Pull Requests

Gitpod lets you follow the standard GitHub flow. It does not require any detours or additional steps.

In the GitHub flow, each programming task starts with a GitHub issue. In the issue you describe the task, defect, or feature, and log all discussions and related commits.

To start a Gitpod workspace for an issue, either prefix the issue’s URL in the address bar with https://gitpod.io/# or click on the Gitpod button that comes with the Gitpod browser extension. Gitpod will start your cloud workspace in a new browser tab.

In the status bar in the lower left corner, you can see that Gitpod created a local branch GH-{issue-number} (GH-5 in this example) for your issue. If you open the Git view, you will notice that the commit message has already been filled in as Fixes…. This causes GitHub to automatically close the issue once this commit is merged.

Additionally, Gitpod has encountered a .gitpod.yml file in the repository and runs its initialization task. In this example the initialization task builds and starts the app, so that it can be tested right away in the Preview view.

Now solve the issue by applying a few changes. In this example, you add one file and modify two existing ones. If you want to browse through all changes so far, go to the Files navigator view, choose Diff: Compare with..., and select the master branch in the quick open menu. The Diff view allows you to step through all the changes easily using the arrow keys.

Once you are done reviewing your changes, it is time to commit them. Go to the Git view and stage all changed files by clicking on the + icon that pops up when you hover over the entries. Once everything is staged, add a meaningful commit message and press the Commit button.

The next step in the GitHub flow is to propose your changes as a GitHub pull request. You can do that from within Gitpod. In the Pull Request view you will see a message that your current branch has no remote tracking branch. When you click on the Publish Changes button, Gitpod creates a remote branch on GitHub and synchronizes it with your local branch.

The Pull Request view allows you to change title and description of the PR in Markdown (the Preview tab shows the rendered version). You can also specify a different target branch to merge into. If you are satisfied with all these values, click the Create Pull Request button. The pull request is now pushed to GitHub.

The Pull Request view will now provide you with review facilities. You can view the PR on GitHub or synchronize with out-of-band changes, change the target branch, view the conversation, or start a review.

Now, leave a question to the reviewer. Open one of the modified files, hover over the gutter left of the line numbers where you want to add the comment, and then click on the comment icon. Enter your comment (once again in Markdown with Preview facilities) and click Add single comment.

Your comment should now appear in the Conversation view, and once it is synchronized with GitHub, in the Pull Request view as well.

It looks like you are done here, so stop the workspace and ask a colleague to do a review. Click on the avatar in the upper right corner and choose Stop Workspace. In the following dialog, choose Do It.