SKILL

Merge a stacked PR chain when Graphite automation is failing.

Input: A target branch in the stack (usually the top branch to merge through).

Goal: Merge all PRs from the bottom of that stack up to the target branch.

Steps

1. Resolve the target PR

   • Find PR for the provided branch:
     • gh pr list --state open --head "<target-branch>" --json number,headRefName,baseRefName,url
   • If no open PR exists, stop and report.

2. Build the stack chain down to main

   • Start at target PR.
   • Repeatedly find the PR whose headRefName equals the current PR baseRefName.
   • Continue until base is main or no parent PR exists.
   • If chain is ambiguous, stop and ask the user which branch to follow.

3. Determine merge order

   • Merge from bottom to top.
   • Example: [bottom, ..., target].

4. For each PR in order

   • Retarget to main before merge:
     • gh pr edit <pr-number> --base main
   • Merge with repository-compatible strategy:
     • Try gh pr merge <pr-number> --squash --delete-branch=false
   • If merge fails due conflicts:
     • gh pr checkout <pr-number>
     • git fetch origin main
     • git rebase origin/main
     • Resolve conflicts. If replaying already-upstream commits from lower stack layers, prefer git rebase --skip.
     • Continue with GIT_EDITOR=true git rebase --continue when needed.
     • git push --force-with-lease origin <head-branch>
     • Retry gh pr merge ... --squash.

5. Verify completion

   • Confirm each PR in chain is merged:
     • gh pr view <pr-number> --json state,mergedAt,url
   • Report final ordered merge list with PR numbers and timestamps.

Guardrails

• Always merge in bottom-to-top order.
• Do not use merge commits if the repo disallows them.
• Do not delete remote branches unless explicitly requested.
• If a conflict cannot be safely resolved, stop and ask the user.
• If force-push is required, use --force-with-lease, never --force.
• After finishing, return to the user's original branch unless they asked otherwise.