pr-reference

PR Reference Generation Skill

Overview

Queries git for commit metadata and diff output, then produces a structured XML document. Both bash and PowerShell implementations are provided.

Use cases:

• PR description generation from commit history
• Code review preparation with structured diff context
• Work item discovery by analyzing branch changes
• Security analysis of modified files

After successful generation, include a file link to the absolute path of the XML output in the response.

Prerequisites

The repository must have at least one commit diverging from the base branch.

Quick Start

Run the following command to generate a PR reference with default settings (compares against origin/main):

scripts/generate.sh
scripts/generate.sh --base-branch auto --merge-base --exclude-ext yml,json

scripts/generate.ps1
scripts/generate.ps1 -BaseBranch auto -MergeBase -ExcludeExt yml,json

Output saves to .copilot-tracking/pr/pr-reference.xml by default.

Parameters Reference

Both defaults resolve to the same remote comparison. The PowerShell script automatically resolves origin/<branch> when a bare branch name is provided.

Additional Scripts Reference

After generating the PR reference, use these utility scripts to query the XML.

List Changed Files

Run the list script to extract file paths from the diff:

Read Diff Content

Run the read script to inspect diff content with chunking for large diffs:

Output Format

The generated XML wraps commit metadata and unified diff output in a <commit_history> root element. See the reference guide for the complete XML schema, element reference, output path variations, and workflow integration patterns.

Troubleshooting