gh-combine

README

gh-combine

A gh cli extension to automatically combine multiple pull requests into one.

About ⭐

This project is a gh cli extension that is used to combine multiple pull requests into one. It is inspired by the github/combine-prs Action but with a focus on the gh cli.

The primary use case for this extension is to combine multiple pull requests from dependabot into one. Even though dependabot supports grouped version updates, these groups are limited by their type. For example, you cannot have dependabot combine a group of Ruby and JavaScript updates into one pull request. They are treated as separate groups. This extension solves that problem by bundling those updates into one pull request.

Installation 💻

Install this gh cli extension by running the following command:

gh extension install github/gh-combine

Upgrading

You can upgrade this extension by running the following command:

gh ext upgrade combine

Usage 🚀

Before we get into the usage, there are a few key concepts to understand:

• Combining: This is the process of taking multiple pull requests and combining them into one. This is done by creating a new pull request that contains the changes from all the combined pull requests.
• Filtering: If you run this CLI with no flags, it will attempt to combine all open pull requests in the repository. This is not always what you want. You can use the various flags to filter the pull requests that are combined. For example, you can filter by label, branch name, etc. See the --help output for more information on the available flags.

It is also important to understand what the output looks like. By default, the output is a table that shows the following information:

• Shows the repos that were operated on
• Shows the number of pull requests that were combined per repo
• Shows the number of total combined pull requests that were created
• Shows the number of pull requests that were skipped (not combined)
  • MC: Merge Conflict - Means that the pull request could not be merged into the combined pull request due to a merge conflict
  • DNM: Did not Match - Means that the pull request did not match the filters (criteria) that were applied

Demo 📹

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e993e282-5182-4599-aca8-531a80ec124f

Basic

Basic usage of the combine command to combine multiple dependent pull requests into one for a given repository:

gh combine owner/repo

By default, this command will attempt to combine all open pull requests in the repository. You should use generally use some form of filtering to limit the number of pull requests that are combined. See the examples below for more information.

Basic with Dependabot

Combine all open pull requests in a repository that are created by dependabot:

gh combine owner/repo --dependabot

In Dry Run Mode

You can run in dry run mode to see what would happen without actually creating a pull request or combining any pull requests:

gh combine owner/repo --dry-run

With Passing CI

Combine multiple pull requests together but only if their CI checks are passing:

gh combine owner/repo --require-ci

With Passing CI and Approvals

gh combine owner/repo --require-ci --require-approved

Combine Pull Requests from Multiple Repositories

gh combine owner/repo1 owner/repo2

# alternatively separate with a comma
gh combine owner/repo1,owner/repo2

# or use the --owner flag if all the repos are owned by the same owner
gh combine --owner owner repo1 repo2 repo3

Use a File to Specify Repositories

gh combine --file repos.txt

Where repos.txt is a file with a list of repositories to combine (one per line):

owner/repo1
owner/repo2
owner/repo3

Require a Minimum Number of PRs to Combine

By using the --minimum flag you can require a minimum number of pull requests that must be combined for a new PR to be opened. If less than the minimum number of pull requests are combined, the command will exit without opening a new PR.

gh combine owner/repo --minimum 3

Do Not Auto-Close Linked PRs

By default, the source pull requests that are combined into the new pull request will be automatically closed when the combined Pr merges by adding the closes keyword to the new pull request. This can be disabled by using the --no-autoclose flag.

gh combine owner/repo --no-autoclose

Only Combine Pull Requests that match a given Label(s)

gh combine owner/repo --labels dependencies

You can also require a set of multiple labels

gh combine owner/repo --labels security,dependencies

Note that the labels are OR'd together. So if a pull request has either label, it will be included in the combined pull request. Meaning that if you use --labels security,dependencies and a pull request has the security label, it will be included in the combined pull request even if it does not have the dependencies label.

Only Combine Pull Requests that match a given Regex

gh combine owner/repo --branch-regex "dependabot/.*"

Only Combine Pull Requests that match a branch prefix

gh combine owner/repo --branch-prefix "dependabot/"

Only Combine Pull Requests that match a branch suffix

gh combine owner/repo --branch-suffix "-some-cool-feature"

Ignore Pull Requests that have a certain Label(s)

gh combine owner/repo --ignore-labels wip,dependencies

Note that labels are OR'd together. So if a pull request has either label, it will be ignored in the combined pull request. Meaning that if you use --ignore-labels wip,dependencies and a pull request has the wip label, it will be ignored in the combined pull request even if it does not have the dependencies label.

Update the Resulting Combined Pull Request Branch if Possible

gh combine owner/repo --update-branch

Display Version Information

gh combine --version

Disable Stats Output

gh combine owner/repo --no-stats

Change the Type of Stats Output

gh combine owner/repo --output table # default format
gh combine owner/repo --output json
gh combine owner/repo --output plain

Disable Color

gh combine owner/repo --no-color

Running with Debug Logging

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG gh combine owner/repo

Verifying Release Binaries

This project uses goreleaser to build binaries and actions/attest-build-provenance to publish the provenance of the release.

You can verify the release binaries by following these steps:

1. Download a release from the releases page.
2. Verify it gh attestation verify --owner github ~/Downloads/darwin-arm64 (an example for darwin-arm64).

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Run gh combine --help for more information and full command/options usage.