Contributor-First PR Merge

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Reviewing and merging a batch of open pull requests from outside contributors
• Merging a contributor's PR that conflicts with main without rewriting their work
• Taking only part of a PR because some of its features already exist
• Closing duplicate or superseded PRs with a thank-you comment

Example prompts

• “Go through the open PRs on our repo and squash-merge the clean ones so the authors stay credited.”
• “The retry-option PR conflicts with main. Merge it locally and fix the conflicts in a separate commit.”
• “Merge this PR but leave out the CHANGELOG change, since we already shipped that feature.”
• “Close the duplicate PR with a thank-you note that points to the one we merged.”

Requirements

• GitHub CLI (gh), authenticated for the repository
• Git

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Triage Open PRs
2. 2Merge Clean PRs via GitHub
3. 3Handle Conflicting PRs Locally
4. 4Selective Merge (Skip Some Files)
5. 5Close Duplicate/Superseded PRs
6. 6Post-Merge Verification

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9b2efd7. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • git
  • gh
  • python

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git and gh, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Contributor-First PR Merge loads about 847 tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 65 tokens; SKILL.md has 274 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~65

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~847

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~1.8k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from HKUDS/OpenHarness at commit 9b2efd7, republished under its MIT licence (© HKUDS). 274 words, ~847 tokens.

name

pr-merge

description

This skill should be used when the user asks to "merge a PR", "review and merge pull requests", "integrate external contributions", "handle PR conflicts", "cherry-pick from a PR", or needs to merge GitHub PRs while maximizing contributor attribution.

version

0.1.0

gh pr list --repo OWNER/REPO --state open \
  --json number,title,author,additions,deletions,mergeable

gh pr merge NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO --squash \
  --subject "feat: description (#NUMBER)"

git fetch origin pull/NUMBER/head:pr-NUMBER
git merge pr-NUMBER --no-edit
# Resolve conflicts keeping both sides where possible
git add -A && git commit --no-edit

gh pr diff NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO | \
  git apply --exclude='path/to/skip.py' --exclude='CHANGELOG.md'
git commit --author="Author Name <author@email>" \
  -m "feat: description (#NUMBER)

Cherry-picked from PR #NUMBER. Excluded: file.py (already implemented)."

gh pr close NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO \
  --comment "Fixed via PR #OTHER. Thank you for the contribution!"

python -m ruff check src/ tests/    # lint
python -m pytest tests/ -q          # unit tests
git push origin main                # push

© HKUDS, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in .claude/skills/pr-merge of HKUDS/OpenHarness.

• SKILL.md
• references/merge-scenarios.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9b2efd7

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in HKUDS/OpenHarness, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• Hongjian01/ClimWorkflow.claude/skills/pr-merge