Commit, push, PR#

The agent can take finished work all the way from your working tree to a reviewable pull request: branch off the default branch, stage what you asked for, write the commit message, push, and open the PR with gh. Nothing new runs it — the flow is ordinary git and gh through the shell, guided by the bundled commit-push-pr skill.

Running it#

Ask in plain language, or use the slash command:

/commit-push-pr

Typical phrasings that also fire it: "commit and push", "open a PR for this", "push this up", "raise a pull request for these changes".

What it does#

1. Branches first. It detects the repository's default branch (git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD, falling back to git remote show origin, and to main/master when there is no remote). If you are sitting on it, the agent creates a topic branch before committing. It never commits onto the default branch.
2. Stages named paths. It reads git status --short -uall and adds the files the request is about. No blanket git add -A over a tree it did not inspect; files you did not mention stay unstaged and get reported.
3. Writes the message with /commit-message, which reads the staged diff and returns one imperative subject plus a body when the change needs one.
4. Commits from a message file (git commit -F), never a fragile inline -m. Hooks always run — no --no-verify. If a pre-commit hook rewrites files the agent amends once and stops rather than looping.
5. Pushes with git push -u origin <branch>, once the remote-write gate below allows it. A non-fast-forward rejection gets a rebase and one retry. Force-pushing needs you to ask for it explicitly, and then it uses --force-with-lease.
6. Opens the PR with gh pr create --base <default> --head <branch> --title ... --body-file ..., after checking gh auth status. The body is built from the branch's commits and its diff against the base, in summary / what changed / testing sections.

Dry run#

Ask for a dry run and the flow stops short of the remote. Steps 1–4 run for real — branching, staging, the message, and the commit are all local and undoable — and then the agent prints the remote actions it would have taken instead of taking them:

would push: git push -u origin fix-commit-trailers
would open PR: gh pr create --base main --head fix-commit-trailers --title ... --body-file ...

No git push and no gh pr create runs. To see what a push would send without writing anything, git push --dry-run -u origin <branch> contacts the remote, reports the refs that would update, and pushes nothing.

Remote-write authorization#

Pushing a branch and opening a pull request are the only two steps other people can see, and resetting your local tree does not undo them. They are off by default:

openprogram config set git.allow_remote_write true

With the setting off, the flow runs through the commit and then stops and tells you, which leaves you a finished local commit to push yourself. Asking for the push or the PR in the same turn authorizes that call on its own — the setting is for standing permission, not for one-off requests.

The gate lives in the argv builders, so an unauthorized call fails before git or gh runs rather than after:

from openprogram.commands.commit_message import git_push_argv
git_push_argv(branch="topic")            # RemoteWriteNotAuthorized
git_push_argv(branch="topic", dry_run=True)   # fine, writes nothing

AI attribution#

Commits the agent writes carry a git trailer naming the model as a co-author:

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@openprogram.dev>

The model's display name is used when it is known; otherwise the generic OpenProgram identity. The trailer is idempotent — re-running the flow never duplicates it, and it joins an existing trailer block (next to a Signed-off-by:, say) rather than opening a new one.

Generated pull-request bodies end with a single fixed line:

Generated with OpenProgram

Turn the commit trailer off with the git.co_author setting:

openprogram config set git.co_author false

With it off, OpenProgram adds no attribution trailer at all. The PR footer is not affected by the toggle.

The helpers are importable, so you can reproduce the exact strings yourself:

from openprogram.commands.commit_message import apply_trailers, co_author_trailer, pr_body

Approval and safety#

Every step is a bash call, so git push and gh pr create go through the session's normal approval tier — under the default tier you see and approve each one, on top of the git.allow_remote_write gate. OpenProgram never switches you to a bypass tier to make the flow quieter.

A spawned subagent is refused bash entirely, so it cannot commit or push. This flow belongs to a top-level session; if you delegated the work, the delegate hands the branch back for you to ship.

When it stops#

The agent stops and reports rather than improvising when the working tree holds changes it cannot attribute to your request, a hook keeps rewriting files, the push is rejected twice, or gh is missing or unauthenticated. In the last case the branch is already pushed, so you can open the PR in the web UI or run gh auth login and ask again.

Related#

• Skills — the SKILL.md registry this flow ships in
• Built-in tools — the shell tool every step runs through
• Configuration keys — git.co_author, git.allow_remote_write, and the rest