GitLab MR

Create an MR and drive it to a truly mergeable state (all CI green + no merge conflicts). Core principle: write documentation first, then submit the MR, verify with APIs, and loop through fixes until the MR is mergeable.

Prerequisite: The current repository's remote points to gitlab.example.com, and glab CLI is installed.

Rules

1. Never use the skip-doc-check label — every MR must have a real documentation link
2. User Story must be relevant to the MR changes — CI checks relevance (check:mr-us-relevance); irrelevant links will be rejected
3. Blob links must point to pushed files — the branch name and file path in the link must exist on the remote
4. Verify with APIs, don't guess — confirm results at every step using glab commands

Execution Flow

Step 1: Check Prerequisites

# Confirm remote points to gitlab.example.com
git remote get-url origin

# Confirm current branch is not main/master
git branch --show-current

# Confirm no uncommitted changes
git status

If there are uncommitted changes, commit or stash them first.

Step 2: Ensure Documentation Exists

The MR description must contain documentation links. CI performs two checks:

• check:mr-documentation: whether the link format is valid
• check:mr-us-relevance: whether the linked document is relevant to the MR changes

Prefer GitLab blob links pointing to documentation files within the repository.

2a: Find or Create Documentation

Check whether related documentation already exists in the repository:

# Look for potentially related documents
ls docs/plans/ docs/04-user-stories/ 2>/dev/null

If no related documentation exists, create one for this MR:

• Place the document at docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<feature-name>.md (design doc) or docs/04-user-stories/<feature-name>.md (User Story)
• The document content must cover the core changes in this MR (otherwise the relevance check will fail)
• The document does not need to be long, but must describe: what was done and why

2b: Commit and Push Documentation

git add docs/plans/<doc-file>.md
git commit -m "docs: add <feature> design document"

Step 3: Push the Branch

git push -u origin <branch-name>

Step 4: Create or Update MR

Check if an MR already exists

glab mr list --source-branch <branch-name>

If no MR exists, create one

Analyze all commits in git log main..HEAD to write the MR title and description.

Blob link format: https://gitlab.example.com/<group>/<project>/-/blob/<branch>/<filepath>

• <group>/<project> parsed from git remote get-url origin
• <branch> is the current branch name
• <filepath> is the in-repo path to the document

glab mr create \
  --title "<concise title, <70 chars>" \
  --description "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Change Summary
<Summary based on all commits, 2-3 bullet points>

## Related Documentation
- User Story (required): https://gitlab.example.com/<group>/<project>/-/blob/<branch>/docs/plans/<doc>.md
- Tech Design: <fill if available, otherwise remove this line>

## Change Type
- [x] <corresponding type>
EOF
)" \
  --push

If an MR exists but the description lacks documentation links

glab mr update <mr-id> --description "$(cat <<'EOF'
<complete description with blob links>
EOF
)"

Step 5: Wait and Check Pipeline

After creating/updating the MR, wait for the pipeline to trigger and complete.

# Wait for pipeline to start (usually takes a few seconds after push)
sleep 5

# Check pipeline status
glab ci status

If the pipeline is still running, wait and check again:

sleep 20
glab ci status

Step 6: Handle Failed Jobs

If the pipeline fails, check which specific job failed:

# Get status of all jobs in the pipeline
glab api "projects/:id/merge_requests/<mr-iid>/pipelines" | python3 -c "
import sys,json
pipelines = json.load(sys.stdin)
if pipelines:
    pid = pipelines[0]['id']
    print(f'Latest pipeline: {pid}, status: {pipelines[0][\"status\"]}')
"

# View failed job logs
glab api "projects/:id/pipelines/<pipeline-id>/jobs" | python3 -c "
import sys,json
for j in json.load(sys.stdin):
    if j['status'] == 'failed':
        print(f'FAILED: {j[\"name\"]} (id={j[\"id\"]})')
"

# Get the tail of a failed job's log
glab api "projects/:id/jobs/<job-id>/trace" 2>&1 | tail -30

Common Failures and Fixes

After fixing:

• If the issue was in the MR description (check:mr-documentation): update the description then retry the job
• If the issue was in code/docs: commit the fix, push, and a new pipeline will trigger automatically

# Retry a failed job
glab ci retry <job-id>

# Or push a new commit to trigger a new pipeline
git push

Step 7: Confirm MR Is Mergeable

After CI passes, also confirm the MR has no merge conflicts. CI passing does not mean mergeable.

glab ci status        # Confirm CI is all green
glab mr view <branch> # Confirm no merge conflict

If there are merge conflicts, resolve them (rebase onto main), force push, and wait for the new CI to pass.

Loop through Steps 5-7 until both conditions are met: CI all green + no conflicts.

Once the MR is truly mergeable, report the MR URL to the user.

Examples

Full Workflow Example

# Create MR
glab mr create --title "feat: add retry logic" --description "..." --push

# Loop until CI passes
glab ci status  # -> if failed, check logs, fix -> check again

# After CI passes, check merge status
glab mr view feat/add-retry-logic
# -> conflicts? rebase to resolve -> force push -> wait for new CI

# Final confirmation: CI all green + no conflicts -> report MR URL

Bad/Good Examples

Bad — Declaring done just because CI passed

glab ci status  # -> success
# -> "MR !42 is created, CI passed!"  <- but there's actually a merge conflict, cannot merge

Bad — Posting an irrelevant link

glab mr create --description "User Story: .../README.md"  # unrelated to changes, CI will reject

Good — Driving to a truly mergeable state

# Create MR -> poll CI and fix failures -> check merge status -> resolve conflicts -> confirm mergeable

Notes

• Branch names containing / (e.g., feat/my-branch) are correctly handled by GitLab in blob links
• glab ci status shows the status of all jobs in the latest pipeline
• If the pipeline doesn't trigger for a long time, you can manually run: glab ci run
• After updating the MR description, you need to retry the failed job or wait for a new pipeline

Source: addxai/enterprise-harness-engineering — distributed by TomeVault.