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> Redesign [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/1979) in [GitLab Premium](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 11.8 and [feature flag removed](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/10685) in 12.0.
You can configure your merge requests so that they must be approved before
they can be merged. You can do this by creating [rules](rules.md) or by specifying
a list of users who act as [code owners](../../code_owners.md) for specific files.
You can configure merge request approvals for each project. In higher GitLab tiers,
Administrators of self-managed GitLab instances can configure approvals
[for the entire instance](../../../admin_area/merge_requests_approvals.md).
## How approvals work
With [merge request approval rules](rules.md), you can set the minimum number of
required approvals before work can merge into your project. You can also extend these
rules to define what types of users can approve work. Some examples of rules you can create include:
- Users with specific permissions can always approve work.
- [Code owners](../../code_owners.md) can approve work for files they own.
- Users with specific permissions can approve work,
[even if they don't have merge rights](rules.md#merge-request-approval-segregation-of-duties)
to the repository.
- Users with specific permissions can be allowed or denied the ability
to [override approval rules on a specific merge request](rules.md#edit-or-override-merge-request-approval-rules).
You can also configure additional [settings for merge request approvals](settings.md)
for more control of the level of oversight and security your project needs, including:
- [Prevent users from overriding a merge request approval rule.](settings.md#prevent-overrides-of-default-approvals)
- [Reset approvals when new code is pushed.](settings.md#reset-approvals-on-push)
- Allow (or disallow) [authors and committers](settings.md) to approve their own merge requests.
- [Require password authentication when approving.](settings.md#require-authentication-for-approvals)
- [Require security team approval.](settings.md#security-approvals-in-merge-requests)
You can configure your merge request approval rules and settings through the GitLab