What is Pull Request? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
A Pull Request (PR) — called a Merge Request (MR) in GitLab — is a mechanism for proposing code changes in a version-controlled repository. A developer creates a PR when they want to merge a feature branch into the main branch. The PR allows: code review (other developers comment on and approve/reject changes), automated CI/CD checks (tests, security scans run automatically), and discussion of the changes before they merge.
Pull-request in the UK
Pull Requests are the central quality gate in UK professional software development. ClickMasters requires at least one peer-approved PR review before any code merges to the main branch — branch protection rules in GitHub enforce this. UK regulatory relevance: PR history provides an audit trail of who changed what and when (UK GDPR accountability, NHS DSP Toolkit change management evidence). Security review is integrated into PRs: ESLint security rules flag issues in PR checks, Dependabot creates automatic PRs for vulnerable dependencies.
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