GitHub Launches Stacked PRs Feature in Private Preview
Original: GitHub Stacked PRs
Why This Matters
Addresses major developer productivity issues with large PR reviews and merge conflicts
GitHub announces Stacked PRs, a new feature in private preview that allows developers to break large changes into small, reviewable pull requests that build on each other. The feature includes native GitHub UI support and a gh stack CLI tool for managing PR stacks from the terminal.
GitHub's Stacked PRs feature addresses the problem of large pull requests being difficult to review and prone to conflicts. The system allows developers to create ordered chains of small, focused PRs where each targets the branch of the PR below it. GitHub's UI displays a stack map for navigation between layers and enforces branch protection rules against the final target branch. The gh stack CLI extension handles local workflow management including creating branches, managing rebases, and pushing to GitHub. Users can merge entire stacks with one click or merge individual PRs. The feature includes AI agent integration through npx skills add github/gh-stack command. Installation requires running gh extension install github/gh-stack, and the system supports aliasing for easier terminal use.