Pull Request Management

Pull requests are a new addition to NIP-34, proposed by DanConwayDev in nostr-protocol/nips#1966. The concept is straightforward: it involves an event that notifies you of changes on a Git server, which can be any Git server. This event contains two key pieces of information, the Git repository URL and the commit tip. You can add this remote to your project, check out the specified commit, and then review or merge/rebase the changes as needed. Additionally, there is a PR-update event that informs you when the previous commit tip is no longer the head of the changes, such as when new changes are added or a rebase occurs.

Why Use the Commit Tip?

Using the commit tip is preferable to relying on a branch name. A branch name simply points to a commit, so checking out a branch is effectively the same as checking out a specific commit. However, if we use the branch name instead of the commit, the changes can be altered by anyone, not just the pull request author. By checking out a specific commit ID, we ensure that the changes are exactly as intended by the pull request author and have not been tampered with by a malicious party.

Does n34 Handle Git Operations?

No, n34 does not perform any Git operations. You can use the n34 pr view command to retrieve the pull request clone URL and the commit tip, allowing you to fetch the changes manually. Similarly, n34 pr new and n34 pr update do not interact with Git directly. They only prompt you for the clone URL and commit tip to construct the event. For more details on the philosophy behind n34, refer to the Philosophy section.

Why use pull requests instead of patches?

Pull requests are useful for large changes. Most relays limit events to 60KB, so if your changes exceed that limit (per event, not in total), consider using pull requests. For GRASP servers, the limit is usually higher. Before using pull requests, check the relays, patches are more decentralized.