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Add a section to the PR guide on how to write good titles and descriptions #1845

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Add a section to the PR guide on how to write good titles and descriptions #1845

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18 changes: 18 additions & 0 deletions getting-started/pull-request-lifecycle.rst
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Expand Up @@ -203,6 +203,24 @@ should do to help ensure that your pull request is accepted.

#. Proper :ref:`documentation <documenting>` additions/changes should be included.

Write good titles and descriptions
----------------------------------

Reviewers want to be able to understand roughly what your pull request does
before reading the changes.

The title should be a sentence or phrase in the imperative which says what the
pull request does in short form. It should start with ``gh-NNNNNN:``, for pull
requests which close open issues.
Comment on lines +213 to +214

@StanFromIreland StanFromIreland Jun 26, 2026

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Suggested change
pull request does in short form. It should start with ``gh-NNNNNN:``, for pull
requests which close open issues.
pull request does in short form. Pull requests attached to issues should
be linked by putting the issue number in the title (``gh-NNNNNN:``).

A rough suggestion. For two reasons:

  • We don't clarify what gh-NNNN: actually is.
  • They don't always close issues, but we still want the ref for follow-ups, backports etc.

For example, ``gh-12345: Fix bug when spam module is served with eggs``.

@StanFromIreland StanFromIreland Jun 26, 2026

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Some of this is duplicated in the Submitting section. To me, the Making good PRs section seems like a checklist about the change itself, not a checklist for the PR on GitHub.

I think, looking at the (albeit quite terrible) flow, this section is too early (the following section here is about pre-submission things, for example), and can be merged with the duplicated content in Submitting.


The pull request description field should be a detailed summary.
This is a great place to note caveats, provide links to references, and explain
decisions made in the pull request.
Avoid over-explaining: simpler descriptions are easier to read, so make sure not
to write large descriptions for simple changes.


.. _news-entry:
.. _what-s-new-and-news-entries:

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