Pull requests¶

A pull request (PR) asks to merge one branch into another on GitHub. Teammates can see the changes, comment, and approve before anything reaches main. Most of the club's repos require a PR for every change.

The workflow¶

flowchart LR
    A[Branch & commit] -- git push --> B[Open a PR]
    B --> C[Review & fix]
    C --> D[Merge, then<br/>git pull]

1. Make a branch and commit¶

cd ~/my-robot
git switch main
git pull
git switch -c add-wiring-notes
nano wiring.md
git add wiring.md
git commit -m "Add wiring notes"

2. Push the branch¶

git push -u origin add-wiring-notes

3. Open the pull request¶

Go to your repo on GitHub. A yellow banner offers Compare & pull request: click it. (Or go to Pull requests → New pull request and pick your branch.)

Title: what the change does.
Description: why, and anything a reviewer should check.

Click Create pull request.

From the terminal

gh pr create opens a PR for the current branch and asks for a title and description.

4. Review¶

On the PR, open the Files changed tab. Reviewers can click a line to comment on it, then Review changes to approve or request changes.

To make a fix after a review comment, just commit and push to the same branch. The PR updates automatically:

nano wiring.md
git commit -am "Clarify motor driver pins"
git push

git commit -am stages and commits every file Git already tracks. It doesn't pick up new files.

5. Merge¶

Once it's approved, click Merge pull request, then Delete branch.

6. Update your laptop¶

The merge happened on GitHub, so your local main is behind:

git switch main
git pull
git branch -d add-wiring-notes

Exercise¶

Open a PR that adds a team.md file listing your name and role. Review it yourself on GitHub (you can comment on your own PR, though not approve it), merge it, and update your local main.