Merge request approvals (PREMIUM SELF)

Introduced in GitLab 12.8.

Merge request approval rules prevent users from overriding certain settings on the project level. When enabled at the instance level, these settings cascade and can no longer be changed:

• In projects.
• In groups. Cascading to groups was enabled by default in GitLab 14.5.

To enable merge request approval settings for an instance:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Push Rules.
3. Expand Merge request approvals.
4. Choose the required options.
5. Select Save changes.

Available rules

Merge request approval settings that can be set at an instance level are:

• Prevent approval by author. Prevents project maintainers from allowing request authors to merge their own merge requests.
• Prevent approvals by users who add commits. Prevents project maintainers from allowing users to approve merge requests if they have submitted any commits to the source branch.
• Prevent editing approval rules in projects and merge requests. Prevents users from modifying the approvers list in project settings or in individual merge requests.

See also the following, which are affected by instance-level rules:

• Project merge request approval rules.
• Group merge request approval settings available in GitLab 13.9 and later.