Is it possible to create an automatic template for pull requests in Github?

Question

I want to create a template that will appear automatically on each pull request.

This can either be a note or a comment. Ideally it will display guidelines as to reviewing the pull request:

- [ ] Have you done x?
- [ ] Have you done y?
- [ ] Have you done z?

Can anyone suggest a way of doing this?

Answer 1

Yes, it is now possible.

Add a file named pull_request_template.md to the root of your project:

- [ ] Have you done x?
- [ ] Have you done y?
- [ ] Have you done z?

You can also create a template for issues using the same convention. Just name the file issue_template.md.

Source: https://github.com/blog/2111-issue-and-pull-request-templates

Answer 2

GitHub does not allow you to create a template for pull requests created on it's website.

The solution we use is to create pull requests using the github api via the hub command. We wrap this in a script called makePR that does something like:

#!/bin/bash
URL=$(hub pull-request -F PR-template.md)
echo "New PR created at $URL"
open $URL

(untested - our actual script does a lot more - I've left out parameters I think you don't need)

The open command will open the URL in the default browser on MacOS, you may need to adjust this for other platforms. Once it is open, you can edit the title in your web browser.