Title Enhancement

The Problem

We’ve all seen (and written) these PR titles:

• “fixes”
• “updates”
• “WIP”
• “hotfix”
• “Feat/auth-integration” (branch name as title)

Vague titles force reviewers to read the entire diff just to understand what’s happening. That’s 5-10 minutes of context-building before actual review can begin.

The Solution

lazyPR uses a hybrid pattern + AI approach to analyze and improve vague titles automatically.

Example transformation:

❌ Before: “fixes”

✅ After: “Fix authentication token validation in auth service”

The improved title tells reviewers exactly what to expect before they open a single file.

How It Works

lazyPR uses a cost-optimized hybrid approach:

PR Title
    ↓
[Pattern Check] → Obviously vague? (score >= 60) → Rename immediately (no AI)
    ↓
[Branch Name Check] → Looks like branch name? → AI evaluates
    ↓
[Threshold Check] → Score >= threshold? → Rename immediately (no AI)
    ↓
✓ Keep title

Cost Optimization

~80% of PRs require no AI call. When AI is needed, it uses ~10x fewer tokens than full summary generation.

Branch Name Detection

When GitHub creates a PR from a branch via the web interface, it often uses the branch name as the title:

These patterns trigger AI evaluation (not auto-rename) to intelligently decide if they’re descriptive enough.

Branch Patterns Detected

• Conventional branches: feat/*, fix/*, chore/*, docs/*, refactor/*, test/*, etc.
• Kebab-case: Titles with hyphens but no spaces (e.g., auth-integration)
• Underscore-style: Titles with underscores but no spaces (e.g., auth_integration)

The AI uses minimal context (max 5 files) to suggest a proper title if the branch name isn’t descriptive.

Usage

Enable title enhancement in your workflow:

- uses: elvis-ndubuisi/lazypr@v1
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    api_key: ${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}
    auto_update_title: true

Configuration

Threshold Guide

Example with custom threshold:

- uses: elvis-ndubuisi/lazypr@v1
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    api_key: ${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}
    auto_update_title: true
    vagueness_threshold: 50  # Less aggressive

Vague Patterns Detected

lazyPR catches these common lazy dev patterns:

Action verbs without context:

• fix, fixes, fixed, fixing
• update, updates, updated, updating
• change, changes, changed, changing
• add, adds, added, adding
• remove, removes, removed, removing

Rush indicators:

• wip, tmp, temp, draft
• hotfix, bugfix, quick, asap, urgent
• hack, fixme, todo

Generic nouns:

• code, file, bug, issue, problem
• stuff, things, main, test

Output

When enabled, PR titles are updated with descriptive alternatives:

Output: The enhanced_title output contains the updated title (empty if no change needed).

Key Benefits

• Faster reviews - Reviewers know what to expect immediately
• Better communication - Clear titles improve team coordination
• Historical clarity - Git history becomes self-documenting
• Zero friction - Works automatically without manual intervention

When Titles Get Enhanced

lazyPR scores titles based on:

• Title length (very short = higher score)
• Generic action verbs without context
• Rush/temporary indicators
• Missing ticket references
• Generic nouns without specifics

Note: Already descriptive titles are left unchanged.

_Write once, communicate clearly. See user guide for other quality features.