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Stacked pull requests

Yes, Trunk Merge Queue fully supports stacked pull requests. You can use stacked PR workflows with your preferred tooling (GitHub CLI, web interface, or third-party apps).

How it works

Trunk Merge Queue determines PR dependencies by examining each pull request's base branch (the branch it will merge into, shown under the PR title on GitHub).

  • If a PR's base branch is your main branch (e.g., main), it's ready to process immediately

  • If a PR's base branch is another feature branch (indicating it's part of a stack), Merge Queue will wait until that base branch changes to your main branch before processing

Merging stacked PRs

Step 1: Enqueue all PRs in your stack

Each PR in the stack must be enqueued separately. You can:

  • Comment /trunk merge on each PR

  • Check the box in the Trunk comment on each PR

  • Use the CLI: trunk merge <pr-number> for each PR

Why enqueue separately? Each PR is an independent merge operation in the queue. This gives you control over which PRs in your stack should be merged versus which might need more work.

Step 2: Automatic sequential processing

Once enqueued, Trunk handles the rest automatically:

  1. The first PR in the stack (base branch = main) enters the queue, runs tests, and merges

  2. When it merges, GitHub automatically updates the next PR's base branch from the previous feature branch to main

  3. The second PR now has main as its base, so it proceeds through the queue

  4. This continues until all PRs in the stack are merged

Example: For a stack of 5 PRs:

  • PR #1 (base: main) → tests → merges

  • PR #2's base automatically changes from PR #1's branch to main → tests → merges

  • PR #3's base automatically changes from PR #2's branch to main → tests → merges

  • And so on...

Important considerations

Sequential testing

PRs in a stack are tested and merged one at a time in order. The second PR won't begin testing until the first PR has fully merged. This ensures:

  • Each PR is tested against the actual state of your main branch

  • No conflicts arise from dependencies

  • Test results are deterministic and reliable

Tradeoff: This sequential approach means that a stack of 5 PRs will take longer to merge than 5 independent PRs, since they cannot be tested in parallel. However, it provides the safest merge path for dependent changes.

Enqueued PRs with non-main base branches

If you enqueue a PR whose base branch is not your main branch and that base never changes to main, the PR will remain in the queue without processing. This typically happens if:

  • The parent PR in the stack was not enqueued or merged

  • You're testing queue behavior with a non-standard workflow

The PR will begin processing as soon as its base branch updates to your main branch.

Configuration

No special configuration is required. Trunk Merge Queue automatically detects stacked relationships based on the base branch field in GitHub.

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