name: review-external-pr description: Prepare an external contributor's PR for maintainer review by redirecting it into a dedicated review branch, then merging and creating a new finalization PR targeting next. Use when triaging/reviewing contributor PRs, merging external PRs with maintainer changes, or setting up a review workflow for incoming community contributions.

Review External PR Workflow

Redirects an external contributor's PR into a reviews/ staging branch so a maintainer can inspect, add changes, then merge everything into next cleanly.

When to Use

• An external contributor opened a PR targeting next and you want to add changes before merging
• You want to formally review and finalize a community contribution
• You want the contributor to get proper merge credit while still controlling what lands in next

Workflow Steps

1. Gather PR Info

gh pr view <PR_NUMBER> --json title,author,headRefName,baseRefName,body

Note the PR number, title, and author login — you'll need them for branch naming and PR descriptions.

2. Create the Review Branch

Branch naming format: reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<number>

git fetch origin
git checkout -b reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER> origin/next
git push origin reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER>

Example: reviews/copy-reference-original-pr-545

3. Retarget the Contributor's PR

⚠️ Known issue: gh pr edit --base may emit a deprecation warning about Projects (classic). This is a cosmetic warning only — the base branch change succeeds regardless. Verify with gh pr view <PR_NUMBER> --json baseRefName.

gh pr edit <PR_NUMBER> --base reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER>

Verify:

gh pr view <PR_NUMBER> --json baseRefName

4. Merge the Contributor's PR

Once the base is updated and the PR is ready:

gh pr merge <PR_NUMBER> --squash

Or approve + merge via the GitHub UI to trigger any required status checks.

5. Create the Finalization PR

Pull the merged review branch, then open a new PR from it to next:

git checkout reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER>
git pull origin reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER>

Create the PR:

gh pr create \
  --base next \
  --head reviews/<helpful-name>-original-pr-<PR_NUMBER> \
  --title "<original title> [reviewed]" \
  --body "This PR finalizes the review of the contribution originally submitted by @<author_login> in #<PR_NUMBER>.

Original PR: <PR_URL>"

6. Comment on the Original PR

Go back to the contributor's original (now merged) PR and leave a comment linking to the finalization PR:

gh pr comment <ORIGINAL_PR_NUMBER> \
  --body "Thank you for the contribution! The review is continuing in #<NEW_PR_NUMBER> where maintainer changes will be finalized before merging to \`next\`."

Summary