AIBRIEF
Stacked PRs split a large change into an ordered chain of small, dependent pull requests. The July 30 preview runs through the gh stack GitHub CLI extension, not the web UI.
GitHub moved stacked pull requests into public preview on July 30, 2026, a workflow that splits one large change into an ordered chain of small, dependent pull requests so reviewers can sign off layer by layer instead of staring at a single oversized diff.
The feature does not arrive as a web-UI toggle. Teams adopt it by installing the gh stack extension for the GitHub CLI (gh extension install github/gh-stack), the only path GitHub lists for the public preview (GitHub changelog).
The merge choice is the practical payoff. Once a stack is in place, a team can merge the whole stack, a single layer, or any subset in one go, rather than rebasing a single oversized PR or holding one big PR hostage to the rest of the change (GitHub engineering).
GitHub first introduced stacked PRs in April, presenting the workflow in part as a way to handle rising volumes of AI-generated code that arrive as one giant PR (InfoQ). That pitch is GitHub's, not a neutral market fact. The July 30 milestone is a workflow tool with a CLI install step, not a stated answer to any category of code (InfoWorld, DevOps.com).