What is the purpose of 'required status checks' in branch protection rules?
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Short Explanation and Infographic
Required status checks are your quality gates before merging. Define which CI jobs must pass — unit tests, linting, security scans — and GitHub won't allow merging the PR until all those checks show green.
Full explanation below image
Full Explanation
Required status checks are a branch protection feature that mandates specific CI/CD checks, tests, or external services must report success before a pull request can be merged into a protected branch. Configuration: (1) Enable 'Require status checks to pass before merging' in branch protection rules. (2) Select specific check names that must pass (these are checks reported by GitHub Actions workflows or external services via the Checks API). (3) Optionally require branches to be up to date with the base branch before merging. When a required check fails or hasn't run yet, the merge button is disabled with a 'Some checks were not successful' message. This ensures all code merged to protected branches (like main or production) has passed defined quality and security gates.