cp-to-release

Input: the original PR number N (already merged). Optional: a release branch name; otherwise use the newest origin/rX.Y.Z.

Release flow since r0.8.0: PRs merge into the release branch first, and a label auto cherry-picks them back to main. A manual cp is needed when a PR was merged into main instead of the release branch first. (Up to r0.7.0 it was the reverse: main first, auto cp to release.)

The user invoking this skill authorizes the cherry-pick commit, push, PR, label, and /ok to test — no pause-before-commit for the clean path. Do not assign reviewers; the user does.

Steps

Run from the NeMo-RL checkout. $GITHUB_TOKEN (public_repo scope) must be set in every Bash call that uses it; <user> is the user's GitHub branch prefix.

1. Read the original PR.

   curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/repos/NVIDIA-NeMo/RL/pulls/<N> \
     | jq '{title, merged, merge_commit_sha, base: .base.ref, labels: [.labels[].name]}'

   Stop if merged is false. Keep title, merge_commit_sha, and the labels starting with CI:.
2. Pick the release branch (unless given):

   git fetch origin
   git branch -r | grep -E '^ *origin/r[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' | sort -V | tail -1

   Also check git ls-remote origin refs/heads/<user>/cp-<N> is empty; if the branch exists, ask.
3. Branch + cherry-pick in a worktree, so the user's main checkout (often dirty, on another branch) is untouched. Put it under a temp directory:

   git worktree add -b <user>/cp-<N> <tmpdir>/cp-<N> origin/<rel>
   cd <tmpdir>/cp-<N> && git cherry-pick -s <merge_commit_sha>

   -s is required: the commit must carry the user's own Signed-off-by alongside the author's. Forgetting it means amend + force-push + a second /ok to test.
4. Conflicts: stop and hand back. Show the conflicting files; do not auto-resolve. After the user resolves and continues, verify before pushing:
   • git log -1 — the cherry-pick committed, and has the user's Signed-off-by.
   • grep -n "^<<<<<<< \|^=======$\|^>>>>>>> " <files> — no leftover markers.
   • Per file, compare the + lines with the original: diff <(git diff HEAD~1..HEAD -- <f> | grep '^+' | grep -v '^+++' | sort) <(git show <merge_sha> -- <f> | grep '^+' | grep -v '^+++' | sort) and report any extra/missing lines.
5. Push and open a PR targeting the release branch, never main:

   git push -u origin <user>/cp-<N>

   POST /repos/NVIDIA-NeMo/RL/pulls with "base": "<rel>", "head": "<user>/cp-<N>".
   • Title: cp: cherry-pick #<N> - <original title verbatim> (keeps semantic-pull-request CI happy).
   • Body, one line:
     • Clean: manually cp #<N> into <rel> branch since it was merged into main instead of <rel> first.
     • Conflict: append the conflict, e.g. ... first. There's a conflict in <file> (<why, e.g. depends on #M which is not in <rel>>).
6. Labels + CI. Copy the original's CI:* labels (POST /issues/<pr>/labels). Do not copy cherry-pick-to-main (it makes the bot cherry-pick the PR back to main) or release labels such as r0.8.0. Then post /ok to test <full head sha> as an issue comment.
7. Report: PR number (bare #N), base, commit sha, labels, that /ok to test was posted, and the worktree path (git worktree remove <path> to clean up).

Reference PRs

• #4412 (r0.8.0, clean, new flow): body manually cp #4182 into r0.8.0 branch since it was merged into main instead of r0.8.0 first.
• r0.7.0, old flow: #3211 (clean, empty body); conflicts: #3153 manually cp #3147 into r0.7.0 branch since there's a conflict in docs/guides/environments.md., #3195, #3214.