Shayan Rais
1979e196c9
Adopt YY-M-D naming scheme (year-month-date, month as numeric) for chronological sortability. Update image references in the squash-merging / PR-size post. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
49 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
# Squash Merging & PR Size Distribution — Tips from Boris Cherny
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A summary of insights shared by Boris Cherny ([@bcherny](https://x.com/bcherny)), creator of Claude Code, on March 25, 2026.
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<table width="100%">
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<tr>
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<td><a href="../">← Back to Claude Code Best Practice</a></td>
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<td align="right"><img src="../!/claude-jumping.svg" alt="Claude" width="60" /></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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---
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## 1/ 266 Contributions in a Single Day — Always Squash
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Boris shared his GitHub contribution graph showing **266 contributions on March 24th** — from **141 PRs, always squashed** with a median of **118 lines** per PR.
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- Squash merging combines all branch commits into a single commit on the target branch — keeping history clean and linear
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- Each PR = one commit makes it easy to revert entire features and simplifies `git bisect`
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- At high-velocity AI-assisted workflows (141 PRs/day), squash is the pragmatic choice — individual "fix lint", "try this" commits within a branch are noise
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<a href="https://x.com/bcherny/status/2038552880018538749"><img src="assets/boris-26-3-25/1.png" alt="Boris Cherny — 266 contributions, always squashed" width="50%" /></a>
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---
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## 2/ PR Size Distribution — Keep PRs Small
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Boris shared the size distribution across those 141 PRs, totaling **45,032 lines changed** (additions + deletions):
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| Metric | Lines (add+del) | Meaning |
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|--------|---------------:|---------|
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| **p50** | **118** | Median PR size — half of all PRs were 118 lines or fewer |
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| p90 | 498 | 90% of PRs were under 500 lines |
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| **p99** | **2,978** | Only ~1 PR exceeded ~3K lines |
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| min | 2 | Smallest PR — a quick 2-line fix |
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| max | 10,459 | Largest single PR — likely a migration or generated code |
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- A **median of 118 lines** means most PRs are focused and reviewable, even at 141 PRs/day
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- The distribution is heavily right-skewed — the occasional large PR is inevitable (bulk renames, migrations), but the norm is tight
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- Small PRs reduce merge conflict risk, are easier to review, and pair perfectly with squash merging for clean reverts
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<a href="https://x.com/bcherny/status/2038552880018538749"><img src="assets/boris-26-3-25/2.png" alt="Boris Cherny — PR size distribution table" width="50%" /></a>
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---
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## Sources
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- [Boris Cherny (@bcherny) on X — March 25, 2026](https://x.com/bcherny)
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