Add ability to archive branches

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Problem to solve

We would like to be able to archive branches, so that they don't show up on the GitLab Branches page by default.

Intended users

  • Delaney (Development Team Lead)
  • Sasha (Software Developer)

Further details

We would like branches to be marked as being archived. When this is done, the branch will not show up on the Branches page Overview, Active, Stale or All tabs. There should be a new Archive tab on the Branches page to show archived branches.

Proposal

  • There will be a archive option for each branch, beside the delete option for the branch.
  • A user selecting that will get prompted to be sure they want to archive the branch.
  • Archiving the branch will result in the branch only showing on a new Archived tab on the branches page.
  • Archiving the branch will create a new tag with the format archive/{original-branch-name} then delete the branch
    • #32118 (comment 1393339838)
    • #32118 (comment 1727180387)
  • To restore a branch, we will introduce the ability to create a branch from a tag.
    • This functionality already exist through the "New branch" flow. The introduction is to have this ability as a modal from the tag item.

Design concepts

  • Archive flow
  • Create branch from tag flow

Permissions and Security

Only users who have permission to delete a branch can archive the branch.

Edited Aug 28, 2025 by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖
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