Stacked Diffs

Break large work into a chain of small, dependent PRs. Each PR is one logical unit — easy to review, test, and revert. The stack merges bottom-up into main.

Core Rule

Move to a new stacked branch whenever the current diff reaches a natural boundary. Do not accumulate a large changeset on one branch. Commit, push, open a PR, then branch off and keep going.

A natural boundary is any of:

• A self-contained logical step is complete (new type, new endpoint, new test file)
• The diff is approaching ~200–400 changed lines
• The next change serves a different concern than the current one

When to Stack

Stack when the work has multiple logical steps that build on each other:

• Scaffolding + core logic + edge cases
• Data model + API endpoint + UI integration
• Refactor + feature that depends on the refactor