GitHub Stacked PRs | GitHub Stacked PRs
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GitHub Stacked PRs
Break large changes into small, reviewable pull requests that build on each other — with native GitHub support and the gh stack CLI.
Stacked PRs, Native in GitHub
Arrange pull requests in an ordered stack and merge them all in one click. Each PR represents one focused layer of your change, reviewed independently and landed together.
Simplified Stack Management
Navigate between PRs in your stack from the GitHub UI, check the status of every layer at a glance, and trigger a cascading rebase across the entire stack with one click.
Powerful CLI
The gh stack CLI makes it easy to create stacks, perform cascading rebases, push branches and create PRs, and navigate between layers — all from your terminal.
AI Agent Integration
Run gh skill install github/gh-stack to teach your AI coding agents how to work with stacks. Break up a large diff into a stack or develop with stacks from the start.
Why Stacked PRs?
Section titled “Why Stacked PRs?”
Large pull requests are hard to review, slow to merge, and prone to conflicts. Reviewers lose context, feedback quality drops, and the whole team slows down. Stacked PRs solve this by breaking big changes into a chain of small, focused pull requests that build on each other — each one independently reviewable.
Arranging PRs in a Stack
Section titled “Arranging PRs in a Stack”
A stack is a series of pull requests in the same repository where each PR targets the branch of the PR below it, forming an ordered chain that ultimately lands on your main branch.
main PR #1 · auth-layer PR #2 · api-endpoints PR #3 · frontend ← bottom ← top
GitHub understands stacks end-to-end: the pull request UI shows a stack map so reviewers can navigate between layers, branch protection rules are enforced against the final target branch (not just the direct base), and CI runs for every PR in the stack as if they were targeting the final branch.
Working with Stacks
Section titled “Working with Stacks”
While thegh stack CLI makes the local workflow seamless, it is entirely optional. You can create and manage Stacked PRs directly via the GitHub UI, the API, or your standard Git workflow. If you choose to use the CLI, it handles creating branches, managing rebases, pushing to GitHub, and creating PRs with the correct base branches. On GitHub, the PR UI gives reviewers the context they need — a stack map for navigation, focused diffs for each layer, and proper rules enforcement.
When you’re ready to merge, you can merge all or a part of the stack. Each PR can be merged directly or through the merge queue. If you want to merge multiple PRs at once (e.g., the bottom two PRs in a stack), simply wait for CI to pass on those specific layers, and you can merge them in a single step. After a merge, the remaining PRs in the stack are automatically rebased so the lowest unmerged PR targets the updated base branch.
Get Started
Section titled “Get Started”
Private Preview
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Terminal window
Install the CLI extension
ghextensioninstallgithub/gh-stack
Alias gh stack as gs for easier use (optional)
ghstackalias
Start a stack (creates and checks out the first branch)
gsinitauth-layer
... make commits ...
Create new layers in the stack (creates and checks out each new branch)
gsaddapi-routes
... make commits ...
gsaddfrontend
... make commits ...
Push all branches
gspush
Open a stack of PRs
gssubmit
Ready to dive in? Start with the Quick Start guide or read the full overview.