Bypassing review

Designated users can be given the ability to bypass PullApprove entirely.

The main use case for this is to speed up the process for merging urgent "break glass" fixes or hotfixes.

When a PR is bypassed in PullApprove, all of the remaining workflow steps are skipped and it immediately receives a successful status in GitHub.

Reviewing bypassed pull requests

When a bypassed PR is merged, it is marked for a follow-up review.

This can be particularly useful in compliance-heavy environments, where it's important to ensure that all PRs are reviewed at some point.

On the pull request details page, you can mark a bypass as reviewed, which will remove it from the queue.

FAQs

How is this different from GitHub's bypass?

When you bypass in PullApprove, you only bypass the PullApprove workflow steps. So if there are other required checks in GitHub (like passing tests), those can still be required for the hotfix to be merged.

What if the PR is merged before PullApprove is successful?

Depending on your GitHub settings and permissions, it's likely that some users have the ability to merge a PR regardless of the required checks. When this happens, whoever merged the PR is noted as the bypasser in PullApprove, and that PR is eligible for a bypass review just like any other. This way you can still track PRs that go unreviewed and ensure that a review happens at some point.