pull request
Also called: PR, pull requests, PRs
A GitHub page that proposes merging one branch into another. It gathers the description, commits, changed files, automated checks and review discussion in one place.
A pull request (PR) is where a change is discussed before it becomes part of main. Its tabs are Conversation (description, comments, reviews, checks), Commits and Files changed (the diff). A PR has a state: open, draft, merged or closed. Most teams require at least one approving review and passing checks before the Merge pull request button can be used.
Learn it in the course
- Merging: merge commit, squash and rebase on GitHub · What merging does, the three options behind GitHub's merge button and what each leaves in the history, fast-forward in plain words, and how to check whether a change is really in main.
- Your first change in the browser, and how to undo it · Make a small change entirely in the GitHub web UI: find the file, edit it, commit to a new branch because main is protected, open a pull request, pass checks and review, merge and deploy. Then undo a merged change with the Revert button, learn when to revert and when to fix forward, and what a PM should and shouldn't edit.
- Anatomy of a pull request: tabs, description, checks · Read a pull request page top to bottom: base and compare branches, draft and ready, the four tabs, the description, reviewers and labels, linked issues, checks and the merge box.
- GitHub flow: small branches, fast merges · The loop most product teams work in: branch from main, pull request, review and checks, merge, deploy. Why small, short-lived branches are safer, what "merged" and "deployed" mean, how feature flags let unfinished work ship hidden, and how to read a feature's progress from the pull request list.
- Icons and colours: what every state means · Read pull requests, issues, checks, reviews, labels and the merge box at a glance: what every GitHub icon and colour means, and how to tell states apart by shape and text, not colour alone.