| name | create-pr |
| description | ALWAYS use this skill when creating pull requests — never create a PR directly without it. Follows Sentry conventions for PR titles, descriptions, and issue references. Trigger on any create PR, open PR, submit PR, make PR, push and create PR, or prepare changes for review task. |
Create Pull Request
Create pull requests following Sentry's engineering practices.
Requires: GitHub CLI (gh) authenticated and available.
Prerequisites
Before creating a PR, ensure all changes are committed. If there are uncommitted changes, run the sentry-skills:commit skill first to commit them properly.
git status --porcelain
If the output shows any uncommitted changes (modified, added, or untracked files that should be included), invoke the sentry-skills:commit skill before proceeding.
Process
Step 1: Verify Branch State
BASE=$(gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name')
git status
git log $BASE..HEAD --oneline
Ensure:
- All changes are committed
- Branch is up to date with remote
- Changes are rebased on the base branch if needed
Step 2: Analyze Changes
Review what will be included in the PR:
git log $BASE..HEAD
git diff $BASE...HEAD
Understand the scope and purpose of all changes before writing the description.
Step 3: Write the PR Description
Use this structure for PR descriptions (ignoring any repository PR templates):
<brief description of what the PR does>
<why these changes are being made - the motivation>
<alternative approaches considered, if any>
<any additional context reviewers need>
Do NOT include:
- "Test plan" sections
- Checkbox lists of testing steps
- Redundant summaries of the diff
Do include:
- Clear explanation of what and why
- Links to relevant issues or tickets
- Context that isn't obvious from the code
- Notes on specific areas that need careful review
Step 4: Create the PR
gh pr create --draft --title "<type>(<scope>): <description>" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
<description body here>
EOF
)"
Title format follows commit conventions:
feat(scope): Add new featurefix(scope): Fix the bugref: Refactor something
PR Description Examples
Feature PR
Add Slack thread replies for alert notifications
When an alert is updated or resolved, we now post a reply to the original
Slack thread instead of creating a new message. This keeps related
notifications grouped and reduces channel noise.
Previously considered posting edits to the original message, but threading
better preserves the timeline of events and works when the original message
is older than Slack's edit window.
Refs SENTRY-1234
Bug Fix PR
Handle null response in user API endpoint
The user endpoint could return null for soft-deleted accounts, causing
dashboard crashes when accessing user properties. This adds a null check
and returns a proper 404 response.
Found while investigating SENTRY-5678.
Fixes SENTRY-5678
Refactor PR
Extract validation logic to shared module
Moves duplicate validation code from the alerts, issues, and projects
endpoints into a shared validator class. No behavior change.
This prepares for adding new validation rules in SENTRY-9999 without
duplicating logic across endpoints.
Issue References
Reference issues in the PR body:
| Syntax | Effect |
|---|
Fixes #1234 | Closes GitHub issue on merge |
Fixes SENTRY-1234 | Closes Sentry issue |
Refs GH-1234 | Links without closing |
Refs LINEAR-ABC-123 | Links Linear issue |
Guidelines
- One PR per feature/fix - Don't bundle unrelated changes
- Keep PRs reviewable - Smaller PRs get faster, better reviews
- Explain the why - Code shows what; description explains why
- Mark WIP early - Use draft PRs for early feedback
Editing Existing PRs
If you need to update a PR after creation, use gh api instead of gh pr edit:
gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/PR_NUMBER -f body="$(cat <<'EOF'
Updated description here
EOF
)"
gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/PR_NUMBER -f title='new: Title here'
gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/PR_NUMBER \
-f title='new: Title' \
-f body='New description'
Note: gh pr edit is currently broken due to GitHub's Projects (classic) deprecation.
References
