PR Template

Canonical .github/pull_request_template.md for Sentry SDK repositories.

.github/pull_request_template.md is a Markdown file that GitHub pre-fills into the PR description editor when someone opens a pull request. Its job is to guide the author toward writing a real description — not to enforce process through checkboxes.

Every PR description MUST cover:

  • What — brief description of what the PR does
  • Why — motivation for the change
  • Alternatives — other approaches considered, if any
  • Context — anything reviewers need that isn't obvious from the code

Do NOT include:

  • "Test plan" sections
  • Checkbox lists of testing steps
  • Redundant summaries of the diff

Do include:

  • Clear explanation of what and why
  • Links to relevant issues or tickets
  • Context that isn't obvious from the code
  • Notes on specific areas that need careful review

A blank, template-only, or AI-generated filler description is not acceptable. The CI bot checks description quality; use the trivial label to override for genuinely trivial changes (typo fixes, formatting-only commits).

Reference issues using Linear magic words:

Closing (closes the issue on merge): close, closes, closed, closing, fix, fixes, fixed, fixing, resolve, resolves, resolved, resolving, complete, completes, completed, completing

Non-closing (links without closing): ref, refs, references, part of, related to, contributes to, toward, towards

  • Draft mode — PRs MUST start as drafts. Mark ready for review once CI passes and the description is complete. Seer AI code review runs automatically when a PR moves out of draft.
  • Changelog — User-facing changes (feat, fix, perf, breaking) REQUIRE a CHANGELOG.md entry under ## Unreleased.
  • AI attribution — For AI-assisted commits, add Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> in the commit footer. Add 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) to the PR description when the PR was AI-generated.

Place this file at .github/pull_request_template.md in the repository root.

Use the sentry-skills:create-pr skill to generate PR descriptions that follow this structure and meet the quality bar.

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### Description

<!-- Brief description of what the PR does.
Why these changes are being made — the motivation.
Alternative approaches considered, if any.
Any additional context reviewers need. -->

### Issues

<!--
* Fixes #1234
* Refs LINEAR-ABC-123
-->
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Our documentation is open source and available on GitHub. Your contributions are welcome, whether fixing a typo (drat!) or suggesting an update ("yeah, this would be better").