Code Owners

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Use the Code Owners feature to define who has expertise for specific parts of your project's codebase. Define the owners of files and directories in a repository to:

Require owners to approve changes. Combine protected branches with Code Owners to require experts to approve merge requests before they merge into a protected branch. For more information, see Code Owners and protected branches.
Identify owners. Code Owner names are displayed on the files and directories they own:

Code Owners and approval rules

Combine Code Owners with merge request approval rules (either optional or required) to build a flexible approval workflow:

Use Code Owners to ensure quality. Define the users who have domain expertise for specific paths in your repository.
Use Approval rules to define areas of expertise that don't correspond to specific file paths in your repository. Approval rules help guide merge request creators to the correct set of reviewers, such as frontend developers or a security team.

For example:

Type	Name	Scope	Comment
Approval rule	UX	All files	A user experience (UX) team member reviews the user experience of all changes made in your project.
Approval rule	Security	All files	A security team member reviews all changes for vulnerabilities.
Code Owner approval rule	Frontend: Code Style	`*.css` files	A frontend engineer reviews CSS file changes for adherence to project style standards.
Code Owner approval rule	Backend: Code Review	`*.rb` files	A backend engineer reviews the logic and code style of Ruby files.

Video introduction: Code Owners.

Code Owners and protected branches

To ensure merge request changes are reviewed and approved by Code Owners, specified in the CODEOWNERS file, the merge request's target branch must be protected and Code Owner approval must be enabled.

The following features are available when you enable Code Owner approvals on protected branches:

Practical example

Your project contains sensitive and important information in a config/ directory. You can:

Assign ownership of the directory. To do this, set up a CODEOWNERS file.
Create a protected branch for your default branch. For example, main.
Enable Required approval from code owners on the protected branch.
Optional. Edit the CODEOWNERS file to add a rule for multiple approvals.

With this configuration, merge requests that change files in the config/directory and target the main branch require approval from the designated Code Owners before merging.

View Code Owners of a file or directory

To view the Code Owners of a file or directory:

On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
Select Code > Repository.
Go to the file or directory you want to see the Code Owners for.
Optional. Select a branch or tag.

GitLab shows the Code Owners at the top of the page.

Set up Code Owners

Prerequisites:

You must have permissions to push to the default branch or to create a merge request.

Create a CODEOWNERS file in your preferred location.
Define some rules in the file following the CODEOWNERS syntax. Some suggestions:
- Configure All eligible approvers approval rule.
- Require Code Owner approval on a protected branch.
Commit your changes, and push them up to GitLab.

`CODEOWNERS` file

The CODEOWNERS file defines who is responsible for code in a GitLab project. Its purpose is to:

Automatically assign reviewers to merge requests based on the files changed.
Enforce approval requirements for protected branches.
Communicate code ownership in a project.

This file determines who should review and approve changes and ensures the right experts are involved in code changes.

Each repository uses a single CODEOWNERS file. GitLab checks these locations in your repository in this order. The first CODEOWNERS file found is used, and all others are ignored:

In the root directory: ./CODEOWNERS.
In the docs directory: ./docs/CODEOWNERS.
In the .gitlab directory: ./.gitlab/CODEOWNERS.

For more information, see CODEOWNERS syntax and Advanced CODEOWNERS configuration.

Allowed to push

Users who are Allowed to push can choose to create a merge request for their changes, or push the changes directly to a branch. If the user skips the merge request process, the protected branch features and Code Owner approvals built into merge requests are also skipped.

This permission is often granted to accounts associated with automation (internal users) and release tooling.

All changes from users without the Allowed to push permission must be routed through a merge request.