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Merge request approvals

doc/user/project/merge_requests/approvals/_index.md

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  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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To set up a review process for changes in your project, configure merge request approvals. They help to ensure that changes are reviewed before they're merged into your project. You can configure approvals to be optional or required, depending on your project's needs and GitLab tier.

Configure approval rules

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Developer, Maintainer, or Owner role for the project.

To configure approval rules:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > Merge requests.
  3. Go to the Merge request approvals section.
  4. Set up your desired rules.

You can also configure:

For more information on configuring rules, see approval rules.

Required approvals

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  • Tier: Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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Required approvals enforce code reviews by specified users. Without these approvals, merging is not possible.

Use cases include:

  • Enforce review of all code that gets merged into a repository.
  • Specify reviewers and a minimum number of approvals.
  • Specify categories of reviewers, such as backend, frontend, quality assurance, database, or documentation.
  • Use the CODEOWNERS file to determine reviewers.
  • Require approval for declining test coverage.
  • GitLab Ultimate: Require security team approval for potential vulnerabilities.

View approval status

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  • More granular approver display generally available in GitLab 17.10. Feature flag mr_approvers_filter_hidden_users removed.

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To view the approval status of a merge request, check the merge request itself, or the list of merge requests for your project or group.

For a single merge request

Eligible approvers can view the approval status on a single merge request.

To view the approval status:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.

  2. In the left sidebar, select Code > Merge requests and find your merge request.

  3. To view the merge request, select its title.

  4. Go to the merge request widget to see the approval status. In this example, you can approve the merge request:

The widget displays one of these statuses:

  • Approve: The merge request needs more approvals.
  • Approve additionally: The merge request has the required approvals.
  • Revoke approval: You have already approved the merge request.

To check if your approval satisfies Code Owner requirements, select Expand eligible approvers ({{< icon name="chevron-lg-down" >}}).

Approver visibility depends on your project membership, and group privacy:

  • Project members see all approvers.
  • Project non-members see:
    • All approvers, if the approvers are all from public groups.
    • No information about approvers, if any of the approvers are from private groups.

In the list of merge requests

The list of merge requests for your project or group shows the approval status for each merge request:

ExampleDescription
Required approvals are missing. ({{< icon name="approval" >}})
Approvals are satisfied. ({{< icon name="check" >}})
Approvals are satisfied, and you are one of the approvers. ({{< icon name="approval-solid" >}})

Individual reviewer status

To see the review and approval status for each reviewer:

  1. Open the merge request.
  2. Check the right sidebar.

Each reviewer's status is shown next to their name.

  • {{< icon name="dash-circle" >}} Awaiting review

  • {{< icon name="status_running" >}} Review in progress

  • {{< icon name="check-circle" >}} Approved

  • {{< icon name="comment-lines" >}} Reviewer commented

  • {{< icon name="status_warning" >}} Reviewer requested changes

To re-request a review, select the Re-request a review icon ({{< icon name="redo" >}}) next to the user.

Approve a merge request

Eligible approvers can approve merge requests in two ways:

Approved merge requests display a green check mark ({{< icon name="check-circle-filled" >}}) next to the user's name in the reviewer list. After a merge request receives the required approvals, it is ready to merge, unless it's blocked due to:

Prevent merge request creator approval

To prevent merge request creators from approving their own work, enable the Prevent approval by merge request creator setting.

Approval rule changes

If you enable approval rule overrides, changes to default approval rules don't affect existing merge requests, except for target branch changes.

Invalid rules

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  • Generally available in GitLab 16.2. Feature flag invalid_scan_result_policy_prevents_merge removed.

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GitLab marks approval rules as Auto approved when they're impossible to satisfy, such as when:

  • The only eligible approver is the merge request author.
  • No eligible approvers are assigned to the rule.
  • The required approvals exceed the number of eligible approvers.

These rules are automatically approved to unblock merge requests, unless you created rules through a merge request approval policy.

Invalid policy-created rules:

  • Display as Action required.
  • Are not automatically approved.
  • Block affected merge requests.