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/#assignments
- [Assign](#assignee) the merge request to a colleague for review. With GitLab Starter and higher tiers, you can [assign it to more than one person at a time](#multiple-assignees).
- Set a [milestone](../milestones/index.md) to track time-sensitive changes.
- Add [labels](../labels.md) to help contextualize and filter your merge requests over time.
- Require [approval](merge_request_approvals.md) from your team. **(STARTER)**
- [Close issues automatically](#merge-requests-to-close-issues) when they are merged.
- Enable the [delete source branch when merge request is accepted](#deleting-the-source-branch) option to keep your repository clean.
- Enable the [squash commits when merge request is accepted](squash_and_merge.md) option to combine all the commits into one before merging, thus keep a clean commit history in your repository.
- Add [merge request dependencies](merge_request_dependencies.md) to restrict it to be merged only when other merge requests have been merged. **(PREMIUM)**
- Preview continuous integration [pipelines on the merge request widget](reviewing_and_managing_merge_requests.md#pipeline-status-in-merge-requests-widgets).
- Preview how your changes look directly on your deployed application with [Review Apps](reviewing_and_managing_merge_requests.md#live-preview-with-review-apps).
- [Allow collaboration on merge requests across forks](allow_collaboration.md).
- Add [code suggestions](../../discussions/index.md#suggest-changes) to change the content of merge requests directly into merge request threads, and easily apply them to the codebase directly from the UI.
- Add a time estimation and the time spent with that merge request with [Time Tracking](../time_tracking.md#time-tracking).
Many of these can be set when pushing changes from the command line,
with [Git push options](../push_options.md).
See also other [features associated to merge requests](reviewing_and_managing_merge_requests.md#associated-features).
### Assignee
Choose an assignee to designate someone as the person responsible
for the first [review of the merge request](reviewing_and_managing_merge_requests.md).
Open the drop down box to search for the user you wish to assign,
#### Approval Rule information for Reviewers **(STARTER)**
> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/233736) in GitLab 13.8.
> - It was [deployed behind a feature flag](../../../user/feature_flags.md), disabled by default.
> - [Became enabled by default](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/51183) in GitLab 13.8.
> - It's enabled on GitLab.com.
> - It's recommended for production use.
> - It can be enabled or disabled for a single project.
> - For GitLab self-managed instances, GitLab administrators can opt to [disable it](#enable-or-disable-approval-rule-information-for-reviewers). **(STARTER ONLY)**
WARNING:
This feature might not be available to you. Check the **version history** note above for details.
When editing the **Reviewers** field in a new or existing merge request, GitLab
displays the name of the matching [approval rule](merge_request_approvals.md#approval-rules)
below the name of each suggested reviewer. [Code Owners](../code_owners.md) are displayed as **Code Owner** without group detail.
We intend to iterate on this feature in future releases.
This example shows reviewers and approval rules when creating a new merge request:
![Reviewer approval rules in new/edit form](img/reviewer_approval_rules_form_v13_8.png)
This example shows reviewers and approval rules in a merge request sidebar:
![Reviewer approval rules in sidebar](img/reviewer_approval_rules_sidebar_v13_8.png)
##### Enable or disable Approval Rule information for Reviewers **(STARTER ONLY)**
Merge Request Reviewers is under development and ready for production use.
It is deployed behind a feature flag that is **enabled by default**.
[GitLab administrators with access to the GitLab Rails console](../../../administration/feature_flags.md)