I unexpectedly found myself leading a small team of junior developers who quickly started using me as their go-to for code reviews. To help them (and honestly, to save my own time), we adopted a simple PR playbook for Git/GitHub Flow.
It’s simple, and it keeps reviews fast.
Why PR hygiene matters
Keeps reviewers focused on one problem at a time
Makes rollbacks painless when something breaks
Creates a written trail of "why" decisions for future you (this matters more than you think)
The anatomy of a solid PR
- Branch name: use a type prefix (feature/, bugfix/, security/, etc.) followed by the purpose
- Commits: follow Conventional Commits (type: short-description), never "fix" or "update" (Please, for the sake of your reviewer).
- PR body: include Summary, Why, Changes Made, Testing.
- Scope: only what's needed. One PR, one purpose.
Copy/paste template
Summary
- ...
Why
- ...
Changes made
- ...
Testing
- [ ] Manual steps
- [ ] Automated (tests/commands)
Quick checklist before you click "Create PR"
- Branch name is clear and prefixed.
- Commits are descriptive and consistent.
- Every PR section is filled in.
- Single purpose change. Each change gets its own PR.
Steal this template, tweak it for your team, and enjoy faster, cleaner reviews.
If you have your own PR rules or improvements, I’d love to hear them. I’m sharing more notes as I continue leading and mentoring developers.
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