| name | cherry-pick-pr |
| description | Cherry-pick a merged pull request onto a release branch with Prow-style branch naming, manual conflict resolution, targeted validation, and GitHub PR creation. Use when the user wants to backport a PR, cherry-pick a commit to a release branch, or mentions cherry-pick, backport, or porting a fix to an older release. |
Cherry-Pick Pull Requests
When To Use
Use this skill when you need to cherry-pick a merged PR onto a release branch
and want the agent to handle the git and GitHub workflow while keeping conflict
resolution and test decisions in the loop.
Workflow
Replace <SKILL_DIR> with the path to this skill directory.
- Run a dry-run first:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py pick \
--pr <number> \
--target-branch <release-X.Y> \
--dry-run
- Start the cherry-pick from a clean working tree:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py pick \
--pr <number> \
--target-branch <release-X.Y>
- If
pick exits with code 3, inspect the conflicted files from the output,
read the source diff with gh pr diff <number>, resolve the conflicts, stage
the files with git add, then continue:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py continue
- Run targeted validation after a clean cherry-pick:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py test
- Create the PR only after
test reports success:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py create-pr
- Abandon a failed or stale attempt with:
python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/cherry_pick_pr.py abort
Notes
- The script refuses to start
pick from a dirty working tree.
- The script refuses to start a new attempt while
.git/cherry-pick-pr.json
exists. Run abort first.
- The state file lives under
.git/ intentionally so it stays untracked.
continue runs git cherry-pick --continue non-interactively.test records passed, failed, or build_failed so the agent can tell
the difference between test failures and target-branch compatibility issues.create-pr reads .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md at runtime and fails if
required anchors drift.create-pr expects the source PR to already carry a kind/... label. If it
does not, fix that first or update the source PR metadata before creating the
cherry-pick PR.- Use
--chain <branch>... on pick when you want the resulting PR body to
append a follow-up /cherrypick ... command for later serialized backports.
