Production Deployment PR

Create a production deployment pull request following these steps.

This skill assumes the repo deploys via a long-lived deploy/prod branch and a GitHub Action that tags deploy/prod on merge. If the repo doesn't use that flow, stop and tell the user.

Pre-flight Checks

1. Check working directory is clean

   git status --porcelain

   If not clean, warn the user and stop.

2. Fetch latest from origin

   git fetch origin

3. Check if main is up to date with origin/main

   git rev-parse main
   git rev-parse origin/main

   If they differ, warn the user that local main is not up to date.

4. Check if there are changes to deploy

   git log origin/deploy/prod..origin/main --oneline

   If no commits, inform the user there's nothing new to deploy.

Determine Version

1. Get today's date in format YYYY-MM-DD

2. Check existing tags for today

   git tag -l "YYYY-MM-DD-r*"

3. Calculate next release number
   • If no tags for today exist, use r1
   • If YYYY-MM-DD-r1 exists, use r2, etc.
4. Format version: YYYY-MM-DD-r{N} (e.g., 2026-01-19-r1)
5. Get latest release tag for the compare link

   git tag -l "*-r*" --sort=-version:refname | head -1

Gather Changes for PR Description

1. Get commits between deploy/prod and main

   git log origin/deploy/prod..origin/main --oneline

2. Filter to only include commits with GitHub PR links

   • Only include commits that contain a PR reference like (#123) or (https://github.com/.../pull/123)
   • Exclude commits without PR links (these are likely bad merges that should have been squashed)
   • Format each included commit as a bullet point with the PR link

   Example of what to include:

   - feat: add user dashboard (#142)
   - fix: resolve authentication bug (#138)

   Example of what to EXCLUDE (no PR link):

   - fix typo
   - refactor: clean up code
   - Merge branch 'feature-x'

Create Pull Request

1. Create PR from main to deploy/prod

   • Use the latest release tag (from step 5 above) in the compare link, e.g., https://github.com/{REPO}/compare/{LATEST_TAG}...main
   • In the "Changes included" section, only list commits that have a GitHub PR link

   gh pr create \
     --base deploy/prod \
     --head main \
     --title "deploy: {VERSION}" \
     --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
   ## Production Release: {VERSION}
   
   ### Changes included
   {LIST_OF_COMMITS_WITH_PR_LINKS_ONLY}
   
   ### Compare
   https://github.com/{REPO}/compare/{LATEST_TAG}...main
   
   ---
   *After merging, a git tag `{VERSION}` will be automatically created.*
   EOF
   )"

2. Show the PR URL to the user

Important Notes

• The PR title MUST follow the format deploy: YYYY-MM-DD-r{N} for the auto-tagging workflow to work
• Do not modify the version format
• The tag will be automatically created by a GitHub Action after the PR is merged