# PR Description Skill

Use this skill to write the PR description (PR body) for any pull request opened...

- Repository: https://github.com/microsoft/apm (4171 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-30
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add microsoft/apm --skill pr-description-skill -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add microsoft/apm --skill pr-description-skill -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add microsoft/apm --skill pr-description-skill -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add microsoft/apm --skill pr-description-skill -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Use this skill to write the PR description (PR body) for any pull request opened against microsoft/apm. Produces one self-sufficient GitHub-Flavored Markdown artifact: TL;DR, Problem (WHY), Approach (WHAT), Implementation (HOW), 1-3 validated mermaid diagrams, explicit trade-offs, validation evidence, and a How-to-test section -- with every WHY-claim backed by a verbatim quote from PROSE or Agent Skills. Activate when the user asks to "write a PR description", "draft a PR body", "open a PR", "fill in the PR template", or any equivalent.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# PR Description Skill -- Anchored, Concise, Validated PR Bodies

## When to use

Trigger this skill on any of the following intents:

- "write a PR description"
- "draft a PR body"
- "open a PR" / "open this PR" / "let's open the PR"
- "fill in the PR template"
- "summarize this branch as a PR"
- "create the PR write-up"

Reusable for any PR against `microsoft/apm`. The output is one
markdown file that the orchestrator pastes into
`gh pr create --body-file` or surfaces to the maintainer.

## Output charset rule (read this first)

The repo-wide encoding rule at
`.github/instructions/encoding.instructions.md` constrains
**source files and CLI output** to printable ASCII because Windows
cp1252 terminals raise `UnicodeEncodeError` on anything else. PR
comments are NOT source code and NOT CLI output -- they are rendered
by GitHub's Primer engine, which expects UTF-8 GitHub-Flavored
Markdown.

Two distinct rules therefore apply:

1. **Source files in this bundle** (`SKILL.md`, `assets/*`) MUST
   stay ASCII. They live in the repo and are subject to
   `.github/instructions/encoding.instructions.md`.
2. **The PR body output the skill produces** MUST be UTF-8
   GitHub-Flavored Markdown. Use em dashes, smart punctuation,
   alerts, collapsibles, task lists, and Unicode where it improves
   readability. Mermaid diagram labels MAY use Unicode -- there is
   no constraint here. The output is consumed by GitHub's renderer,
   not by a Windows terminal.

A previous version of this skill incorrectly required ASCII in the
PR body. That made the output unreadable: no alerts, no collapsibles
for long evidence, no em dashes, no smart quotes. Reviewers had to
scroll through hundreds of flat lines instead of scanning a body
shaped by GFM features.

## Concision targets (hard ceilings)

The rest: https://github.com/microsoft/apm/blob/HEAD/.agents/skills/pr-description-skill/SKILL.md