PR Update (open or refresh)

One skill for create and update. Make the title + body match the branch as it is now. Do not strip media from an existing description.

Steps

1. git status / git diff / git log / git diff <default>...HEAD (and

remote tracking) so you know the full change set — not just the latest commit.

1. Detect an existing PR/MR for this branch (gh pr view / glab mr view).

- None → create (push upstream with -u if needed). - Exists → edit title + body in place. Do not open a duplicate.

1. Draft a title and body from all commits/files in the PR, not one commit.
2. If updating: fetch the current body first. Preserve every media item

exactly (see below). Then rewrite text so Summary / Test plan (or the repo's usual sections) stay accurate.

1. Apply with gh pr create / gh pr edit (or glab equivalents).
2. End with the PR/MR as a markdown link — the number and the full forge

URL (#123, GitLab ! equivalent). Never a bare #123. This is the one place the rule is written down; the other skills just follow it.

Title + body

• Title: concise, why-focused; match repo PR style when obvious.
• Body: use the repo's template when one exists; otherwise:

## Summary
<1-3 bullets of what changed and why>

## Test plan
- [ ] <concrete checks>

• Run the prose through no-tropes before publishing.
• Do not invent reviewers, labels, or milestone unless asked.

Commits

Shape the branch's commits as part of opening/refreshing the PR.

• One concern per commit. Default to a topical split (2–5 is typical) even if

not asked; don't dump everything into one blob unless the user wants it.

• Match the repo's recent commit style (git log --oneline -15); subject = why.

No "WIP" / "fix stuff".

• Rebuild with soft reset + path-staged commits (no git rebase -i — needs a

TTY). Show the final git log --oneline <default>..HEAD before force-push. Two traps in that recipe: - Soft-reset to the branch's real base SHA (git merge-base HEAD origin/<default>), never to origin/<default> itself — it moves mid-task and will stage other people's commits as yours. - git reset <base> -- <path> leaves that path unstaged, so the next git commit silently captures its pre-edit version. Verify the content landed (git show <sha>:<path> | grep <new symbol>) before force-push.

• Keep authorship when reshaping others' work (Co-authored-by / cherry-pick),

especially during pr-triage salvage.

• Don't mix pure formatting with logic, commit secrets/.env, or rewrite

commits already on the default branch without asking.

Preserve media (hard rule)

When a PR/MR already has a body, never delete media.

Treat as media (keep verbatim, same URLs/markup/order when possible):

• Markdown images / links to images or video (![](...), [...](...) to

media)

• HTML <img>, <video>, <source>, <br> used between media blocks
• GitHub/GitLab upload / user-attachments / moved-image URLs
• Image/video-only paragraphs or HTML comments wrapping media

Update flow:

1. Read the existing body.
2. Extract and keep the media blocks.
3. Rewrite textual sections so they match the current diff.
4. Re-attach the preserved media (same block(s), typically at the end unless

they were interleaved on purpose — then keep interleaving).

1. Before submit, diff old body vs new: every media URL/markup from the old

body must still be present.

If a refresh would drop media, stop and keep the old body (or only edit the title) rather than publishing a media-stripped description.

Scope

• In: open PR/MR, push if needed for create, shape commits, retitle, rewrite

description, preserve media, print URL.

• Out: rebase, CI, and review threads (pr-ready), triage/salvage

(pr-triage), merging.

Forge cheatsheet

# GitHub — read
gh pr view --json url,title,body,baseRefName,headRefName

# GitHub — create
gh pr create --title "…" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
…
EOF
)"

# GitHub — update (body from file avoids shell-eating newlines/media)
gh pr view --json body -q .body > /tmp/pr-body.md
# …edit /tmp/pr-body.md carefully…
gh pr edit --title "…" --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md

# GitLab
glab mr view
glab mr create
glab mr update <N> --title "…" --description-file /tmp/pr-body.md