SKILL.md
jackin-refresh-pr
Reconcile an open PR's title and body against the current diff, so the body describes what the branch actually ships now — not what it shipped when it was opened. Run when the body has drifted: more commits landed, scope grew or shifted, the title still reads docs: but the PR now ships a feature.
Shares cargo xtask pr body with jackin-create-pr — the binary owns the Verify-locally block selection; the agent owns the prose. This is the deliberate, on-demand version of the reconciliation jackin-merge-pr runs at its step 5.
When to use
- Operator asks to refresh / update the PR body or title ("the body is out of date", "refresh the PR").
- Body has become actively misleading for a reviewer landing on it right now.
When NOT to use
- Opening a new PR →
jackin-create-pr. - At merge-readiness →
jackin-merge-prstep 5 reconciles as the final gate; don't double-refresh. - After every iteration commit — refresh is operator-triggered, not commit-triggered (
.github/AGENTS.mdPR-body refresh policy). Auto-refreshing churns the body and wastes attention.
Arguments
PR— PR number (defaults to the current branch's PR).
Process
- Resolve the PR.
gh pr view <PR> --json number,title,body,headRefName,baseRefName. Hold the current title and body. - Gather the fresh shape.
git fetch origin <baseRefName>, thencargo xtask pr body --base origin/<baseRefName> > /tmp/pr-body.fresh.md. Read the change digest on stderr (the rust/docs/capsule/schema categories + file list) — that is what the change is now. Read the fresh skeleton on stdout — its set of###blocks under## Verify locallyis the selection the current diff requires. - Reconcile the Verify-locally blocks. Diff the fresh skeleton's block set against the live body's:
- In the fresh selection but missing from the body → add it (structure from the template, filled for this PR). - In the body but dropped by the fresh selection → remove it. - In both → keep the operator's fill verbatim. The Checkout block carries the real PR number; Rust tests carry the scoped filter; User smoke carries PR-specific steps. Never overwrite a kept block with the placeholder.
Done when every ### block under ## Verify locally matches the binary's selection for the current diff, and every kept block retains its authored content.
- Reconcile the prose. Read
gh pr diff <PR>andgit log origin/<baseRefName>..HEAD --oneline. For each prose section the body carries (Summary, What ships, Behavior changes, What this addresses, Hard rule, Not included, Migration notes):
- Still matches what shipped → leave untouched. Refresh is anti-churn; do not rewrite what is right. - Drifted → rewrite to match the current diff. Section no longer earned → drop it. New outcome shipped with no section → add it.
Done when every prose section reflects the current diff, and no section restates the diff file-by-file.
- Reconcile the title. Does the Conventional Commits subject still describe the shipped scope? If the PR grew — a
fix(typo)that now ships a feature, adocs:that now contains code — update type and scope viagh pr edit <PR> --title. Pause for confirmation only if the scope shift is meaningful enough that the operator might not have noticed (.github/AGENTS.mdtitle/description rule). - Write the body. Build the reconciled body in a temp file — kept prose, rewritten prose, reconciled blocks — then
gh pr edit <PR> --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md. Never--body "..."; the body-construction rule in.github/AGENTS.mdmandates--body-fileto survive code fences and$. - Verify the render.
gh pr view <PR> --json body -q .body— confirm no stray `\`or\$from hand-editing. Fix with--body-file` if broken. - Report. Name what moved: blocks added/dropped, prose sections rewritten, the title change (old → new) and why. Do not ask permission to refresh — the operator asked. Do surface a scope-shifting title change before it sticks if the operator might disagree.
Common mistakes
- Regenerating the body from the skeleton and losing the operator's prose — the skeleton carries placeholders; refresh preserves authored content and only rewrites what drifted.
- Rewriting prose that was already accurate — churns the diff and wastes attention.
- Hand-selecting Verify-locally blocks instead of
cargo xtask pr body— the binary is the selection oracle. - Using
gh pr edit --body "..."instead of--body-file— breaks on code fences and$. - Forgetting the render check — a broken `
\`or\$` ships silently. - Refreshing after every commit — violates the operator-triggered policy.
Tooling
cargo xtask pr body --base origin/<base> (jackin❯ repo) emits the change digest to stderr and the Verify-locally-block-filtered skeleton to stdout. Shared with jackin-create-pr. The binary owns block selection; the agent owns prose reconciliation. No xtask subcommand refreshes a PR — this skill orchestrates pr body (selection) + gh pr edit (write).