github-pull-request-respond

name	github-pull-request-respond
description	Respond to unreplied review comments on the current GitHub Pull Request. For each comment, either commit a fix, push, and reply with the commit hash, or reply with concrete rationale for keeping the code as-is. Does not approve or request changes.

Pull Request Respond

Respond to review comments on the current GitHub Pull Request by fixing code and replying.

Task

1. Detect repo and PR number from the current branch:

   gh pr view --json number,url,title
   

2. Fetch and identify unreplied comments in a single API call:

   OWNER_REPO=$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner)
   PR_NUM=$(gh pr view --json number -q .number)
   MY_LOGIN=$(gh api user -q .login)
   gh api "repos/${OWNER_REPO}/pulls/${PR_NUM}/comments" --paginate --jq "
     ( [.[] | select(.in_reply_to_id == null and .user?.login != \"${MY_LOGIN}\") | .id] ) as \$roots |
     ( [.[] | select(.user?.login == \"${MY_LOGIN}\" and .in_reply_to_id != null) | .in_reply_to_id] ) as \$replied |
     (\$roots - \$replied) as \$unreplied_ids |
     [.[] | select(.id | IN(\$unreplied_ids[])) | {id, user: (.user?.login // \"ghost\"), user_type: (.user?.type // \"\"), path, line, body}]
   "
   

   This returns an array of unreplied comment objects. If the array is empty ([]), all comments have been addressed. The user and user_type fields are required by Step 5's @<login> rule and bot/ghost check — keep both in the projection. The trailing ? in .user?.login / .user?.type is jq's error-suppression operator (not JavaScript-style optional chaining); combined with the "ghost" / "" defaults via //, it keeps the pipeline safe when GitHub returns null for .user (deleted account) — a bare .user.login against null would crash jq with Cannot index null with "login". Default fallbacks: missing login → "ghost", missing user type → "".

3. For each unreplied comment:

   • Verify before accepting the reviewer's claim. Treat review comments as hypotheses, not facts. Read the referenced code and surrounding call/configuration paths, compare with existing working patterns in the repo, and run the smallest relevant check when feasible (test, build, eval, log/runtime inspection, etc.). Automated reviewers can be wrong.
   • Decide from evidence:
     • Evidence supports the concern: fix and commit. Capture the full 40-char hash immediately after each commit, labeled by the comment ID it addresses (e.g. HASH_<commentID>=$(git log -1 --format='%H')). Do NOT defer hash capture to after the loop — git log -1 always points at the most recent commit, so deferring loses every earlier hash in the batch.
     • Evidence refutes the concern: do not change the code; reply with concrete rationale and cite the evidence.
     • Evidence is inconclusive: do not make a speculative fix; reply with the limits of verification and surface the uncertainty to the user.
   • One commit per fix (multiple minor fixes may share one commit; if multiple comments share a commit, label the same hash under each comment's ID)

4. Push all commits for this batch before replying so the hashes are reachable from GitHub:

   git push
   

   On push failure:

   • STOP immediately. Do not call any reply API with a hash that is not on the remote.
   • Do NOT run git push --force, git push --force-with-lease, git reset --hard, or any other history-rewriting command on your own — they can silently overwrite a teammate's work.
   • Surface the raw error to the user, then offer read-only diagnostics. Start with git fetch && git status -sb to confirm whether an upstream is configured (a missing upstream is a common cause when pushing a new branch for the first time, and @{u} errors when no upstream is set). When an upstream exists, follow up with git log --oneline HEAD..@{u} and the reverse to inspect divergence. The user investigates and decides how to recover; do not enumerate recovery commands on their behalf.

5. Reply via API (do not use gh pr review):

   gh api "repos/${OWNER_REPO}/pulls/${PR_NUM}/comments/<ROOT_ID>/replies" \
     -f body="<reply text>"
   

   Address the reviewer with @<login> at the top of the reply so they get notified. Skip the mention when (a) user_type == "Bot" (mirrors the API's .user.type field, surfaced as user_type in Step 2's projection) — bots are not notified by mentions, and the [bot] suffix on the login is unreliable as a marker because GitHub returns the bare login Copilot (no suffix) for the Copilot reviewer while still setting .user.type == "Bot"; or (b) the login is exactly ghost — this is the GitHub placeholder for a deleted account, and mentioning it would notify an unrelated real user named ghost. Reply itself is still required for bots (including Copilot) — only the leading mention is omitted.

6. Summarize all changes and replies

Rules

• Reply only; do not approve, request changes, or submit a review
• Push committed fixes before replying so the referenced commit hash is reachable from GitHub
• Reply in the same language as the reviewer's comment
• Do not make code changes solely because a reviewer asserted a problem. Every fix/no-fix decision must be backed by local evidence from the codebase, runtime state, or documented behavior.
• Always use --paginate when fetching comments (PRs may have 30+ comments)
• Use git log -1 --format='%H' to get the full commit hash for GitHub autolink
• Separate the commit hash and any #NNN issue/PR reference from surrounding text with an ASCII space or a newline on both sides. In Japanese or other non-space-delimited languages, GitHub's autolink detection will not fire if the hash is adjacent to a non-ASCII character (e.g. 修正しました。deadbeef... stays as plain text). Safest format: put the hash on its own line.
• Do not reply until all fixes for the current batch are committed AND pushed

Caveats

• gh pr view --json reviewThreads does NOT work (unsupported field)
• gh api .../pulls/comments/<id> returns 404 for comments from pending reviews; use the paginated list endpoint with jq filtering instead
• Follow-up replies from bots (CodeRabbit, Copilot) that acknowledge your fix do not need a response