# PR Automation Agent
**Status:** Design complete
**Epic:** Developer Experience
**Created:** 2025-01-21
## Overview
Automate the full PR lifecycle as a background agent. When work is complete and it's time to create a PR, automatically spawn an agent that creates the PR, addresses review feedback, and merges when human-approved.
## Goals
- Eliminate manual PR babysitting
- Automatically address Greptile feedback
- Wait for human approval before merging
- Run in background so conversation continues
## Non-goals
- Auto-merge without human approval
- Handle complex merge conflicts (leave for manual resolution)
- Replace human judgment on code quality
## Flow
```
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Create branch, commit, push │
│ 2. Create PR via gh │
│ 3. Poll loop (max 5 cycles, 2min apart): │
│ ├─ Check for Greptile review │
│ ├─ Check for human comments/approval │
│ ├─ If Greptile comments → address, push, reply │
│ ├─ If human requested changes → address, push │
│ └─ If human approved → merge, delete branch, exit │
│ 4. After 5 cycles: report status, leave PR open, exit │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```
## Polling & Decision Logic
Each poll cycle (every 2 minutes, max 5):
1. Fetch PR reviews and comments via `gh pr view --json`
2. If Greptile commented with suggestions:
- Analyze feedback for validity
- Make fixes if valid
- Push updates
- Reply to comments
3. If human approved:
- Merge PR via `gh pr merge`
- Delete remote branch
- Exit with success
4. If human requested changes:
- Address the feedback
- Push updates
- Continue polling
5. Otherwise:
- Wait 2 minutes, retry
**Merge gate:** Human approval required. Greptile feedback is informative but not sufficient for merge.
## Implementation
**Type:** Claude Code skill invoked automatically at PR time
**Location:** `.claude/commands/pr-with-review.md` (or skill file)
**Execution:** Background Task agent with `run_in_background: true`
**Pseudocode:**
```bash
# 1. Create and push branch
branch="<prefix>/<topic>"
git checkout -b "$branch"
git add -A
git commit -m "<message>"
git push -u origin "$branch"
# 2. Create PR
gh pr create --title "<title>" --body "<body>"
# 3. Poll loop
for i in {1..5}; do
sleep 120
# Fetch reviews
reviews=$(gh pr view --json reviews,comments)
# Check for Greptile comments needing action
# If found: analyze, fix, push, reply
# Check for human approval
if human_approved; then
gh pr merge --merge --delete-branch
echo "PR merged successfully"
exit 0
fi
# Check for human change requests
# If found: address, push
done
# 4. Timeout
echo "PR awaiting human approval: <url>"
```
## Error Handling
| Scenario | Behavior |
|----------|----------|
| Push fails (conflict, permissions) | Report error, exit |
| PR creation fails | Report error, exit |
| Greptile doesn't respond | Continue - only human approval matters |
| Agent can't fix requested changes | Best effort, note uncertainty in reply |
| Merge conflicts during review | Report, leave PR open for manual resolution |
| gh CLI not authenticated | Fail fast with clear error |
## Notifications
- **On merge success:** "PR #N merged successfully"
- **On timeout:** "PR #N awaiting human approval: <url>"
- **On error:** Report what went wrong
## Integration
This becomes the default behavior when the main agent reaches PR creation. Instead of:
```
git push && gh pr create # then return to user
```
It becomes:
```
Task(background=true, prompt="<pr-automation-skill>") # conversation continues
```
## Open Questions
- Should the skill live in this repo or in a global Claude Code config?
- Should polling interval be configurable?
## Future Enhancements
- Configurable retry count and interval
- Slack/Discord notification on merge or timeout
- Support for draft PRs that convert to ready when Greptile passes
