Status checks are based on external processes, such as continuous integration builds, which run for each push you make to a repository. You can see the pending, passing, or failing state of status checks next to individual commits in your pull request.
Anyone with write permissions to a repository can set the state for any status check in the repository.
You can see the overall state of the last commit to a branch on your repository's branches page or in your repository's list of pull requests.
If status checks are required for a repository, the required status checks must pass before you can merge your branch into the protected branch. For more information, see "About protected branches."
Types of status checks on GitHub Enterprise Server
There are two types of status checks on GitHub Enterprise Server:
- Checks
- Statuses
Checks are different from statuses in that they provide line annotations, more detailed messaging, and are only available for use with GitHub Apps.
Organization owners and users with push access to a repository can create checks and statuses with GitHub Enterprise Server's API. For more information, see "Checks" and "Statuses."
Checks
When checks are set up in a repository, pull requests have a Checks tab where you can view detailed build output from status checks and rerun failed checks.
When a specific line in a commit causes a check to fail, you will see details about the failure, warning, or notice next to the relevant code in the Files tab of the pull request.
You can navigate between the checks summaries for various commits in a pull request, using the commit drop-down menu under the Conversation tab.
Skipping and requesting checks for individual commits
When a repository is set to automatically request checks for pushes, you can choose to skip checks for an individual commit you push. When a repository is not set to automatically request checks for pushes, you can request checks for an individual commit you push. For more information on these settings, see "Check Suites."
To skip or request checks for your commit, add one of the following trailer lines to the end of your commit message:
- To skip checks for a commit, type your commit message and a short, meaningful description of your changes. After your commit description, before the closing quotation, add two empty lines followed by
skip-checks: true:$ git commit -m "Update README > > skip-checks: true" - To request checks for a commit, type your commit message and a short, meaningful description of your changes. After your commit description, before the closing quotation, add two empty lines followed by
request-checks: true:$ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests > > request-checks: true"