Vp Stacked Pr Rebase

Stacked PR Rebase

Rebase a stacked PR after its parent PR has merged by identifying parent commits, preserving only the user's own commits, recreating the branch from the updated base, and force-pushing only with explicit confirmation.

Core Principles

1. Analyze before acting - Understand the PR relationship, merge type, and

commit ownership before changing history.

1. Preserve user work - Keep only the user's own commits and never discard

uncertain commits without confirmation.

1. Use one predictable strategy - Cherry-pick owned commits onto the updated

base for regular, squash, and rebase merges.

1. Create a backup - Make a timestamped backup branch before destructive

operations.

1. Require confirmation - Ask before execution and again before

--force-with-lease.

1. Report exact changes - Show excluded commits, preserved commits, conflicts,

verification, and next steps.

Phase 1: Situation Analysis

Gather:

• current branch and working tree status
• current PR number, title, head branch, and base branch
• merge base between current branch and target base
• commits currently in the PR branch
• recently merged PRs targeting the same base
• merged PR whose head branch matches the current PR base branch, when the PR is

stacked on a branch instead of the default branch

Useful commands:

gh pr view  --json number,title,headRefName,baseRefName,commits
git merge-base HEAD origin/
git log --oneline "$(git merge-base HEAD origin/)"..HEAD
gh pr list --state merged --base  --limit 20 \
  --json number,title,headRefName,mergeCommit,commits
gh pr list --state merged --head  --limit 5 \
  --json number,title,headRefName,mergeCommit,commits

Read references/parent-detection.md for the detailed detection strategy, confidence rules, and user-facing option examples. When the user names the parent PR explicitly, skip detection but still verify it: confirm the PR is merged and its head branch relates to the current PR's base.

Phase 2: Merge Type Detection

Detect how the parent PR merged so the report is accurate. The execution strategy remains cherry-picking owned commits for all merge types.

| Merge type | Detection | Strategy | |------------|-----------|----------| | Regular merge | merge commit has 2 parents | cherry-pick own commits | | Squash merge | one parent, original commits not in base | cherry-pick own commits | | Rebase merge | one parent, original commits rewritten in base | cherry-pick own commits |

Read references/merge-strategies.md for GraphQL queries, diagrams, and merge type details.

Phase 3: Commit Classification

Classify commits in the current PR branch:

| Priority | Condition | Classification | |----------|-----------|----------------| | 1 | SHA appears in parent PR original commits | parent commit, exclude | | 2 | same non-generic message, same author, different SHA | likely parent commit, exclude | | 3 | message match is generic or author differs | uncertain, ask user | | 4 | everything else | user-owned, keep |

Always show the classification before execution, even when confidence is high. Read references/commit-classification.md for examples, manual selection, and uncertain-commit prompts.

Phase 3.5: Pre-Execution Confirmation

Before any destructive operation, show:

• current PR and branch
• parent PR and merge type
• commits to exclude
• commits to keep
• uncertain commits and selected treatment
• backup branch name
• exact high-level operation

Ask for explicit confirmation. If the user declines, offer to reclassify, switch to manual selection, or abort.

All interactive pause points are summarized in references/decision-points.md.

Phase 4: Rebase Execution

Use a fresh branch from the updated base, then cherry-pick only user-owned commits in oldest-first order.

High-level sequence:

1. Fetch the latest base branch.
2. Create backup-pr- at the original branch HEAD.
3. Create a temporary branch from origin/.
4. Cherry-pick user-owned commits, preserving commit messages and authorship.
5. Resolve conflicts or ask for semantic conflicts.
6. Replace the original branch with the temporary branch.
7. Delete the temporary branch.

Read references/execution.md for the exact command sequence, verification steps, force-push confirmation, and summary report template. Read references/conflict-resolution.md for conflict classification.

Phase 5: Verify And Push

Before force-pushing:

git log --oneline -10
git status
git diff origin/..HEAD --stat

Then ask before:

git push --force-with-lease origin 

Never use plain --force. Never delete the backup branch automatically. In the final report, include conflicts encountered, verification results, and the backup branch name.

Error Handling

| Error | Action | |-------|--------| | Cannot identify parent PR | Ask user to specify PR number | | Parent PR not merged | Abort and suggest waiting | | No user-owned commits found | Warn that the branch may already be rebased | | Cherry-pick conflict | Classify conflict and resolve or ask | | Own commit is a merge commit | Warn and ask before using cherry-pick -m 1; prefer squashing first | | Force push rejected | Check branch protection or remote drift | | Backup branch exists | Use timestamp suffix for uniqueness | | Current branch has no PR | Ask which PR to operate on | | Multiple parent PRs in chain | Collect commits from all parents, then keep only non-parent commits | | Parent PR has 250+ commits | Use pagination or manual commit selection |

Reference Files

• references/parent-detection.md - parent PR detection and confidence rules
• references/merge-strategies.md - merge type detection and diagrams
• references/commit-classification.md - commit ownership examples and prompts
• references/execution.md - command sequence and report template
• references/conflict-resolution.md - conflict handling guidance
• references/decision-points.md - all required user confirmation points

Notes

• Requires gh CLI authenticated with appropriate permissions.
• Works with GitHub PRs. GitLab and Bitbucket are not supported.
• The PR branch must be checked out locally.
• Always test with a backup before critical operations.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: VdustR
• Source: VdustR/skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.