A pull request (PR) is a formal proposal to add a set of code changes into the main project. Instead of a developer editing the shared codebase directly, they package their work and ask the team to review it first. Only after someone approves does the change get merged in. It is the checkpoint between ‘I wrote some code’ and ‘this is now part of the product’.
Think of it like submitting an article to an editor before it gets published. You do not put your draft straight on the front page. You hand it to an editor who reads it, suggests fixes, and signs off once it is solid. A pull request is that editorial step for code: teammates read the change, run it through automated checks, leave comments, and approve it when it is ready. This is the natural home for code review, and it relies on version control to track exactly what was changed.
The benefit is more than catching bugs. A pull request creates a clear history of every change and why it was made, and it spreads knowledge so no single person is the only one who understands a part of the system.
Size is the quiet factor here. A small PR of fifty lines gets read carefully and merged the same day. A giant one of two thousand lines gets a tired “looks good to me” because nobody can hold it all in their head, and that is exactly where bugs slip through. So good teams keep each commit and each request small and focused on one thing, which makes the review meaningful instead of a rubber stamp.
At TopDevs every change to your software goes through a pull request and a review, so bugs get caught before they reach you and the whole team understands the codebase.
