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Pull Request Templates

Pull request templates encode review expectations for docs, ops, and general repository changes.

Template Value Model

flowchart TD
    PR[Pull request opened] --> Fill[Fill template]
    Fill --> Describe[Describe change]
    Fill --> Impact[State impact]
    Fill --> Evidence[Attach evidence]
    Fill --> Risk[Call out risk areas]

    Describe --> Review[Reviewer has context]
    Impact --> Review
    Evidence --> Review
    Risk --> Review

This is the real job of a PR template in Atlas: to force the change story, the evidence story, and the risk story into one place before reviewer time gets spent.

Source Anchors

What The Default Template Forces Into View

  • a plain-language summary of the visible repository change
  • validation expectations such as make ci-fast, make ci-pr, and focused command reruns
  • source-of-truth checks for contracts, generated artifacts, redirects, and docs alignment
  • risk disclosures for breaking changes and ops boundary changes

Why This Matters

Without the template, important maintainer facts stay implicit:

  • whether the author changed the owning source before the docs
  • whether generated artifacts were refreshed
  • whether a moved docs page got its redirect update
  • whether a workflow or ops change crossed the wrong boundary

The template turns those from reviewer guesswork into author-declared evidence.

When To Update A Template

Update PR templates when the repository changes what must be proven for merge, such as:

  • new required validation lanes
  • new source-of-truth locations
  • new docs governance obligations
  • new ops boundary rules

Do not update templates casually for stylistic preference alone. A template change is a review-model change and should stay durable and repo-wide.

Main Takeaway

PR templates are part of Atlas governance, not repository decoration. They define the minimum story a maintainer must tell about a change before review can be efficient, consistent, and honest.