Ferndesk
Audits and automation

Automatic PR drafts

Automatic PR drafts keep your documentation in sync with your product. When a merged pull request changes customer-facing behavior, Fern detects it and drafts a docs update automatically.

This feature connects your GitHub integration to Fern, so documentation updates happen without manual monitoring. You still review and approve every draft before it goes live.

How it works

When you enable automatic PR drafts, Fern monitors merged pull requests in your connected GitHub repository. If a merge changes something your customers need to know about, Fern creates a draft article or update.

The draft appears in your Fern page as a thread with a pull request icon. You review it, make edits if needed, and publish when ready. Fern never auto-publishes.

Prerequisites

  • GitHub integration connected - Fern needs access to your repository to monitor pull requests. If you haven't connected GitHub yet, set up the integration first.

Enable automatic PR drafts

1

Go to Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar in your Ferndesk dashboard.

2

Open Automations

Click Automations in the settings sidebar. This page shows both automatic PR drafts and scheduled audit settings.

3

Enable the toggle

Toggle Automatic PR drafts to on. The setting saves immediately and you'll see a confirmation toast.

Once enabled, Fern begins monitoring merged pull requests for customer-facing changes.

What triggers a draft

Fern drafts an update when:

  • A pull request merges in your connected GitHub repository

  • The merge includes changes to customer-facing behavior (UI flows, API endpoints, feature behavior, error messages, or configuration options)

Fern analyzes the diff to determine whether documentation needs updating. If the change is internal or doesn't affect customers, Fern marks the thread as "No documentation changes needed" and won't create a draft.

You can see runs where Fern didn't create drafts by filtering for Automations on the Fern page.

Review your drafts

When Fern creates a draft, it appears in your Fern page as a thread with a pull request icon. The thread shows:

  • The PR title and metadata

  • A summary of what changed

  • The draft status (working, ready to review, or error)

Click the thread to open the detail panel. When the draft is ready, click Review & edit changes to see what Fern wrote. Edit the draft directly, request revisions by messaging Fern in the thread, or publish when satisfied.

You can filter the Fern thread list by selecting Has drafts to see only threads with draft updates ready for review.

You control publication

Fern drafts updates but never publishes them automatically. Every draft requires your review and approval before it appears in your help center. This gives you full control over what goes live while removing the manual work of monitoring pull requests.

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