CI: refuse to merge while a PR named under a "Depends on" heading is still open
Author: santiferCreated Sep 5, 2026Updated Sep 17, 2026
Labelshelp wanted⚙️ ci
Time: ~2-3 h · Difficulty: Intermediate · Area: .github/workflows/
What happens
A PR body can carry a Depends on section listing other PRs that must land first. GitHub acts on Closes #N and does nothing with Depends on, so today the order is a reviewer's memory. It slipped once already: #3528 (the provider-authoring guide) merged while #3513, which it lists as landed, was still open, so for a while the guide described helpers that were not on main.
What we want
A required check that:
- reads the PR body, finds a
Depends onheading (or aDepends on:line) and every#Nunder it; - resolves each
#Nthrough the API; - fails while any referenced PR is still open, and passes once all are merged or closed.
Same shape as the existing PR-body checks. It clears itself when the dependencies land, so nobody has to re-trigger anything.
Acceptance
- A PR whose body lists an open PR under
Depends onshows a failing check that names it. - Merging or closing that PR turns the check green on the next run, with no manual step.
- A PR with no
Depends onsection is unaffected. - The workflow needs
pull-requests: readonly.
Proposed by @ilyakanevskiy in #3528.
Source: santifer/career-ops