Best practice for reviewing multiple open PRs to avoid merge conflicts?

[shishir-21]

When there are multiple open PRs touching related areas of the codebase,
what is the recommended review order or workflow to minimize merge conflicts?

Is it better to:

• Review oldest PRs first
• Temporarily pause newer overlapping PRs
• Ask contributors to rebase after merges

Looking for best practices specific to this repository or similar workflows.

[shishir-21]

A good approach is to start with the oldest PRs first, especially if they touch shared files.

This helps because:

1. Older PRs often unblock newer ones
2. It reduces rebasing effort for contributors
3. Conflicts are easier to resolve incrementally

For overlapping PRs:

• Review and merge foundational changes first
• Ask newer PR authors to rebase after merges
• Keep comments scoped to individual PRs

This keeps the review process predictable and avoids duplicated effort.

[shishir-21]

Thanks, that makes sense.

Happy to help refine this further if you decide to include it in the contribution or development docs.

[gbowne1]

Yea it probably should be and I realize not everyone reads documentation. I tried to make it reader friendly.

[gbowne1]

Also my goal here is a clean browser console / devtools. Zero 0 errors, warnings, alerts, if not very minimal. Its gonna be a challenge to keep it clean but let's pay some extra attention to keeping the browser console clean of bad stuff.

[shishir-21]

Got it — keeping the browser console clean makes sense.

I will keep an eye out for warnings or errors during reviews and flag anything I notice.

[gbowne1]

Yeah @shishir-21 I think that is a great idea.

[Ved178]

You could also simulate a merge locally and check for any conflicts. Maybe that would be a low-risk alternative?

[gbowne1]

Yeah that's a great idea. I usually check out the PR branch and do the rebase etc.

[gbowne1]

Left you a few more to review when you have time @Ved178