Definition
Stacked pull requests are an ordered chain of dependent PRs where each layer targets the branch of the PR below it, enabling large features to be reviewed as small, focused diffs and merged bottom-up as a unit.
Key Points
- Native github public preview (2026-07-30) via web UI, mobile, and
gh-stackCLI extension - Merge base layer(s): upper open PRs auto-rebase and retarget
- Designed for coding-agents era — large agent-authored diffs become reviewable layers
- Competing third-party tools: graphite, Aviator, ghstack (open source)
- Caveats: public preview; per-layer CI multiplies checks; squash-merge may require manual stack sync; merge-queue support rolling out progressively
Related
- github
- graphite
- merge-queue
- coding-agents
- ai-code-review-bottleneck
- ai-code-review-era
- gh-stack
- vercel