Git Commit, Push, and PR

Go from working changes to an open pull request, rewrite an existing PR description, or generate a description without touching git state.

Asking the user: When this skill says "ask the user", use the platform's blocking question tool: AskUserQuestion in Claude Code (call ToolSearch with select:AskUserQuestion first if its schema isn't loaded), request_user_input in Codex, ask_user in Gemini, ask_user in Pi (requires the pi-ask-user extension). Fall back to presenting the question in chat only when no blocking tool exists in the harness or the call errors (e.g., Codex edit modes) — not because a schema load is required. Never silently skip the question.

Mode detection

Three flavors of intent. Pick one and follow the matching path; otherwise default to the full workflow.

Description-only generation. If the user asked for just a PR description with no commit or push intent (e.g., "write a PR description", "draft a PR description for this branch", "describe this PR", or pasted a PR URL/number alone), skip Steps 4–5 AND Step 1's decision tree (its stop gates are full-workflow only and would terminate common cases like "feature branch, all pushed, open PR → stop"). Use the data from the Context section above instead. Then go to Step 6 to compose. If the user pasted a PR URL/number, pass it to Step 6 as the PR ref so Pre-A resolves the right commit range (otherwise Pre-A defaults to current-branch mode). Print the result back to the user; apply via gh pr edit/gh pr create only if the user asks.
Description update on existing PR. If the user is asking to update, refresh, or rewrite an existing PR description (with no mention of committing or pushing), follow the Description Update workflow below. The user may also provide a focus (e.g., "update the PR description and add the benchmarking results"). Note any focus for DU-3.
Full workflow. Otherwise, follow the Full workflow below.

Context

On platforms other than Claude Code, skip to the "Context fallback" section below and run the command there to gather context.

In Claude Code, the six labeled sections below contain pre-populated data. Use them directly -- do not re-run these commands.

Git status: !git status

Working tree diff: !git diff HEAD

Current branch: !git branch --show-current

Recent commits: !git log --oneline -10

Remote default branch: !git rev-parse --abbrev-ref origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo 'DEFAULT_BRANCH_UNRESOLVED'

Existing PR check: !gh pr view --json url,title,state 2>/dev/null || echo 'NO_OPEN_PR'

Context fallback

In Claude Code, skip this section — the data above is already available.

Run this single command to gather all context:

printf '=== STATUS ===\n'; git status; printf '\n=== DIFF ===\n'; git diff HEAD; printf '\n=== BRANCH ===\n'; git branch --show-current; printf '\n=== LOG ===\n'; git log --oneline -10; printf '\n=== DEFAULT_BRANCH ===\n'; git rev-parse --abbrev-ref origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo 'DEFAULT_BRANCH_UNRESOLVED'; printf '\n=== PR_CHECK ===\n'; gh pr view --json url,title,state 2>/dev/null || echo 'NO_OPEN_PR'

Description Update workflow

DU-1: Confirm intent

Ask the user: "Update the PR description for this branch?" If declined, stop.

DU-2: Find the PR

Use the current branch and existing PR check from context. If the current branch is empty (detached HEAD), report no branch and stop. If the PR check returned state: OPEN, note the PR url and proceed to DU-3. Otherwise, report no open PR and stop.

DU-3: Write and apply the updated description

Read references/pr-description-writing.md once now — DU-3 walks through Pre-A then Steps A through H without re-reading. Run Pre-A in PR mode using the existing PR's URL from DU-2 (it resolves the commit range, diff, and current body). Then continue with Steps A through H from the already-loaded reference to compose the title and body. If the user provided focus (e.g., "include the benchmarking results"), apply it as steering — do not let it override the writing principles or fabricate content the diff does not support.

Evidence decision: the writing reference preserves any existing ## Demo or ## Screenshots block from the current body by default. If the user's focus asks to refresh or remove evidence, honor that. If no evidence block exists and one would benefit the reader, invoke ce-demo-reel separately to capture, then re-compose with the captured URL/path spliced in.

Compare and confirm. Briefly explain what the new description covers differently from the old one. Ask the user to confirm before applying. If the user provided focus, confirm it was addressed.

If confirmed, apply with gh pr edit. Substitute <TITLE> verbatim; if it contains ", `, $, or \, escape them or switch to single quotes. The body is best written to a temp file first to avoid shell-escaping the whole markdown body:

BODY_FILE=$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/ce-pr-body.XXXXXX") && cat > "$BODY_FILE" <<'__CE_PR_BODY_END__'
<the composed body markdown goes here, verbatim>
__CE_PR_BODY_END__
gh pr edit --title "<TITLE>" --body "$(cat "$BODY_FILE")"

The quoted sentinel keeps $VAR, backticks, and any literal EOF inside the body from being expanded.

Report the PR URL.

Full workflow

Step 1: Gather context

Use the context above. All data needed for this step and Step 3 is already available -- do not re-run those commands.

The remote default branch value returns something like origin/main. Strip the origin/ prefix. If it returned DEFAULT_BRANCH_UNRESOLVED or a bare HEAD, try:

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

If both fail, fall back to main.

If the current branch is empty (detached HEAD), explain that a branch is required. Ask whether to create a feature branch now.

If yes, derive a branch name from the change content, create with git checkout -b <branch-name>, and use that for the rest of the workflow.
If no, stop.

If the working tree is clean (no staged, modified, or untracked files), determine the next action:

Run git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name @{u} to check upstream.
If upstream exists, run git log <upstream>..HEAD --oneline for unpushed commits.

