Pull Requests & Collaboration

What is a Pull Request?

A Pull Request (PR) is a request to merge your branch into another branch. It's not a git feature — it's a GitHub feature built on top of git. PRs give your team a structured way to review, discuss, and approve code before it lands in main.

The Full Feature Branch Workflow

1. 1
   Create a branch: git switch -c feature/add-login
2. 2
   Make commits on your branch as normal
3. 3
   Push the branch: git push origin feature/add-login
4. 4
   Open a PR on GitHub — click "Compare & pull request" or go to Pull Requests → New
5. 5
   Request reviewers, respond to comments, push additional commits if needed
6. 6
   Merge the PR once approved — GitHub merges your branch into main
7. 7
   Clean up: delete the branch on GitHub, then locally: git branch -d feature/add-login

Writing a Good PR Description

A good PR description helps reviewers understand what changed and why. Include:

• What this PR does (one sentence)
• Why it's needed (the problem being solved)
• How to test the change
• Screenshots for UI changes
• Links to relevant issues (Closes #42)

Code Review Etiquette

As a reviewer:

• Be specific — quote the exact line you're commenting on
• Distinguish blocking ("this must change") from suggestions ("you could also...")
• Approve when satisfied — don't leave people hanging

As the PR author:

• Respond to every comment
• Mark threads as resolved after fixing
• Don't take feedback personally — it's about the code

Merge Strategies

GitHub offers three ways to merge a PR:

• Merge commit — preserves all history, adds a merge commit
• Squash and merge — combines all commits into one (clean history)
• Rebase and merge — replays commits on top of main (linear history)

Most teams use Squash and merge so main has one commit per feature.

Protecting Your Main Branch

In GitHub → Settings → Branches → Add rule, you can require:

• At least 1 review approval before merging
• All CI checks to pass
• No direct pushes to main