Upstream Patches

SkillCloud & infra

Create, amend, remove, and rebase patches for Terraform provider submodules using `./scripts/upstream.sh`. Use when `upgrade-provider` or manual patch work needs owning-patch lookup, patch conflict fixes, patch/hunk removal, or upstream rebase.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Upstream Patches skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by pulumi/agent-skills in package-maintenance/skills/upstream-patches/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

upstream/ is a git submodule pointing to the upstream Terraform provider. patches/ contains patch files applied on top of it. Use ./scripts/upstream.sh to manage patch state.

Default Behavior

  • If fixing a regression introduced by an existing patch, amend the owning patch commit.
  • Do not create a new patch unless the user explicitly asks.

Commands Reference

CommandDescription
./scripts/upstream.sh initInitialize upstream and apply patches to working directory
./scripts/upstream.sh init -fDestructively discard checkout/rebase state and re-initialize upstream
./scripts/upstream.sh checkoutCreate branch with patches as commits for editing
./scripts/upstream.sh rebase -iInteractively edit patch commits
./scripts/upstream.sh rebase -o <commit>Rebase patches onto a new upstream commit
./scripts/upstream.sh check_inWrite commits back to patches and exit checkout mode

Guardrails

  • Never commit directly to upstream/ without checkout/check_in.
  • Direct edits under upstream/ outside checkout are ephemeral during upgrade-provider; the tool resets submodule state.
  • Do not hand-edit patches/*.patch unless intentionally doing raw patch surgery.
  • Prefer non-interactive rewrite flow over interactive rebase for agents.

Find Owning Patch First

Before editing patch content, identify the owning patch/commit.

./scripts/upstream.sh checkout

# Find candidate patch files by touched file path or unique hunk text
rg -n "path/to/file|unique_symbol" patches/*.patch

# Optional: inspect candidate patch header/hunks
sed -n '1,120p' patches/00NN-Example.patch

# Map patch file to commit in upstream checkout branch
patch=patches/00NN-Example.patch
subject=$(sed -n 's/^Subject: \[PATCH\] //p' "$patch" | head -n1)
cd upstream
git log --oneline pulumi/patch-checkout --grep "$subject"

# If needed, disambiguate by touched path
git log --oneline pulumi/patch-checkout -- path/to/file
cd ..

If rg is unavailable, use grep -En for the patch search. Set target_sha to the owning commit and edit that commit, not HEAD.

Amend Existing Patch (Preferred, Non-Interactive)

./scripts/upstream.sh checkout
cd upstream

target_sha=<owning-commit-sha>
base_sha=$(git rev-parse "${target_sha}^")
tmp_branch="rewrite-${target_sha:0:8}"

# Rebuild history from parent of target commit
git checkout -b "$tmp_branch" "$base_sha"
git cherry-pick "$target_sha"

# Apply fix and amend target commit
# ...edit files...
git add <files>
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Replay remaining commits
git cherry-pick "${target_sha}..pulumi/patch-checkout"

# If cherry-pick conflicts occur:
#   resolve files
#   git add <resolved files>
#   git cherry-pick --continue

# Move checkout branch to rewritten history
git branch -f pulumi/patch-checkout HEAD
git checkout pulumi/patch-checkout
git branch -D "$tmp_branch"
cd ..

Interactive fallback:

./scripts/upstream.sh checkout
./scripts/upstream.sh rebase -i
# mark target commit as edit, amend, then continue

Remove Entire Patch

Use when a patch should be deleted completely.

rm patches/00NN-Description.patch
./scripts/upstream.sh checkout
./scripts/upstream.sh check_in

Remove Part of a Patch

Use when only selected hunks/files should be removed from an existing patch.

  1. Find owning patch/commit (target_sha) and use the amend workflow above.
  2. Revert only unwanted changes from the target commit, then amend.

Example during amend step:

cd upstream
# Restore specific docs-only files from parent of amended commit
git checkout HEAD^ -- path/to/docs-only-file path/to/another-doc-file
git add path/to/docs-only-file path/to/another-doc-file
git commit --amend --no-edit
cd ..

Create New Patch (Only If Requested)

./scripts/upstream.sh checkout
cd upstream
# ...make changes...
git add <files>
git commit -m "Describe new patch"
cd ..
./scripts/upstream.sh check_in

Rebasing Patches to a New Upstream Version

./scripts/upstream.sh checkout

# Rebase onto the new upstream commit
./scripts/upstream.sh rebase -o <new_commit_sha>
# Resolve any conflicts that arise

# Write updated patch files
./scripts/upstream.sh check_in

Verification Checklist

Before check_in:

  • Confirm expected patch count change (0 by default; -1 for full patch removal).
  • Confirm whether target patch should remain present (default yes) or be removed (explicit deletion case).
  • Confirm you are editing the owning commit, not adding a new commit by accident.

After check_in:

  • Verify patch count matches expectation.
  • Verify target patch number/purpose is still present when expected.
  • Verify no unexpected new 00NN-*.patch was introduced.

Interrupted Checkout or Rebase

Preserve work by default. Inspect git -C upstream status, complete the active git am/rebase, verify that every patch was applied, and run ./scripts/upstream.sh check_in before rerunning automation. An interrupted checkout invokes git am separately for each patch, so later patch files may not have been reached.

Use ./scripts/upstream.sh init -f only when intentionally discarding all interrupted work. It can remove conflict resolution, patch commits, operation metadata, and untracked files; it is not routine recovery for a stuck checkout.

Signals

GitHub stars
68
Forks
6
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
upstream-patches
Source
github.com/pulumi/agent-skills