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.

For information on how approvals relate to assignees and reviewers, see assignees and reviewers .

• GitLab Free allows all users with at least the Developer role to approve merge requests. These approvals are optional and don’t prevent merging without approval.

• GitLab Premium and GitLab Ultimate provide you with more flexibility to:

  • Create required rules about the number and type of required approvals.

  • Create a list of code owners for specific files.

  • Configure approvals for the entire instance .

  • Configure group merge request approval settings .

    Support for group merge request approval settings is tracked in epic 4367 .

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:

• More merge request approval settings for more control of the level of oversight and security your project needs.
• Merge request approval rules with the