Merge trains

DETAILS: Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated

• In GitLab 16.0 and later, the Start merge train and Start merge train when pipeline succeeds buttons became Set to auto-merge. Remove from merge train became Cancel auto-merge.
• Support for fast-forward and semi-linear merge methods introduced in GitLab 16.5 with a flag named fast_forward_merge_trains_support. Enabled by default.
• Feature flag fast_forward_merge_trains_support removed in GitLab 16.11.

In projects with frequent merges to the default branch, changes in different merge requests might conflict with each other. Use merge trains to put merge requests in a queue. Each merge request is compared to the other, earlier merge requests, to ensure they all work together.

For more information about:

• How merge trains work, review the merge train workflow.
• Why you might want to use merge trains, read How starting merge trains improve efficiency for DevOps.

Merge train workflow

A merge train starts when there are no merge requests waiting to merge and you select Merge or Set to auto-merge. GitLab starts a merge train pipeline that verifies that the changes can merge into the default branch. This first pipeline is the same as a merged results pipeline, which runs on the changes of the source and target branches combined together. The author of the internal merged result commit is the user that initiated the merge.

To queue a second merge request to merge immediately after the first pipeline completes, select Merge or Set to auto-merge to add it to the train. This second merge train pipeline runs on the changes of both merge requests combined with the target branch. Similarly, if you add a third merge request, that pipeline runs on the changes of all three merge requests merged with the target branch. The pipelines all run in parallel.

Each merge request merges into the target branch only after:

• The merge request's pipeline completes successfully.
• All other merge requests queued before it are merged.

If a merge train pipeline fails, the merge request is not merged. GitLab removes that merge request from the merge train, and starts new pipelines for all the merge requests that were queued after it.

For example:

Three merge requests (A, B, and C) are added to a merge train in order, which creates three merged results pipelines that run in parallel:

1. The first pipeline runs on the changes from A combined with the target branch.
2. The second pipeline runs on the changes from A and B combined with the target branch.
3. The third pipeline runs on the changes from A, B, and C combined with the target branch.

If the pipeline for B fails:

• The first pipeline (A) continues to run.
• B is removed from the train.
• The pipeline for C is cancelled, and a new pipeline starts for the changes from A and C combined with the target branch (without the B changes).

If A then completes successfully, it merges into the target branch, and C continues to run. Any new merge requests added to the train include the A changes now in the target branch, and the C changes from the merge train.

Watch this video for a demonstration on how parallel execution of merge trains can prevent commits from breaking the default branch.

Automatic pipeline cancellation

GitLab CI/CD detects redundant pipelines, and cancels them to conserve resources.

Redundant merge train pipelines happen when:

• The pipeline fails for one of the merge requests in the merge train.
• You skip the merge train and merge immediately.
• You remove a merge request from a merge train.

In these cases, GitLab must create new merge train pipelines for some or all of the merge requests on the train. The old pipelines were comparing against the previous combined changes in the merge train, which are no longer valid, so these old pipelines are cancelled.

Enable merge trains

• disable_merge_trains feature flag removed in GitLab 16.5.

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Maintainer role.
• Your repository must be a GitLab repository, not an external repository.
• Your pipeline must be configured to use merge request pipelines. Otherwise your merge requests may become stuck in an unresolved state or your pipelines might be dropped.
• You must have merged results pipelines enabled.

To enable merge trains:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Settings > Merge requests.
3. In GitLab 16.4 and earlier, in the Merge method section, verify that Merge commit is selected. In GitLab 16.5 and later, you can use any merge method.
4. In the Merge options section, ensure Enable merged results pipelines is enabled and select Enable merge trains.
5. Select Save changes.

Start a merge train

Prerequisites:

• You must have permissions to merge or push to the target branch.

To start a merge train:

1. Visit a merge request.
2. Select:
   • When no pipeline is running, Merge.
   • When a pipeline is running, Set to auto-merge.

The merge request's merge train status displays under the pipeline widget with a message similar to A new merge train has started and this merge request is the first of the queue.

Other merge requests can now be added to the train.

Add a merge request to a merge train

Prerequisites:

• You must have permissions to merge or push to the target branch.

To add a merge request to a merge train:

1. Visit a merge request.
2. Select:
   • When no pipeline is running, Merge.
   • When a pipeline is running, Set to auto-merge.

The merge request's merge train status displays under the pipeline widget with a message similar to Added to the merge train. There are 2 merge requests waiting to be merged.

