PR Writer

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.

Check for uncommitted changes

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

Detect the default branch — note the output for use in subsequent commands

gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name'

Check current branch and status (substitute the detected branch name above for BASE)

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:

See all commits that will be in the PR (substitute detected branch name for BASE)

git log BASE..HEAD

See the full diff

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 feature

• fix(scope): Fix the bug

• ref: 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 :

Update PR description

gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/PR_NUMBER -f body="$(cat <<'EOF' Updated description here EOF )"

Update PR title

gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/PR_NUMBER -f title='new: Title here'

Update both

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

• Sentry Code Review Guidelines

• Sentry Commit Messages