Security· August 16, 2026 at 07:58 a.m.
Understanding Pull Requests and Source Comments: A Microsoft Engineer's Perspective
Key takeaways
- Pull request descriptions are for convincing approvers, comments are for understanding the code
- Formatting changes should be made in a separate check-in
Microsoft veteran engineer Raymond Chen has clarified the distinction between pull request descriptions and comments embedded in code. The PR description serves as a persuasive argument to convince approvers of a change, while comments provide information about the code itself, remaining useful even after the pull request is completed. Chen also suggested making any formatting changes a separate check-in to avoid overwhelming maintainers.