Each merge train can run a maximum of twenty pipelines in parallel. If you add more than twenty merge requests to the merge train, the extra merge requests are queued, waiting for pipelines to complete. There is no limit to the number of queued merge requests waiting to join the merge train.

Remove a merge request from a merge train

To remove a merge request from a merge train, select Cancel auto-merge. You can add the merge request to a merge train again later.

When you remove a merge request from a merge train:

• All pipelines for merge requests queued after the removed merge request restart.
• Redundant pipelines are cancelled.

Skip the merge train and merge immediately

If you have a high-priority merge request, like a critical patch that must be merged urgently, you can select Merge Immediately.

When you merge a merge request immediately:

• The commits from the merge request are merged, ignoring the status of the merge train.
• The merge train pipelines for all other merge requests on the train are cancelled.
• A new merge train starts and all the merge requests from the original merge train are added to this new merge train, with a new merge train pipeline for each. These new merge train pipelines now contain the commits added by the merge request that was merged immediately.

WARNING: Merging immediately can use a lot of CI/CD resources. Use this option only in critical situations.

NOTE: The merge immediately option may not be available if your project uses the fast-forward merge method and the source branch is behind the target branch. See issue 434070 for more details.

Allow merge trains to be skipped to merge immediately without restarting merge train pipelines

DETAILS: Status: Experiment

• Introduced in GitLab 16.5 with a flag named merge_trains_skip_train. Disabled by default.
• Enabled as an experiment feature in GitLab 16.10.

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is available. To hide the feature, an administrator can disable the feature flag named merge_trains_skip_train. On GitLab.com and GitLab Dedicated, this feature is available.

You can allow merge requests to be merged without completely restarting a running merge train. Use this feature to quickly merge changes that can safely skip the pipeline, for example minor documentation updates.

You cannot skip merge trains for fast-forward or semi-linear merge methods. For more information, see issue 429009.

Skipping merge trains is an experimental feature. It may change or be removed completely in future releases.

WARNING: You can use this feature to quickly merge security or bug fixes, but the changes in the merge request that skipped the train are not verified against any of the other merge requests in the train. If these other merge train pipelines complete successfully and merge, there is a risk that the combined changes are incompatible. The target branch could then require additional work to resolve the new failures.

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Maintainer role.
• You must have Merge trains enabled.

To enable skipping the train without pipeline restarts:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Settings > Merge requests.
3. In the Merge options section, ensure the Enable merged results pipelines and Enable merge trains options are enabled.
4. Select Allow skipping the merge train.
5. Select Save changes.

To merge a merge request by skipping the merge train, use the merge requests merge API endpoint to merge with the attribute skip_merge_train set to true.

The merge request merges, and the existing merge train pipelines are not cancelled or restarted.

Troubleshooting

Merge request dropped from the merge train

If a merge request becomes unmergeable while a merge train pipeline is running, the merge train drops your merge request automatically. For example, this could be caused by:

• Changing the merge request to a draft.
• A merge conflict.
• A new conversation thread that is unresolved, when all threads must be resolved is enabled.

You can find reason the merge request was dropped from the merge train in the system notes. Check the Activity section in the Overview tab for a message similar to: User removed this merge request from the merge train because ...

Cannot use auto-merge

You cannot use auto-merge (formerly Merge when pipeline succeeds) to skip the merge train, when merge trains are enabled. See issue 12267 for more information.

Cannot retry merge train pipeline

When a merge train pipeline fails, the merge request is dropped from the train so the pipeline can't be retried after it fails. Merge train pipelines run on the merged result of the changes in the merge request and changes from other merge requests already on the train. If the merge request is dropped from the train, the merged result is out of date and the pipeline can't be retried.

You can:

• Add the merge request to the train again, which triggers a new pipeline.
• Add the retry keyword to the job if it fails intermittently. If it succeeds after a retry, the merge request is not removed from the merge train.

Unable to add to the merge train

When Pipelines must succeed is enabled, but the latest pipeline failed:

• The Set to auto-merge or Merge options are not available.
• The merge request displays The pipeline for this merge request failed. Please retry the job or push a new commit to fix the failure.

Before you can re-add a merge request to a merge train, you can try to:

• Retry the failed job. If it passes, and no other jobs failed, the pipeline is marked as successful.
• Rerun the whole pipeline. On the Pipelines tab, select Run pipeline.
• Push a new commit that fixes the issue, which also triggers a new pipeline.

See the related issue for more information.