Follow Up on PR

Take over an existing PR, bring it up to date, address all feedback, and push it to a merge-ready state. This skill is language- and framework-agnostic — substitute your project's actual build, lint, test, and format commands where examples are shown.

Inputs

PR URL or number (required): e.g. https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/pull/9996 or #9996
Branch name (optional): If not provided, extract from PR metadata

Workflow

1. Study the PR

Fetch the PR via FetchUrl (or gh pr view) to get:

File changes (diffs)
Reviewer comments (inline and general)
CI workflow status and logs
PR description and any linked ticket

Read all changed files in depth. Understand the intent and scope of the change.

If the PR fixes a specific issue (e.g. error report, user-reported bug): investigate the root cause before reviewing the code. Confirm the fix addresses the actual problem. PRs are sometimes already superseded by other fixes.

2. Fetch and Check Out the Branch

git fetch origin <branch-name> <base-branch>
git checkout <branch-name>

If the branch doesn't exist locally, git checkout will create a tracking branch from origin/<branch-name>.

3. Rebase on Latest Base Branch

git pull origin <base-branch> --rebase

If conflicts occur:

Read each conflicted file to understand both sides
Resolve conflicts, preserving the PR's intent while incorporating base-branch changes
git add <resolved-files>
git rebase --continue

If rebase is clean: Verify the state with git log --oneline -5 and git diff --stat origin/<base-branch>..HEAD.

4. Address Reviewer Comments

Review comments were already fetched in step 1. For each unresolved comment:

Read the comment and understand what's being asked
Make the code change (or explain why it's not needed)
Add tests if requested
Commit the fix with a descriptive message

Already-addressed comments: Check if a reply already exists (in_reply_to_id field). Skip comments that have been resolved.

5. Run Local CI Checks

Run the project's lint, format, typecheck/compile, and test commands for the affected areas. Discover them by reading the repo root (e.g. Makefile, package.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, go.mod, build.gradle, mix.exs, Gemfile, composer.json, justfile, Taskfile.yml, README.md, or the CI workflow config).

Prefer filter / target flags to scope runs to the affected areas — it is faster than running the whole repo. Common patterns:

JS/TS monorepos: npm run test -- --filter=<workspace>, pnpm -r --filter <pkg> test, nx test <project>
Python: pytest <path>, tox -e <env>
Rust: cargo test -p <crate>, cargo clippy -p <crate>
Go: go test ./<pkg>/..., golangci-lint run ./<pkg>/...
Java/Kotlin: ./gradlew :<module>:test, ./mvnw -pl <module> test
Bazel: bazel test //path/...

See the create-pr skill's "CI Checks Reference" section for a broader template of local commands matching common CI checks.

Distinguishing pre-existing failures from PR issues: Some CI failures exist on the base branch and are unrelated to the PR. If a failure occurs in a file not touched by the PR, verify it exists on the base branch too before spending time fixing it. Common pre-existing issues include module / package resolution errors for recently-added dependencies.

E2E tests: If the PR changes user-facing behavior (UI flow, defaults, keyboard handling, CLI output), E2E tests may break even if the code is correct. Read the failing test to understand what it expects, then update it to match the new behavior. Don't assume E2E failures are flaky — read them first.

6. Commit and Push

git add -A
git commit -m "<type>(<scope>): <description>"

git push origin <branch-name> --force-with-lease

If a commit-scanning bot blocks the push (Droid-Shield, GitGuardian, TruffleHog, etc.): This happens when unrelated test fixtures contain strings that look like secrets. The agent cannot override these. Tell the user to push manually or temporarily disable the scanner per your org's docs.

7. Reply to Reviewer Comments

Reply to each addressed comment on the PR so reviewers know their feedback was handled.

For inline review comments (the most common type):

# Reply to a specific inline comment thread
gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<N>/comments/<COMMENT_ID>/replies \
  -X POST \
  -f body="<explanation of what was done>"

For general PR-level summary:

gh pr comment <N> --body "<summary of all changes made>"

To check thread resolution status (optional):

gh api graphql -f query='{
  repository(owner: "<owner>", name: "<repo>") {
    pullRequest(number: <N>) {
      reviewThreads(first: 20) {
        nodes {
          isResolved
          comments(first: 3) { nodes { body author { login } } }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}'

8. Update PR Description

If the changes made during follow-up are significant (new tests, architectural changes, additional scope), update the PR description:

gh pr edit <N> --body "<updated description>"

Use your org's PR template format. Update the testing section to reflect the additional tests added.

Verification

Before considering the task complete, confirm:

Branch is rebased on the latest base branch
All reviewer comments are addressed with code changes
Local lint, typecheck/compile, and tests pass for affected packages
Changes are pushed to remote
All reviewer comments have replies explaining what was done
PR description is up to date

follow-up-on-pr