Merge request title validation

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

Introduced in GitLab 17.11 with a flag named merge_request_title_regex. Disabled by default.
Enabled on GitLab.com and GitLab Self-Managed in GitLab 18.10.
Generally available in GitLab 18.10. Feature flag merge_request_title_regex removed.

You can enforce a naming convention on merge request titles by matching them against a RE2 regular expression pattern. When you configure a title pattern for a project, merge requests with titles that do not match the pattern are blocked from merging.

Use title validation to:

Require Jira or issue tracker ticket references in titles.
Enforce conventional commit formatting.
Standardize title prefixes for release management or governance workflows.

Configure merge request title validation

Configure a regex pattern that all merge request titles in the project must match before they can be merged.

Prerequisites:

The Maintainer or Owner role for the project.

To configure title validation:

In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
Select Settings > Merge requests.
In the Title pattern text box, enter a regex pattern.
In the Title example text box, enter a description of the expected format. Include a valid example so merge request authors know what to use.
Select Save changes.

When you set a Title pattern, the Title example is also required. The Title example is visible to users when their merge request title does not match the pattern.

To remove title validation, clear both the Title pattern and Title example text boxes, then select Save changes.

To configure title validation with the API, you can also use the projects API.

Regex syntax

Title validation uses RE2 syntax, not PCRE. RE2 does not support backreferences or lookahead/lookbehind assertions.

The pattern and description fields each have a maximum length of 255 characters.

Example patterns

The following are regex pattern examples:

Jira ticket reference (example valid title: PROJ-123 Fix login bug):
plaintext
```
^[A-Z]+-\d+ .+
```
Conventional commits (example valid title: feat(auth): add SSO support):
plaintext
```
^(feat|fix|docs|chore|refactor|test|style)(\(.+\))?: .+
```
Custom prefix (example valid title: BUGFIX: resolve timeout error):
plaintext
```
^(FEATURE|BUGFIX|HOTFIX): .+
```
Bracketed category (example valid title: [Feature] Add dark mode):
plaintext
```
^\[.+\] .+
```

Validation enforcement

When a title validation pattern is configured:

Merge requests with titles that do not match the pattern cannot be merged.
The title check appears as a merge check alongside other checks like approvals, pipeline status, and thread resolution.
If auto-merge is enabled, the merge request waits for the title to match the pattern before merging.
Validation applies to the current title at merge time. Authors can update the title at any point before merging.

Troubleshooting

Merge request cannot be merged due to title validation

If a merge request is blocked by title validation:

Check the merge checks section of the merge request for the title validation failure.
Update the merge request title to match the pattern configured in Settings > Merge requests > Title pattern.
Use the Title example shown in the error message as a reference for the expected format.

Draft merge requests

Title validation applies to the full title string, including any Draft: prefix. If your regex pattern does not account for the Draft: prefix, draft merge requests might fail validation. Consider using a pattern like ^(Draft: )?YOUR_PATTERN to allow both draft and non-draft titles.

Regex pattern does not match as expected

Title validation uses RE2 syntax, which differs from PCRE syntax used by many online regex testers. To verify your pattern:

Use an RE2-compatible regex tester.
Check that you are not using unsupported features like backreferences or lookahead assertions.
Verify that special characters are escaped correctly.