Technology Radar
Stacked pull requests break a large change into an ordered chain of small, dependent pull requests (PRs). Rather than targeting the main repository branch, each subsequent PR targets the branch directly below it in the stack. We've seen a surge in interest in this technique recently due to the rapid adoption of AI-assisted coding tools. Teams adopt this approach to reduce review latency and developer idle time. By evaluating small, isolated layers, reviewers face lower cognitive overhead. Tooling has also improved to support this workflow; GitHub recently introduced native support.
Despite better tooling, we've placed this technique in the Caution ring because it’s often a workaround for poor upfront decomposition. Stacking doesn't create decomposition problems; it exposes ones that were already there. The risk isn't the technique itself; it's using it as a substitute for that planning. Habitual, undifferentiated stacking can easily become an excuse to write one enormous change. We maintain that the better habit is to specify, split, size and deliver work as small, independent units.
