How to get commit msg+body into the editor for interactively creating a PR #9203

Use both flags together:

gh pr create --fill-verbose --editor

--fill-verbose alone fills title and body from commit subjects and bodies, then creates the PR right away. That early submit only runs when editor mode is off. With --editor, you still get the verbose fill, then the editor opens so you can edit before create.

To avoid typing --editor each time:

gh config set prefer_editor_prompt enabled
gh pr create --fill-verbose

Plain gh pr create only preloads commit subjects. The create path includes commit bodies only when --fill-verbose is set. There is no separate "fill verbose, then prompt" flag.

Checked current cli/cli trunk in pkg/cmd/pr/create/create.go (initDefaultTitleBody with addBody, and the !opts.EditorMode && opts.FillVerbose early-submit guard).

There is not a built-in flag today that means “open the editor and include full commit bodies” — --fill-verbose skips the editor by design.

Practical workaround (interactive + bodies)

Create the PR body in a temp file, then pass it to gh pr create:

# Write verbose fill to a file without creating the PR yet
gh pr create --fill-verbose --draft --title "WIP" 

# If --draft still publishes too early for you, build the body manually:
git log --format=%B main..HEAD > /tmp/pr-body.txt
${EDITOR:-vi} /tmp/pr-body.txt
gh pr create --body-file /tmp/pr-body.txt

On Windows PowerShell:

git log --format=%B origin/main..HEAD | Out-File -Encoding utf8 pr-body.txt
notepad pr-body.txt
gh pr create --body-file pr-body.txt

Editor-first flow (what I use daily)

gh pr create

Then in the editor:

• Keep the template at the top
• Paste git log --format=%B main..HEAD output below the summary section

One-liner to append commit messages + bodies into your clipboard before opening the editor:

git log --format=%B main..HEAD

Feature request angle

A nice CLI enhancement would be something like:

gh pr create --fill-verbose --editor

…which would populate the template + verbose commits, then open $EDITOR before submit. Worth opening a feature request on cli/cli if one does not already exist.

For now, --body-file + git log --format=%B is the most reliable cross-platform approach.