gitlab-org--gitlab-foss/doc/user/admin_area/merge_requests_approvals.md

type
reference, concepts

Instance-level merge request approval rules (PREMIUM ONLY)

Introduced in GitLab Premium 12.8.

Merge request approvals rules prevent users overriding certain settings on a project level. When configured, only administrators can change these settings on a project level if they are enabled at an instance level.

To enable merge request approval rules for an instance:

1. Navigate to {admin} Admin Area > {push-rules} Push Rules and expand Merge requests approvals.
2. Set the required rule.
3. Click Save changes.

GitLab administrators can later override these settings in a project’s settings.

Available rules

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

• Prevent approval of merge requests by merge request author. Prevents project maintainers from allowing request authors to merge their own merge requests.
• Prevent approval of merge requests by merge request committers. Prevents project maintainers from allowing users to approve merge requests if they have submitted any commits to the source branch.
• Prevent users from modifying merge request approvers list. Prevents project maintainers from allowing users to modify the approvers list in project settings or in individual merge requests.