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---
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stage: Create
group: Source Code
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers
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type: reference, concepts
---
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# Draft merge requests **(CORE)**
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If a merge request is not yet ready to be merged, perhaps due to continued development
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or open threads, you can prevent it from being accepted before it's ready by flagging
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it as a **Draft** . This will disable the "Merge" button, preventing it from
being merged, and it will stay disabled until the "Draft" flag has been removed.
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![Blocked Merge Button ](img/draft_blocked_merge_button_v13_2.png )
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## Adding the "Draft" flag to a merge request
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/32692) in GitLab 13.2, Work-In-Progress (WIP) merge requests were renamed to **Draft**. Support for using **WIP** will be removed in GitLab 14.0.
> - **Mark as draft** and **Mark as ready** buttons [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/227421) in GitLab 13.5.
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There are several ways to flag a merge request as a Draft:
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- Click the **Mark as draft** button on the top-right corner of the merge request's page.
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- Add `[Draft]` , `Draft:` or `(Draft)` to the start of the merge request's title. Clicking on
**Start the title with Draft:** , under the title box, when editing the merge request's
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description will have the same effect.
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- **Deprecated** Add `[WIP]` or `WIP:` to the start of the merge request's title.
**WIP** still works but was deprecated in favor of **Draft** . It will be removed in the next major version (GitLab 14.0).
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- Add the `/wip` [quick action ](../quick_actions.md#quick-actions-for-issues-merge-requests-and-epics )
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in a comment in the merge request. This is a toggle, and can be repeated
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to change the status back. Note that any other text in the comment will be discarded.
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- Add `draft:` , `Draft:` , `fixup!` , or `Fixup!` to the beginning of a commit message targeting the
merge request's source branch. This is not a toggle, and doing it again in another
commit will have no effect.
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## Removing the "Draft" flag from a merge request
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Similar to above, when a Merge Request is ready to be merged, you can remove the
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`Draft` flag in several ways:
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- Click the **Mark as ready** button on the top-right corner of the merge request's page.
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- Remove `[Draft]` , `Draft:` or `(Draft)` from the start of the merge request's title. Clicking on
**Remove the Draft: prefix from the title** , under the title box, when editing the merge
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request's description, will have the same effect.
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- Add the `/wip` [quick action ](../quick_actions.md#quick-actions-for-issues-merge-requests-and-epics )
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in a comment in the merge request. This is a toggle, and can be repeated
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to change the status back. Note that any other text in the comment will be discarded.
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- Click on the **Resolve Draft status** button near the bottom of the merge request description,
next to the **Merge** button (see [image above ](#draft-merge-requests )).
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Must have at least Developer level permissions on the project for the button to
be visible.
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## Including/excluding WIP merge requests when searching
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When viewing/searching the merge requests list, you can choose to include or exclude
WIP merge requests by adding a "WIP" filter in the search box, and choosing "Yes"
(to include) or "No" (to exclude).
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![Filter WIP MRs ](img/filter_wip_merge_requests.png )
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