PR Description Writer Skill

When to Use This Skill

Use this Skill when:

• Creating or updating a PR description for a feature branch.
• The PR has multiple related changes that need clear organization.
• You want a description that helps reviewers understand the "why" and "what" quickly while having access to detailed context.
• You're preparing a PR for review and want it to be self-documenting.

This Skill is designed to work with any repository but is especially tuned for Django/Python backends, React frontends, and infrastructure changes.

Example Prompts

• "Use pr-description-writer to create a PR description for my current branch."
• "Generate a comprehensive PR description for PR #1234 using the pr-description-writer Skill."
• "Update the PR description for my feature branch to match our standard format."

Workflow: Gathering Context

Before writing the PR description, always gather the complete picture of all changes that will be included in the PR. This means:

1. Local uncommitted changes (staged + unstaged)
2. Local commits not yet pushed
3. Commits already pushed to the remote branch
4. Existing PR details (if a PR already exists)

Step 1: Detect If Current Branch Has a PR

Use gh pr view to check if the current branch already has an associated PR:

# Check if current branch has a PR (returns 0 if PR exists, non-zero otherwise)
gh pr view --json number,title,body,url 2>/dev/null

# If you just need to know if a PR exists (boolean check):
gh pr view --json number 2>/dev/null && echo "PR exists" || echo "No PR yet"

Interpretation:

• Exit code 0 + JSON output → PR exists, use the PR number for updates
• Exit code non-zero → No PR yet, description will be for a new PR

Step 2: Identify the Base Branch

Determine what branch the PR targets (or will target). Use this detection order:

# 1. If PR exists, get base from the PR (most reliable)
gh pr view --json baseRefName --jq '.baseRefName' 2>/dev/null

# 2. Get the repo's default branch via GitHub API
gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name'

# 3. Fallback: check git remote HEAD
git remote show origin 2>/dev/null | grep "HEAD branch" | cut -d: -f2 | xargs

# 4. Last resort: check which common branches exist
git branch -r | grep -E "origin/(main|master|release|develop)$" | head -1 | sed 's|origin/||'

Detection Priority:

1. Existing PR base – If PR exists, always use its base branch
2. GitHub default – gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef is authoritative
3. Git remote HEAD – Works offline, reflects GitHub's default
4. Common branch names – Check for main/master/release/develop

Smart Detection Script:

detect_base_branch() {
  # Try existing PR first
  local pr_base=$(gh pr view --json baseRefName --jq '.baseRefName' 2>/dev/null)
  if [[ -n "$pr_base" ]]; then
    echo "$pr_base"
    return
  fi

  # Try GitHub API for default branch
  local gh_default=$(gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef --jq '.defaultBranchRef.name' 2>/dev/null)
  if [[ -n "$gh_default" ]]; then
    echo "$gh_default"
    return
  fi

  # Try git remote HEAD
  local remote_head=$(git remote show origin 2>/dev/null | grep "HEAD branch" | cut -d: -f2 | xargs)
  if [[ -n "$remote_head" ]]; then
    echo "$remote_head"
    return
  fi

  # Fallback to checking common branches
  for branch in main master release develop; do
    if git rev-parse --verify "origin/$branch" &>/dev/null; then
      echo "$branch"
      return
    fi
  done

  echo "main"  # Ultimate fallback
}

BASE_BRANCH=$(detect_base_branch)
echo "Using base branch: $BASE_BRANCH"

Step 3: Gather ALL Changes

CRITICAL: The PR description must account for ALL changes, not just the latest commit. This includes:

# 1. Get the base branch (adjust as needed)
BASE_BRANCH="origin/release"  # or origin/main, etc.

# 2. View ALL commits that will be in the PR
git log ${BASE_BRANCH}..HEAD --oneline

# 3. View the FULL diff of all changes (committed + uncommitted)
#    This shows what reviewers will see in the PR
git diff ${BASE_BRANCH}...HEAD --stat          # Files changed (committed only)
git diff ${BASE_BRANCH} --stat                 # Files changed (including uncommitted)

# 4. Check for uncommitted changes that should be included
git status --short

# 5. If there are uncommitted changes, include them in the diff
git diff --stat                                # Unstaged changes
git diff --cached --stat                       # Staged changes

Step 4: Get Existing PR Details (If Updating)

When updating an existing PR, fetch current details to preserve/enhance:

# Get full PR details as JSON
gh pr view --json number,title,body,url,commits,files

# Get just the current body for reference
gh pr view --json body --jq '.body'

# Get list of files changed in the PR
gh pr view --json files --jq '.files[].path'

# Get commit history in the PR
gh pr view --json commits --jq '.commits[].messageHeadline'

Step 5: Analyze Changes Comprehensively

# View the actual diff to understand what changed
git diff ${BASE_BRANCH}...HEAD

# For a specific file
git diff ${BASE_BRANCH}...HEAD -- path/to/file.py

# See commit messages for context on why changes were made
git log ${BASE_BRANCH}..HEAD --format="%h %s%n%b" | head -100

Updating a PR with gh CLI

Once the description is generated, use gh pr edit to update:

# Update PR title and body
gh pr edit <number> --title "New Title" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
...full markdown body here...
EOF
)"

# Or update just the body
gh pr edit --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
...full markdown body here...
EOF
)"

# Update PR for current branch (no number needed if on the branch)
gh pr edit --body "..."

Creating a new PR:

gh pr create --title "Title" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
...
EOF
)" --base release

Core Principles

1. Scannable First, Detailed Second

Reviewers should understand the PR in 30 seconds from the summary, then dive deeper as needed. Structure content in layers:

1. Summary table – Quick overview of key features (30 seconds)
2. Visual diagrams – Understand flows without reading code (1-2 minutes)
3. Detailed sections – Full context for each feature (as needed)
4. Collapsible file lists – Reference without clutter

2. Visual Over Verbal

Use diagrams, tables, and structured formatting instead of prose where possible:

• Decision trees for conditional logic
• Flow diagrams for pipelines and processes
• Tables for feature summaries and comparisons
• Code blocks for commands and examples

3. Reviewer-Centric

Every section should answer a reviewer's question:

• "What does this PR do?" → Summary
• "Why was it done this way?" → Detailed sections with rationale
• "What files should I focus on?" → Collapsible file lists
• "How do I test this?" → Test commands + manual steps
• "Are there breaking changes?" → Explicit callouts

4. Complete Picture

Never describe only the latest commit. The PR description must reflect:

• All commits in the branch (from base to HEAD)
• Any uncommitted changes the user plans to include
• The cumulative effect of all changes together

PR Description Structure

Section 1: Summary

Start with a 1-2 sentence high-level summary, then provide a Key Features table if the PR has 3+ distinct features:

## Summary

This PR adds [brief description of the main change].

### Key Features

| Feature | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| **Feature A** | Short description of what it does |
| **Feature B** | Short description of what it does |
| **Feature C** | Short description of what it does |

For smaller PRs (1-2 features), a bullet list is acceptable.

Section 2: Visual Diagrams

For any non-trivial flow, include a visual diagram. Choose the appropriate format based on complexity:

ASCII Art (Simple Flows)

Use