Stacked PRs Workflow

Workflows for managing stacked (dependent) pull requests with proper visualization, merge-based updates, and iterative CodeRabbit review cycles.

Core Principles

• No Force Pushes - Always use merge commits, never rebase/force-push

• Draft First - PRs start as drafts until CI passes and CodeRabbit approves

• Bottom-Up Processing - Address feedback from lowest PR in stack first

• Comprehensive Reviews - Address all CodeRabbit comments including nitpicks

• Visual Stack - Use PR titles and descriptions to show stack relationships

Skill Contents

Sections

• Core Principles

• Workflow Overview

• Quick Reference

• Scripts

• References

• Key Requirement: CodeRabbit Approval

• Programmatic Automation

• Skill Dependencies

• Related

Available Resources

📚 references/ - Detailed documentation

• automation patterns

• merge workflow

• pr formatting

• readiness checklist

• review cycles

🔧 scripts/ - Automation scripts

• check stack status

Workflow Overview

Phase Description Reference

Creation Create stacked PRs with proper titles and descriptions references/pr-formatting.md

Updates Merge changes through the stack (no rebasing) references/merge-workflow.md

Reviews Process CodeRabbit feedback in cycles references/review-cycles.md

Readiness Mark ready only after CI + CodeRabbit approval references/readiness-checklist.md

Quick Reference

PR Title Format

[JIRA-KEY] type(scope): description (PR N/M)

Stack Visualization (in PR Description)

PR Stack

Merge Flow (Not Rebase)

After fixing issues in PR #79

git checkout feat/pr-80-branch git merge feat/pr-79-branch --no-edit git push origin feat/pr-80-branch

Repeat for subsequent PRs in stack

Scripts

Script Purpose

scripts/check-stack-status.ts

Check CI and CodeRabbit status for all PRs in stack

References

Reference Content

references/pr-formatting.md

PR title and description templates

references/merge-workflow.md

How to propagate changes through the stack

references/review-cycles.md

Processing CodeRabbit feedback iteratively

references/readiness-checklist.md

When to mark PRs ready for review

references/automation-patterns.md

Polling loops, callbacks, and autonomous operation

Key Requirement: CodeRabbit Approval

PRs should only be marked "Ready for Review" when:

• All CI checks pass

• All CodeRabbit comments addressed (including nitpicks)

• CodeRabbit has approved (happens automatically after addressing feedback)

• All previous PRs in the stack are merged

Important: Do NOT explicitly request CodeRabbit approval. It approves automatically after you've addressed all its comments and pushed fixes.

Programmatic Automation

For autonomous AI agents, use polling loops to monitor status:

async function waitForPRReady(prNumber: number, repo: string, maxAttempts = 30, intervalMs = 60000) { for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= maxAttempts; attempt++) { const status = await checkPRStatus(prNumber, repo);

if (status.ciPassed && status.coderabbitApproved && status.openComments === 0) {
  return { ready: true, status };
}

console.log(`Attempt ${attempt}/${maxAttempts}: CI=${status.ciPassed}, CR=${status.coderabbitApproved}, Comments=${status.openComments}`);

if (attempt < maxAttempts) {
  await sleep(intervalMs);
}

} return { ready: false, reason: 'timeout' }; }

See references/automation-patterns.md for complete polling implementations.

Skill Dependencies

Skill Purpose

coderabbit-workflow

Thread replies, comment export, local CLI reviews

pr-workflow

Base PR management patterns

Related

• coderabbit-workflow - Detailed CodeRabbit workflow patterns

• pr-workflow - GitHub CLI commands for PR management