Auto-merge for PRs to a branch whether it's protected or not, once tests succeed

[jvacek]

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We've got tests that easily run for 20 minutes.

We don't necessarily want to require a review or that all tests must pass in order to merge a PR, this is on a GitHub Enterprise private repo.

I want to have a PR merge if the tests succeed. If the tests don't pass, I don't want it to merge even if we don't require them to pass.

[Anmol-Baranwal]

To achieve your desired workflow, you can set up a GitHub Action that runs your tests whenever a pull request is opened or updated. If the tests pass, the action can automatically approve and merge the pull request.

Here's an example of what the GitHub Action workflow file might look like:

name: Run tests and merge on success

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-merge:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Run tests
        run: ./run-tests.sh
      - name: Merge on success
        if: ${{ success() }}
        uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          commit-message: Automated merge of PR
          delete-branch: true

In this workflow, the on section specifies that the action should be triggered whenever a pull request is opened or updated on the main branch.

The build-and-merge job runs on an Ubuntu environment and consists of three steps:

1. The actions/checkout action checks out the source code for the pull request.

2. The run-tests.sh script is executed to run your tests.

3. If the tests pass (success()), the peter-evans/create-pull-request action is used to approve and merge the pull request. This action requires a GitHub access token, which can be provided via the secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN secret.
   Note that in this workflow, the delete-branch option is set to true, which will delete the branch after the pull request is merged. If you don't want to delete the branch, you can set this option to false.

With this workflow in place, pull requests will be automatically merged if the tests pass, and will not be merged if the tests fail. This allows you to maintain a balance between speed of development and code quality, without compromising on the integrity of your codebase.

[jvacek]

To achieve your desired workflow, you can set up a GitHub Action that runs your tests whenever a pull request is opened or updated. If the tests pass, the action can automatically approve and merge the pull request.

Sorry, I might not have made that clear, I do not want this to be automatic in any way.

I want to use the opt-in Github UI for it "pressing the merge for me" PR per PR. I don't want "valid" PRs to auto-merge. For some PRs, I want to not have to go back to a PR and check if the tests passed. For others, I just want to keep them happy and open.

[Anmol-Baranwal]

You can achieve this by configuring the branch protection rules for your repository in GitHub. Here's how:

1. Go to the repository's settings page.
2. Click on "Branches" in the left sidebar.
3. Choose the branch you want to protect (e.g. "master") and click "Edit".
4. Scroll down to the "Merge restrictions" section and check the box next to "Require status checks to pass before merging".
5. Choose the relevant status checks that need to pass before merging the branch.
6. Scroll down to the "Dismiss stale pull request approvals when new commits are pushed" section and uncheck the box.
7. Click "Save changes".

With this configuration, a PR will only be mergeable if all the selected status checks have passed. However, you can still manually override this restriction by clicking the "Merge pull request" button on the PR and confirming the merge. This allows you to opt-in to merge the PR without having to go back and check if the tests passed.

Note that if you want to keep some PRs open without having to merge them, you can simply leave them unmerged. The branch protection rules only apply to mergeable PRs, so you can safely ignore the rules for PRs you don't want to merge.

[Anmol-Baranwal]

I was traveling, so I wasn't able to reply soon. I hope this can fulfill your requirements.

[jvacek]

Thanks! Do I understand correctly that if I set the requirement on the foo test to succeed, and then i press the auto-merge, it will also wait for a different bar test to succeed? (And not merge if bar fails)

[Anmol-Baranwal]

In your specific example, if you have set the requirement for the foo test to pass before merging, and the pull request also has a bar test that is not required for merging, then the auto-merge feature will still wait for both the foo and bar tests to pass before merging the pull request.

If the bar test fails, the auto-merge feature will not merge the pull request even if the foo test has passed. However, if the bar test is not required for merging, you can choose to ignore the failure and merge the pull request manually using the GitHub UI.

[Anmol-Baranwal]

@jvacek
I just wanted to check in and see if you have any remaining questions or concerns about my answer. If not, would you please mark my response as accepted?

It would be greatly appreciated and it will also help other users who might be looking for a solution to a similar issue.