Improving Gitlab review process

We were missing two essential features in the Gitlab review process:

• Commits to a running merge request are difficult to assign to a thread
• Commits to a running merge request that add new code are potentially overlooked during a review

To avoid the problems arising from the above points, we have decided to use a web hook to create the desired features based on the commit message.

GitHub - spleenlab-visionairy/gitlab-merge-requests-webhook: add merge request thread information…

How does it work?

• copy a note URL from the thread you want to solve (hover over the time when note was created — should look like this: http://gitlab.internal:8080/group1/project1/-/merge_requests/123#note_54321)
• mention users like @gitlabuser

Just add them to your commit message like:

my commit message

http://gitlab.internal:8080/group1/project1/-/merge_requests/123#note_54321
@gitlabuser

Result:

New comment extending the running thread / discussion and actively informing people without opening the Gitlab GUI.

In case you are pushing to a branch with open merge request and no note URLs, a new thread / discussion will be opened and must be solved.

Examples using my local development environment and API key of admin user:

Extend a thread:

New thread including mention of myself:

Enjoy!