Skip to content

Allow merge for link updates in docs MRs

Why is this change being made?

Thanks to many protections in our CI/CD pipelines, it should be safe to allow technical writers with maintainer permissions to merge link fixes in the codebase.

Often we adjust a file name or header title, causing a link to the relevant page or anchor to break. We always fix this in the code as well, but the technical writing team is expected to find an engineer to essentially "rubber stamp" the merge request and actually merge it. This process is inefficient and pushes review work to engineers that should not be required.

In cases where the only code change is a link fix, the docs change matches the code change, and the pipeline is green, Technical Writers should be able to handle the full approval and merge process on their own.

This MR demonstrates how a small docs change can cause a link to break, but that it's easily handled within the technical writing team due to the tooling we now have: Draft: Update section title for clarity (gitlab-org/gitlab!171664 - closed)

Author and Reviewer Checklist

Please verify the check list and ensure to tick them off before the MR is merged.

  • Provided a concise title for this Merge Request (MR)
  • Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say why, not just what
    • Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added, and the content is SAFE
  • Assign reviewers for this MR to the correct Directly Responsible Individual/s (DRI)
    • If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the Maintained by section on the page being edited
    • If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies
    • The when to get approval handbook section explains the workflow in more detail
  • For transparency, share this MR with the audience that will be impacted.
    • Team: For changes that affect your direct team, share in your group Slack channel
    • Department: If the update affects your department, share the MR in your department Slack channel
    • Division: If the update affects your division, share the MR in your division Slack channel
    • Company: If the update affects all (or the majority of) GitLab team members, post an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR

Commits

  • Allow merge for link updates in docs MRs

Edited by Marcel Amirault

Merge request reports

Loading