Turn the current work into a PR a human can review in one pass.
Before opening
- Branch contains one logical change (or clearly labeled stacked commits)
- No leftover
console.log,debugger,TODO: temp, commented-out blocks you added - No unrelated formatting-only churn
- Secrets,
.env, and local-only files are not staged - Diff matches the stated goal — nothing "extra helpful"
Description template
Use this structure (adapt section names to the host: GitHub/GitLab):
## Summary
<1–3 bullets: what and why>
Test plan
Notes
<risks, follow-ups, screenshots if UI>
## Commit / PR title
- Imperative, specific: `fix checkout: reject expired discount codes`
- Not: `update stuff`, `fix`, `WIP`, `address comments`
## Reviewer empathy
Call out:
- Files that look scary but are mechanical (renames, generated)
- Behavior that changed for callers/API consumers
- Anything you are unsure about
## Anti-patterns
- NEVER mix refactor + feature + dependency bump in one PR unless required
- NEVER force-push shared branches without warning
- NEVER open a PR with "tests TBD" and no plan
- NEVER bury breaking changes in the middle of the description
## If asked to open the PR
1. Summarize the diff in your own words first
2. Draft title + body with the template
3. List residual risks in one short section