution	GraphQL mutation	PUT /discussions/:id with resolved=true
Approval model	Review states (APPROVED, CHANGES_REQUESTED)	Approval rules + approve/revoke
Pagination	--paginate (subcommands + api)	--paginate (api only), -P (subcommands)

---

Allowlist

Reference: See references/allowlist.md for tiered Bash(command:*) patterns covering all read-only operations -- safe to auto-approve in Claude Code settings.json or OpenCode config.