Pull Request Status Check Skill

Comprehensive PR status checking - verifies CI/CD checks, review status, and provides detailed explanations of failures.

Overview

This skill:

• ✅ Checks all PR status checks (CI/CD, tests, linting)
• 🔍 Fetches logs and error details for failed checks
• 💡 Explains failures in plain English with fix suggestions
• 📊 Provides summary of PR readiness for merge

Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Phase 0: Verify gh CLI                          │
│              Invoke: git-gh-client                               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Phase 1: Get PR Number                          │
│    Ask user for PR number or auto-detect current branch         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Phase 2: Fetch PR Status Data                       │
│    - Basic PR info (state, reviews)                              │
│    - Status check rollup (all CI/CD checks)                      │
│    - Review status                                               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Phase 3: Analyze Status Checks                         │
│    - Parse check results                                         │
│    - Identify failures/errors                                    │
│    - Categorize by type                                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│        Phase 4: Fetch Failure Details                            │
│    For each failed check:                                        │
│    - Get check run details                                       │
│    - Fetch logs (if GitHub Actions)                              │
│    - Extract error messages                                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Phase 5: Explain and Recommend                           │
│    - Explain each failure in plain English                       │
│    - Suggest fixes                                               │
│    - Provide merge readiness summary                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Phase 0: Verify GitHub CLI

**FIRST ACTION: Invoke `git-gh-client` skill**

This ensures gh CLI is installed and authenticated.
If not available, git-gh-client provides installation instructions.

Phase 1: Get PR Number

Option 1: User Provides PR Number

Ask user: "Which PR do you want to check? (Enter PR number)"

Option 2: Auto-detect from Current Branch

# Get current branch
current_branch=$(git branch --show-current)

# Find PR for current branch
gh pr list --head "$current_branch" --json number --jq '.[0].number'

If found, ask user: "Found PR #123 for branch feature-branch. Check this PR?"

Phase 2: Fetch PR Status Data

Use git-gh-client Phase 3 commands to fetch PR status:

• gh pr view <PR_NUMBER> --json statusCheckRollup,reviewDecision,mergeable,...
• gh pr checks <PR_NUMBER> || true (always handle exit code!)

See git-gh-client for full command syntax and exit code handling.

Key Fields to Analyze

Phase 3: Analyze Status Checks

Check Conclusions

Phase 4: Fetch Failure Details

For each FAILURE or ERROR, use git-gh-client commands to:

1. Get check run details via gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/check-runs/...
2. Get workflow logs via gh run view <RUN_ID> --log-failed

See git-gh-client Phase 3 for full API commands.

Extract Error Messages

Common error patterns to look for in logs:

Phase 5: Explain and Recommend

This is the unique value of this skill - interpreting results and providing actionable guidance.

Generate Status Report

# PR Status Report: #<PR_NUMBER> - <PR_TITLE>

## Overall Status

**Merge Readiness:** [Ready ✅ | Not Ready ❌ | Waiting 🔄]

| Check Category | Status |
|----------------|--------|
| CI/CD Checks | <STATUS> |
| Code Reviews | <STATUS> |
| Merge Conflicts | <STATUS> |
| Draft Status | <STATUS> |

---

## Status Checks Summary

**Total:** X checks | ✅ Y passed | ❌ Z failed | 🔄 W pending

### ✅ Passed Checks (Y)

- Check name 1
- Check name 2

### ❌ Failed Checks (Z)

#### 1. Check Name

**Status:** FAILURE
**Type:** [GitHub Actions / External Check]
**Details URL:** <url>

**Error:**

Explanation: <Plain English explanation of what went wrong>

Recommended Fix: <Actionable steps to fix the issue>

Related Files:

• file1.cpp:42
• file2.py:15

2. Another Failed Check

...

🔄 Pending Checks (W)

• Check name (waiting for completion)

Review Status

Decision: [APPROVED ✅ | CHANGES_REQUESTED ❌ | REVIEW_REQUIRED 🔍]

Merge Status

Mergeable: [Yes ✅ | No (Conflicts) ❌ | Unknown ⚠️]

Recommendations

1. <Recommendation 1>
2. <Recommendation 2>

Next Steps

• Fix failing checks
• Resolve merge conflicts (if any)
• Address review comments (if any)
• Re-run failed checks

### Common Failure Explanations

#### Build Failures

```markdown
**Compilation Error**

The C++ build failed due to compilation errors.

**Common causes:**
- Missing header files
- Syntax errors  - Undefined symbols
- Incompatible types

**Fix:**
1. Check the error message for the specific file and line
2. Review recent changes to that file
3. Ensure all dependencies are properly included
4. Run build locally: `cmake --build build`

Test Failures

**Unit Test Failure**

Test suite failed - X out of Y tests failed.

**Common causes:**
- Logic errors in new code
- Broken assumptions
- Missing test data
- Flaky tests (intermittent failures)

**Fix:**
1. Run the specific test locally: `./build/test_binary --gtest_filter=TestName`
2. Check test output for assertion failures
3. Debug the failing test case
4. If flaky, check for timing issues or race conditions

Lint/Style Failures

**Code Style Check Failed**

Code doesn't meet style guidelines.

**Common causes:**
- Formatting issues (indentation, spacing)
- Naming violations
- Missing documentation

**Fix:**
1. Run linter locally: `clang-format -i file.cpp`
2. Check linter output for specific violations
3. Apply auto-fix if available
4. Review style guide for manual fixes

Coverage Failures

**Code Coverage Below Threshold**

New code lacks sufficient test coverage.

**Current coverage:** X%
**Required:** Y%

**Fix:**
1. Identify untested code paths
2. Add unit tests for new functions/branches
3. Run coverage report locally: `gcov` or `pytest --cov`
4. Ensure edge cases are tested

Integration with Other Skills

After PR Creation (from prepare-pull-request)

After creating a PR with `git-prepare-pull-request`:
→ Invoke `git-pull-request-status` to check initial CI/CD results
→ Wait for checks to complete
→ Address any immediate failures

During PR Review (from review-pull-request)

While reviewing with `pr-review`:
→ Invoke `git-pull-request-status` to verify checks before review
→ Ensure CI/CD passes before detailed code review
→ Check for merge conflicts

Advanced: Custom Status Checks

See git-gh-client for commands to:

• Get required status checks for a branch
• Re-run failed GitHub Actions workflows

Error Handling

PR Not Found

❌ PR #<NUMBER> not found.

**Possible causes:**
- Invalid PR number
- PR is in different repository
- Insufficient permissions

**Fix:**
- Verify PR number: `gh pr list`
- Check you're in correct repository
- Ensure gh is authenticated: `gh auth status`

No Status Checks

ℹ️ No status checks configured for this PR.

This repository may not have CI/CD pipelines set up.
The PR can be merged without automated checks (if allowed by repo settings).

Checks Still Running

🔄 Some checks are still running...

**Pending:**
- Check 1 (GitHub Actions)
- Check 2 (External)

**Recommendation:** Wait for checks to complete before merging.

Would you like me to:
1. Wait and re-check in 1 minute
2. Show current results only

Quick Reference

See git-gh-client for all gh command syntax. This skill focuses on interpreting results.

References

• GitHub Check Runs API
• gh pr view documentation
• GitHub Actions Workflow Runs