mass-merge-prs

name

mass-merge-prs

description

Merge many pull requests at once across a whole GitHub org (or one repo), selecting them by a title heading. Composes two gitculture verbs — `gitculture pr list` (read-only org-wide search) to discover the matches and `gitculture pr merge` (one direct merge each) to act — so it inherits gitculture's dry-run-default mutation safety: it shows every PR it *would* merge before you pass --apply. Uses the direct merge endpoint (like `gh pr merge --admin`), so it lands PRs past NON-required failing checks such as a non-blocking `lint`; PRs blocked by a required check are tallied, not fatal. Use when: a bot opened the same PR across many repos (a rollout, a dependency bump, a skills sync) and you want to land all the still-open ones in one pass — especially when self-approval is impossible (the author is your own account) so merging is the only way to ship them.

Mass-merge PRs by title

The companion to mass-approve-prs. When the same PR is opened across every repo in an org — a rollout branch, a dependency bump, a skills sync — and you want them landed, this finds them by title and merges them together, with a dry-run you actually look at first.

It is the right tool precisely when approval won't work: if every PR was opened by your own account, GitHub forbids you approving them (HTTP 422), so the only way to ship is to merge. As a repo admin you can do that directly.

The shape (why two verbs, not one)

• Discovery is read-only. gitculture pr list <org> --title <…> scans the org via the GitHub Search API and re-checks each title client-side (the Search API's in:title is fuzzy). Nothing is written.
• Merge is one reviewable mutation per PR. gitculture pr merge <owner>/<repo> <number> PUTs the direct merge endpoint, dry-run by default.

The script loops the second over the output of the first.

What "direct merge" clears (and what it doesn't)

gitculture pr merge uses PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{number}/merge — the same path as gh pr merge --admin:

• Clears non-required failing checks. A failing lint that isn't a required status check shows in the UI as an "unstable"/red merge button but does not actually block the merge endpoint. These merge fine.
• Does NOT bypass required checks when branch protection includes administrators. Those return HTTP 405 and are tallied as blocked — fix by relaxing protection or satisfying the required check, then re-run.

Run it

Always dry-run first and read the matched list:

# Dry-run: list matches + show the merge each would get. No writes.
.claude/skills/mass-merge-prs/scripts/mass-merge-prs.sh \
  --org agentculture --title "Add eidetic remember/recall memory skills"

# Looks right? Merge them all (squash by default):
.claude/skills/mass-merge-prs/scripts/mass-merge-prs.sh \
  --org agentculture --title "Add eidetic remember/recall memory skills" --apply

Useful flags:

• --method squash|merge|rebase — merge method (default squash).
• --match exact|prefix|substring — how --title is compared (case-insensitive). Default exact; widen only if the dry-run under-matches.
• --state open|closed|all — default open.
• --repo NAME — restrict to one repo.

Reading the result

The apply run prints a summary:

=== Summary ===
  merged:   51
  blocked:   1  (conflict, or required check / branch protection)
  failed:    0

• blocked — the PR is not mergeable (HTTP 405). Two common causes: a merge conflict with the base branch (the PR is DIRTY/CONFLICTING — an admin merge can't fix this; rebase and resolve the conflict), or a required check / admin-locked branch protection. Resolve, then re-run; the already-merged PRs simply drop out of the next match.
• failed — anything else (permissions, conflict, transport). The script keeps going and exits non-zero so automation notices.

Requirements

• python3 (stdlib only), and gitculture on PATH (or run from the ghafi checkout).
• Auth via GITHUB_TOKEN / GH_TOKEN; the script bridges gh auth token. Merging needs repo (classic PAT) or fine-grained Contents: write + Pull requests: write. Forcing past a required check additionally needs admin on the repo.

Notes

• This merges — it is the deliberate, less-reversible step. Run the dry-run and read the list every time.
• Already-merged PRs are not in the open match set on a re-run, so the script is naturally resumable.