pr-to-main

name	pr-to-main
description	Open a GitHub PR for the current branch and merge it into main, or push the branch and land changes on main in this repo. Use when the user asks to create a PR, merge a PR, push a PR to main, or make branch changes live on main. Covers gh CLI usage and PowerShell-safe commands.

PR to Main

Land branch changes on main using the gh CLI. This repo is Windows PowerShell — embedded quotes/parens/newlines break gh --body, so always pass the PR body via --body-file.

Decide the path

• Branch already pushed and you want review/CI → open a PR, then merge it (default).
• Trivial change, on main locally, no review needed → see the commit-and-push skill to push main directly.

Create a PR

1. Make sure the branch is pushed:

git push -u origin <branch>

2. Write the PR body to a temp file (avoids PowerShell quoting failures), then create the PR with --body-file:

• Write the markdown body to a temp file, e.g. C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Temp\pr-body.md, using the file-writing tool (not echo/heredoc).
• Then:

gh pr create --base main --head <branch> --title "Concise PR title" --body-file "C:\path\to\pr-body.md"

3. Delete the temp body file afterward.

Body template:

## Summary
- What changed and why (1-3 bullets)

## Test plan
- [ ] How to verify

Merge the PR

gh pr merge <number> --merge

• Use --merge (merge commit) to match this repo's history. Use --squash / --rebase only if the user asks.
• Merging into main is a protected-branch write — confirm intent before merging.

Verify it landed:

gh pr view <number> --json state,mergedAt,mergeCommit

If the merge is blocked by conflicts

1. Update the feature branch locally:

git fetch origin
git merge origin/main

2. Resolve conflicts in the editor, then:

git add <resolved-files>
git commit
git push origin <branch>

3. Retry gh pr merge <number> --merge.

After merge: sync local main

git checkout main
git pull origin main

PowerShell rules (critical)

• No && chaining — use ; or separate commands.
• No heredocs (<<'EOF') — they fail to parse. Use --body-file for PR bodies and repeated -m flags for commit messages.
• Quote paths containing spaces.

Notes

• A previously merged PR from a branch does NOT carry new commits — pushing more commits to that same branch requires a fresh PR to reach main.
• Never force-push to main or skip hooks unless explicitly requested.