PR Branch Workflow

Run pre-flight checks, commit, push, and optionally create a PR.

Pre-flight checks

Run these checks before every commit+push and fix any failures:

1. Compile and checkstyle

# Checkstyle
./mvnw -B -q clean checkstyle:check

# Full build (compile + javadoc)
./mvnw clean flatten:flatten install javadoc:javadoc -B -q -Pall \
  -Dmaven.test.skip \
  -Dcheckstyle.skip \
  -Dgpg.skip

2. License header check

license-eye header check

If invalid files are found, fix with license-eye header fix and re-check.

Commit and push

After checks pass, commit and push:

git add <files>
git commit -m "<message>"
git push -u origin <branch-name>

Branch strategy

• Never work directly on master branch
• If on master, create a new branch first: git checkout -b feature/<name> or git checkout -b fix/<name>

Create PR (if not yet created)

Check whether a PR already exists for the current branch:

gh pr view --json number 2>/dev/null

If no PR exists, create one:

PR title

Summarize the changes concisely. Examples:

• Fix BanyanDB query timeout issue
• Add support for OpenTelemetry metrics

PR description

Read .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE and use its exact format with checkboxes. Do NOT use a custom summary format.

Key template sections — uncomment the relevant one:

For Bug Fixes:

### Fix <bug description or issue link>
- [ ] Add a unit test to verify that the fix works.
- [ ] Explain briefly why the bug exists and how to fix it.

For New Features:

### <Feature description>
- [ ] If this is non-trivial feature, paste the links/URLs to the design doc.
- [ ] Update the documentation to include this new feature.
- [ ] Tests(including UT, IT, E2E) are added to verify the new feature.
- [ ] If it's UI related, attach the screenshots below.

For Performance Improvements:

### Improve the performance of <class or module or ...>
- [ ] Add a benchmark for the improvement.
- [ ] The benchmark result.
- [ ] Links/URLs to the theory proof or discussion articles/blogs.

Always include:

- [ ] If this pull request closes/resolves/fixes an existing issue, replace the issue number. Closes #<issue number>.
- [ ] Update the [`CHANGES` log](https://github.com/apache/skywalking/blob/master/docs/en/changes/changes.md).

Create command

gh pr create --title "<title>" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
<PR body from template>
EOF
)"

Post-creation

• Add copilot as a reviewer: gh pr edit <number> --add-reviewer copilot
• Do NOT add AI assistant as co-author. Code responsibility is on the committer's hands.
• Return the PR URL when done.