Branch restrictions

With branch restrictions, you can control who can perform the following actions:

• Introduce changes to a branch.

  A user with this permission can create a branch and commit changes to it.

• Delete a branch.

  A user with this permission can delete only certain branches.

• Rewrite a branch history.

  A user with this permission can rebase a branch, force push changes, or squash commits.

• Push and merge directly into a branch.

  A user with this permission can commit changes directly without the need of creating a pull request.

You can configure branch restrictions on a repository level. You can also define users or user groups to whom the selected restriction doesn't apply.

Note:

Access to this feature is limited to users who already have access to CI Manager.

Prerequisites

The following limitations apply:

• You can't modify the Delete branch restriction for the master and develop branches.

• You can't modify any restrictions for any branch whose name starts with gw-.

• You can't modify restrictions configured on a star system level.

  These restrictions are marked as set in Project.

• Branch restrictions don't apply to Guidewire.

Supported roles

Guidewire supports the following roles for performing tasks related to source code:

• Admin
• Developer
• Guidewire

For details, see Roles and permissions.

Default configuration

The following branch restrictions are configured by default:

Branch	Introduce changes	Delete branch	Rewrite history	Push and merge directly
master	Everyone	Nobody	– Guidewire – Admin	– Guidewire – Admin
develop	Everyone	Nobody	– Guidewire – Admin	– Guidewire – Admin
gw-releases	Guidewire	Nobody	Everyone who can introduce changes	Everyone who can introduce changes
hotfix-*	– Guidewire – Admin	Everyone who can introduce changes	Everyone who can introduce changes	Everyone who can introduce changes
Custom branches	Everyone	Everyone who can introduce changes	Everyone who can introduce changes	Everyone who can introduce changes

Note that your individual configuration might differ from the default one.

Exceptions

When you set restrictions, you can also list exceptions. Exceptions are users or groups of users to whom the restriction doesn't apply.

Priority of exceptions

If there are multiple restrictions that apply to the same branch, the exceptions to these restrictions have the highest priority.

You configure the following restrictions:

• Nobody can delete a branch named user/john/new-feature.
• Nobody can delete branches that match the user/john/ pattern, except for user John Doe.
• Nobody can delete branches that match the new-* pattern, except for a given user group.

As a result, John Doe and all users that belong to a given user group can delete the user/john/new-feature branch.

Inheritance of restrictions

Restrictions are inherited from Introduce changes by other activities. If there is a restriction on introducing changes, this restriction automatically applies to other activities, such as rewriting history or pushing and merging directly.

The default configuration for the hotfix/v2.3 branch contains the following restrictions:

• Only the Guidewire group can introduce changes.
• Nobody can delete the hotfix/v2.3 branch.
• No further restrictions are set for rewriting history or pushing directly.

As a result, only members of the Guidewire group will be able to rewrite history or push directly to the hotfix/v2.3 branch because these permissions are inherited from the Introduce changes restriction.

Overlapping branch restrictions

When multiple branch restrictions rules apply to the same branch, such as a specific branch name and a branch pattern, these rules overlap. In such cases, all the exceptions to the overlapping branch restrictions are allowed.

Example 1:

• You prevent everyone from introducing changes to branches matching the pattern release/*.
• You allow only Alana to introduce changes to the branch named release/v2.0.

Result: Only Alana can introduce changes to release/v2.0.

---

Example 2:

• You allow everyone to introduce changes to all the branches matching the pattern hotfix/*.
• You allow only Alana to introduce changes to the branch named hotfix/v2.3.

Result: Only Alana can introduce changes to hotfix/v2.3.

---

Example 3:

• You allow only Alana to introduce changes to all the branches matching the pattern release/*.
• You allow only Harvey to introduce changes to the branch named release/v2.0.

Result: Both Alana and Harvey can introduce changes to release/v2.0.

---

Example 4:

• You allow only Alana to introduce changes to all the branches matching the pattern release/*.
• You prevent everyone from introducing changes to the branch named release/v2.0.

Result: Only Alana can introduce changes to release/v2.0.

---

Example 5:

• You allow only Alana to introduce changes to all the branches matching the pattern release/*.
• You allow everyone to introduce changes to the branch named release/v2.0.

Result: Only Alana can introduce changes to release/v2.0.

Manage branch restrictions

To manage branch restrictions:

1. Select a star system.

2. From Apps , select Repository Settings or select it from your pinned apps.

3. Select the Branch restrictions tab.

You can also manage branch restrictions with the Repository Settings API.

Add a restriction

To add a branch restriction:

1. In the Branch restrictions tab, select + Add restrictions.

   You can also select + Add restrictions next to the repository whose settings you want to change. Then in the dropdown, you can see the pre-selected repository.

2. From the Repository dropdown, select a repository.

3. Specify the branch. You have the following options:

   • Branch name

     Applies only to a branch with the specified name. The branch must be active.

   • Branch pattern

     Applies to every branch whose name matches the pattern. For details, see Branch patterns.

4. Select at least one branch restriction.

5. (Optional) Specify exceptions: users or user groups to whom the restriction doesn't apply.

   Users must have a Bitbucket account and access rights to the star system that includes the selected repository.

6. Select Add.

Edit a restriction

To edit a branch restriction:

1. In the Branch restrictions tab, expand the configuration for a selected repository.

   For Jutro apps and Integration apps, select a repository from a drop-down list.

2. Select Edit next to an element that you want to modify.

Delete a restriction

To delete a branch restriction:

1. In the Branch restrictions tab, expand the configuration for a selected repository.

   For Jutro apps and Integration apps, select a repository from a drop-down list.

2. Select Delete next to an element that you want to delete.

   The deleted element is now crossed out.

Troubleshooting

Here are the most common issues related to branch restrictions:

• A user doesn't show in the drop-down lists.

  Verify if the user has a Bitbucket account and access rights to the star system. If they do and you still can't see them, it might be a propagation issue. To fix it, the user must first log in to Bitbucket.

• The Edit button is disabled when editing branch restrictions and I can't save my changes.

  Remove all the inactive and deleted users from your configuration.