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
We support a separation of duties policy between users who create and approve merge requests.
The approval status column can help you identify violations of this policy.
Our criteria for the separation of duties is as follows:
- [A merge request author is **not** allowed to approve their merge request](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/settings.md#prevent-approval-by-author)
- [A merge request committer is **not** allowed to approve a merge request they have added commits to](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/settings.md#prevent-approvals-by-users-who-add-commits)
- [The minimum number of approvals required to merge a merge request is **at least** two](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/rules.md)
The **Approval status** column shows you at a glance whether a merge request is complying with the above.
This column has four states:
| State | Description |
|:------|:------------|
| Empty | The merge request approval status is unknown |
| ![Failed](img/failed_icon_v13_3.png) | The merge request **does not** comply with any of the above criteria |
| ![Warning](img/warning_icon_v13_3.png) | The merge request complies with **some** of the above criteria |
| ![Success](img/success_icon_v13_3.png) | The merge request complies with **all** of the above criteria |
If you see a non-success state, review the criteria for the merge request's project to ensure it complies with the separation of duties.
> - Introduced in GitLab 14.6. [Deployed behind the `compliance_violations_report` flag](../../../administration/feature_flags.md). Disabled by default.
> - GraphQL API [introduced](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/7222) in GitLab 14.9.
FLAG:
On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is not available. To make it available,
ask an administrator to [enable the feature flag](../../../administration/feature_flags.md) named `compliance_violations_report`.
On GitLab.com, this feature is not available. This feature is not ready for production use.
Merge request violations provide a view of all the [separation of duties](#approval-status-and-separation-of-duties) compliance violations
that exist in projects in a specific group. For each separation of duties compliance violation, you can see:
- A list of compliance violations.
- The severity of each compliance violation.
- Reason for the compliance violation.
- A link to the merge request that caused the compliance violation.
Merge request violations can be accessed:
- In the GitLab UI.
- Using the [GraphQL API](../../../api/graphql/reference/index.md#complianceviolation) (GitLab 14.9 and later).
### View merge request violations
To view merge request violations:
1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Groups** and find your group.
1. On the left sidebar, select **Security & Compliance > Compliance report**.
### Severity levels scale
The following is a list of available violation severity levels, ranked from most to least severe:
| Author approved merge request | High | [Separation of duties](#approval-status-and-separation-of-duties) | The author of the merge request approved their own merge request. [Learn more](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/settings.md#prevent-approval-by-author). | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6870) |
| Committers approved merge request | High | [Separation of duties](#approval-status-and-separation-of-duties) | The committers of the merge request approved the merge request they contributed to. [Learn more](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/settings.md#prevent-approvals-by-users-who-add-commits). | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6870) |
| Fewer than two approvals | High | [Separation of duties](#approval-status-and-separation-of-duties) | The merge request was merged with fewer than two approvals. [Learn more](../../project/merge_requests/approvals/rules.md). | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6870) |
| Pipeline failed | Medium | [Pipeline results](../../../ci/pipelines/index.md) | The merge requests pipeline failed and was merged. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |
| Pipeline passed with warnings | Info | [Pipeline results](../../../ci/pipelines/index.md) | The merge request pipeline passed with warnings and was merged. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |
| Code coverage down more than 10% | High | [Code coverage](../../../ci/pipelines/settings.md#merge-request-test-coverage-results) | The code coverage report for the merge request indicates a reduction in coverage of more than 10%. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |
| Code coverage down between 5% to 10% | Medium | [Code coverage](../../../ci/pipelines/settings.md#merge-request-test-coverage-results) | The code coverage report for the merge request indicates a reduction in coverage of between 5% to 10%. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |
| Code coverage down between 1% to 5% | Low | [Code coverage](../../../ci/pipelines/settings.md#merge-request-test-coverage-results) | The code coverage report for the merge request indicates a reduction in coverage of between 1% to 5%. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |
| Code coverage down less than 1% | Info | [Code coverage](../../../ci/pipelines/settings.md#merge-request-test-coverage-results) | The code coverage report for the merge request indicates a reduction in coverage of less than 1%. | [Unavailable](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/346011) |