chainlink

Manage GitHub PR chains with ease

chainlink discovers PR dependency chains in a GitHub repository and lets you visualize, open, and rebase them. It works by inspecting each PR's base branch -- if PR B targets PR A's branch instead of main, they form a chain.

Install

go install github.com/meain/chainlink@latest

Requires a GitHub token with repo scope:

export CHAINLINK_TOKEN="ghp_..."

See Token Setup for details.

Usage

log -- Visualize PR chains

$ chainlink log --repo alcionai/corso

#4051 Basic code for backup cleanup (ashmrtn) [3217-incomplete-backup-cleanup]
 #4065 Add and populate mod time for BaseModel (ashmrtn) [3217-model-mod-time]
  #4066 Exclude recently created models from garbage collection (ashmrtn) [3217-delay-model-gc]
#4030 Create backup collections for Group's default SharePoint site (meain) [group-files]
 #4043 Group CLI (meain) [group-cli]
#4050 add handlers for channels (neha-Gupta1) [channelHandlers]
 #4068 channels and messages API (neha-Gupta1) [HandlerImplemenation]

Approved PRs are highlighted in green. Use --all to include standalone PRs (not just chains).

Output formats: --output default|small|markdown|json

open -- Open a PR chain in the browser

Select a chain by branch name or PR number:

$ chainlink open --repo alcionai/corso group-cli

Opening https://github.com/alcionai/corso/pull/4030
Opening https://github.com/alcionai/corso/pull/4043

Use --print to print URLs without opening them.

rebase -- Rebase a PR chain

Generates a shell script that rebases the chain onto the default branch. Only leaf branches (the tips of the chain) are rebased -- git's --update-refs flag automatically updates all intermediate branches:

$ chainlink rebase 3217-model-mod-time --push

#!/bin/sh

set -e

git checkout 3217-delay-model-gc
git rebase --update-refs main
git push --force-with-lease 3217-incomplete-backup-cleanup
git push --force-with-lease 3217-model-mod-time
git push --force-with-lease 3217-delay-model-gc

Use --run to execute directly instead of printing. Use --push to push all branches in the chain after rebasing.

Filters

Available on log and open commands:

Flag	Values
--author	GitHub username (prefix with - to exclude)
--reviewer	Assigned reviewer
--review-status	approved, pending, unapproved, changes-requested, all
--draft-status	draft, ready, all
--labels	Comma-separated (prefix with - to exclude)
--updated-since	Duration, e.g. 24h, 7d
--created-since	Duration, e.g. 24h, 7d
--size	small, medium, large, all
--mergeable	mergeable, conflicting, all
--checks	pass, fail, pending, all

Examples:

# Show only my approved PRs
chainlink log --author meain --review-status approved

# Show PRs awaiting my review (excluding drafts, excluding my own)
chainlink log --reviewer meain --review-status unapproved --draft-status ready --author=-meain

# Show PRs updated in the last week
chainlink log --updated-since 7d

# Show conflicting PRs
chainlink log --mergeable conflicting

Global Options

Flag	Default	Description
--repo <org/repo>	current directory's origin	Repository to operate on
--no-cache		Ignore cached data
--cache-time	1m	Cache duration (e.g. 1m, 5m, 1h)

Example Workflows

PR dashboard across multiple repos

Use chainlink with a list of repos to build a personal PR dashboard:

#!/bin/sh

repos="
org/repo-one
org/repo-two
org/repo-three
"

for repo in $repos; do
    output=$(chainlink log --cache-time 5m --all --output markdown --repo "$repo" "$@" 2>/dev/null)
    if [ -n "$output" ]; then
        printf "# %s\n%s\n" "$repo" "$output"
    fi
done

Quick review queue

Find PRs that need your review across repos:

chainlink log --repo org/repo --reviewer yourname --review-status unapproved --draft-status ready --author=-yourname

Merge-ready PRs

Find your PRs that are approved and ready to merge:

chainlink log --repo org/repo --author yourname --review-status approved

Daily standup helper

Show all your pending PRs, formatted as markdown for pasting into chat:

chainlink log --repo org/repo --author yourname --review-status unapproved --output markdown

Rebase and push in one shot

chainlink rebase my-feature-branch --push --run

Token Setup

1. Go to GitHub Personal Access Tokens.
2. Click "Generate new token" > "Generate new token (classic)".
3. Check the repo scope.
4. Generate and export:

   export CHAINLINK_TOKEN="ghp_..."

For public repositories, a fine-grained token with read-only access works too.

Alternatives

• git-spice