Decision tree:

On default branch, unpushed commits or no upstream -- ask whether to create a feature branch (pushing default directly is not supported). If yes, create and continue from Step 5. If no, stop.
On default branch, all pushed, no open PR -- report no feature branch work. Stop.
Feature branch, no upstream -- skip Step 4, continue from Step 5.
Feature branch, unpushed commits -- skip Step 4, continue from Step 5.
Feature branch, all pushed, no open PR -- skip Steps 4-5, continue from Step 6.
Feature branch, all pushed, open PR -- report up to date. Stop.

Step 2: Determine conventions

Priority order for commit messages and PR titles:

Repo conventions in context -- follow project instructions if they specify conventions. Do not re-read; they load at session start.
Recent commit history -- match the pattern in the last 10 commits.
Default -- type(scope): description (conventional commits).

When using conventional commits, choose the type that most precisely describes the change. Where fix: and feat: both seem to fit, default to fix:: a change that remedies broken or missing behavior is fix: even when implemented by adding code. Reserve feat: for capabilities the user could not previously accomplish. Other types (chore:, refactor:, docs:, perf:, test:, ci:, build:, style:) remain primary when they fit better. The user may override for a specific change.

Step 3: Check for existing PR

Use the current branch and existing PR check from context. If the branch is empty, report detached HEAD and stop.

If the PR check returned state: OPEN, note the URL -- this is the existing-PR flow. Continue to Step 4 and 5 (commit any pending work and push), then go to Step 7 to ask whether to rewrite the description. Only run Step 6 if the user confirms the rewrite. Otherwise (no open PR), continue through Steps 6, 7, and 8 in order.

Step 4: Branch, stage, and commit

If on the default branch, branch creation needs to handle three conditional cases: stale local <base>, unpushed commits on local <base> (intent unclear without asking), and uncommitted changes that collide with the fresh remote base. Read references/branch-creation.md and follow its decision flow, then continue to step 2 below.
Scan changed files for naturally distinct concerns. If files clearly group into separate logical changes, create separate commits (2-3 max). Group at the file level only (no git add -p). When ambiguous, one commit is fine.
Stage and commit each group in a single call. Avoid git add -A or git add .. Follow conventions from Step 2:
```
git add file1 file2 file3 && git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
commit message here
EOF
)"
```

Step 5: Push

git push -u origin HEAD

Step 6: Generate the PR title and body

The working-tree diff from Step 1 only shows uncommitted changes at invocation time. The PR description must cover all commits in the PR.

Read references/pr-description-writing.md once now — Step 6 walks through it in order (Pre-A through H) with one interruption (the evidence decision below). Do not re-read the file later; refer to it by step letter.

Resolve the commit range and diff. Run Step Pre-A from the reference (current-branch mode by default; PR mode if a PR ref was passed in from description-only mode). Pre-A handles base detection, in-repo SHA fetching with the refs/pull/N/head fallback, and the API-only fallback for fork-PRs and any local-git failure. Use Pre-A's commit list and diff (not Step 1's working-tree diff or git log -10) for both the evidence decision below and the rest of the reference.

Evidence decision (before composition). Before running the full decision, two short-circuits:

User explicitly asked for evidence. If the user's invocation requested it ("ship with a demo", "include a screenshot"), proceed directly to capture. If capture turns out to be not possible (no runnable surface, missing credentials, docs-only diff) or clearly not useful, note that briefly and proceed without evidence — do not force capture for its own sake.
Agent judgment on authored changes. If you authored the commits in this session and know the change is clearly non-observable (internal plumbing, backend refactor without user-facing effect, type-level changes, etc.), skip the prompt without asking. The categorical skip list below is not exhaustive — trust judgment about the change you just wrote.

Otherwise, run the full decision: if the branch diff changes observable behavior (UI, CLI output, API behavior with runnable code, generated artifacts, workflow output) and evidence is not otherwise blocked (unavailable credentials, paid services, deploy-only infrastructure, hardware), ask: "This PR has observable behavior. Capture evidence for the PR description?"

Capture now -- load the ce-demo-reel skill with a target description inferred from the branch diff. ce-demo-reel returns Tier, Description, URL, and Path. Exactly one of URL or Path contains a real value; the other is "none". If capture returns a public URL, splice it into the body as a ## Demo section. If capture returns a local Path instead (user chose local save), note in the body that a demo was recorded but is not embedded because the user chose local save. If capture returns Tier: skipped or both URL and Path are "none", proceed with no evidence.
Use existing evidence -- ask for the URL or markdown embed, then splice it in as a ## Demo section.
Skip -- proceed with no evidence section.

When evidence is not possible (docs-only, markdown-only, changelog-only, release metadata, CI/config-only, test-only, or pure internal refactors), skip without asking.

Compose the title and body. Continue with Steps A through H from the already-loaded reference (commit classification, evidence handling, narrative framing, sizing, writing voice and principles, visual communication, title format, body assembly, the Compound Engineering badge, and the compression pass). For an existing PR, the current body was already read in Pre-A.

Step 7: Create or update the PR

Apply via gh pr create (new PR) or gh pr edit (existing PR). The body is best written to a temp file first to avoid shell-escaping the whole markdown body. Substitute <TITLE> verbatim; if it contains ", `, $, or \, escape them or switch to single quotes:

BODY_FILE=$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/ce-pr-body.XXXXXX") && cat > "$BODY_FILE" <<'__CE_PR_BODY_END__'
<the composed body markdown goes here, verbatim>
__CE_PR_BODY_END__