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Merge when pipeline succeeds

When reviewing a merge request that looks ready to merge but still has one or more CI jobs running, you can set it to be merged automatically when the jobs pipeline succeeds. This way, you don't have to wait for the jobs to finish and remember to merge the request manually.

Enable

How it works

When you hit the "Merge When Pipeline Succeeds" button, the status of the merge request will be updated to represent the impending merge. If you cannot wait for the pipeline to succeed and want to merge immediately, this option is available in the dropdown menu on the right of the main button.

Both team developers and the author of the merge request have the option to cancel the automatic merge if they find a reason why it shouldn't be merged after all.

Status

When the pipeline succeeds, the merge request will automatically be merged. When the pipeline fails, the author gets a chance to retry any failed jobs, or to push new commits to fix the failure.

When the jobs are retried and succeed on the second try, the merge request will automatically be merged after all. When the merge request is updated with new commits, the automatic merge is automatically canceled to allow the new changes to be reviewed.

Only allow merge requests to be merged if the pipeline succeeds

You can prevent merge requests from being merged if their pipeline did not succeed or if there are threads to be resolved. This works for both:

As a result, disabling GitLab CI/CD pipelines will not disable this feature, as it will still be possible to use pipelines from external CI providers with this feature. To enable it, you must:

  1. Navigate to your project's Settings > General page.
  2. Expand the Merge requests section.
  3. In the Merge checks subsection, select the Pipelines must succeed checkbox.
  4. Press Save for the changes to take effect.

NOTE: Note: This setting also prevents merge requests from being merged if there is no pipeline.

Pipelines must succeed settings

From now on, every time the pipeline fails you will not be able to merge the merge request from the UI, until you make all relevant jobs pass.

Only allow merge if pipeline succeeds message

Skipped pipelines

Introduced in GitLab 13.1.

When the Pipelines must succeed checkbox is checked, skipped pipelines prevent merge requests from being merged. To change this behavior:

  1. Navigate to your project's Settings > General page.
  2. Expand the Merge requests section.
  3. In the Merge checks subsection, ensure Pipelines must succeed is checked.
  4. In the Merge checks subsection, select the Skipped pipelines are considered successful checkbox.
  5. Press Save for the changes to take effect.

Limitations

When this setting is enabled, a merge request is prevented from being merged if there is no pipeline. This may conflict with some use cases where only/except rules are used and they don't generate any pipelines.

Users that expect to be able to merge a merge request in this scenario should ensure that there is always a pipeline and that it's successful.

For example, to that on merge requests there is always a passing job even though only/except rules may not generate any other jobs:

enable_merge:
  only: [merge_requests]
  script:
    - echo true

Use it from the command line

You can use Push Options to trigger this feature when pushing.