Auto-merge now requires all PR requirements to be met before enabling (undocumented behavior change, HTTP 422)

[jasonwbarnett]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

Summary

As of March 25, 2026, we are unable to enable auto-merge on pull requests until all PR requirements (required checks, approvals, etc.) have been fulfilled. Previously, we could enable auto-merge immediately after opening a PR, and it would automatically merge once all requirements were met — which is the documented and expected behavior.

This is an undocumented behavior change. The official documentation still states:

If you enable auto-merge for a pull request, the pull request will merge automatically when all required reviews are met and all required status checks have passed.

And:

The option to enable auto-merge is shown only on pull requests that cannot be merged immediately.

This clearly describes the old behavior: enable auto-merge before requirements are met, and it merges when they are met.

Error Details

When attempting to enable auto-merge via the GitHub web UI, the following request is made:

Request:

POST /<owner>/<repo>/pull/<number>/page_data/enable_auto_merge
{"mergeMethod":"GROUP"}

Response (HTTP 422):

{"error":"Failed enabling auto-merge for pull request"}

The mergeMethod: GROUP indicates we are using a merge queue (configured via repository rulesets).

Ruleset Configuration

We are using repository rulesets only (no classic branch protection rules). Here is our complete ruleset configuration for the default branch, retrieved via the API (GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/rulesets/{id}):

{
  "name": "default branch (main)",
  "target": "branch",
  "enforcement": "active",
  "conditions": {
    "ref_name": {
      "include": ["~DEFAULT_BRANCH"],
      "exclude": []
    }
  },
  "rules": [
    {
      "type": "deletion"
    },
    {
      "type": "non_fast_forward"
    },
    {
      "type": "merge_queue",
      "parameters": {
        "merge_method": "SQUASH",
        "max_entries_to_build": 20,
        "min_entries_to_merge": 1,
        "max_entries_to_merge": 10,
        "min_entries_to_merge_wait_minutes": 5,
        "grouping_strategy": "ALLGREEN",
        "check_response_timeout_minutes": 90
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "pull_request",
      "parameters": {
        "required_approving_review_count": 1,
        "dismiss_stale_reviews_on_push": true,
        "require_code_owner_review": true,
        "require_last_push_approval": true,
        "required_review_thread_resolution": true,
        "allowed_merge_methods": ["squash"]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "required_status_checks",
      "parameters": {
        "strict_required_status_checks_policy": false,
        "do_not_enforce_on_create": false,
        "required_status_checks": [
          { "context": "check-pr-description" },
          { "context": "<ci-system>/<build-job>" }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "bypass_actors": [
    { "actor_type": "RepositoryRole", "bypass_mode": "pull_request" }
  ]
}

Key points:

• Merge queue is enabled with grouping_strategy: ALLGREEN
• Required status checks must pass
• 1 approval required with code owner review, last push approval, and conversation resolution
• Allowed merge method: squash only
• No classic branch protection rules exist — rulesets only

Environment

• Branch protection: Repository rulesets (not classic branch protection rules)
• Merge queue: Enabled via rulesets
• Auto-merge: Enabled in repository settings
• Observed since: March 25, 2026
• No changes on our side: No ruleset, branch protection, or repository setting changes were made

Expected Behavior

We should be able to enable auto-merge on a PR that has unmet requirements (pending checks, missing approvals). Once all requirements are satisfied, the PR should be automatically added to the merge queue and merged. This is how it worked until today and what the documentation describes.

Actual Behavior

Enabling auto-merge returns HTTP 422 unless all PR requirements are already fulfilled. This defeats the entire purpose of auto-merge — if all requirements are already met, you can just merge directly.

Potentially Related

• Auto-merge doesn't work with rulesets (#162623) — long-standing incompatibility between auto-merge and rulesets
• Auto-merge stopped working (#178345) — auto-merge + merge queue issues
• Merge Queue is not enabled when using Rule Sets (#156625) — merge queue/ruleset incompatibility
• March 24 GitHub outage — significant disruption affecting Pull Requests, Actions, and Webhooks
• Quick access to merge status (March 5 changelog) — recent changes to PR merge status UI/backend

Questions

1. Was this an intentional change? If so, why was it not documented in the changelog?
2. If unintentional, is there a timeline for a fix?
3. Is there a workaround (e.g., using the GraphQL API enablePullRequestAutoMerge mutation or gh pr merge --auto)?

A support ticket has also been filed for this issue.

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[glasser]

I'm seeing this too. This defeats the purpose of auto-merge. Specifically seeing this on repos with merge queue enabled when the approval hasn't happened yet. The error is "Failed enabling auto-merge for pull request".

[Moulick]

We are having the same issue, If repo has merge commit disabled, then gh pr merge --auto simply fails with

GraphQL: Merge method merge commits are not allowed on this repository (enablePullRequestAutoMerge)

even though it was working fine till yesterday. This is when using a GitHub app token, locally with my own user it works fine.

Is there some permission change somewhere?

[dzikoysk]

The merge queue is pretty much useless right now. The whole point of using it was to avoid wasting time on manual checks when new stuff is frequently merged into the main branch. Apparently, now I need to find the right moment once it’s green and hit merge, hoping it will succeed.

[willsmythe]

Thanks for reporting. A fix is in the queue.

[brendonparker]

Can we get an official comment on https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/162623 ?
At least some explicit confirmation that rulesets are not compatible with auto-merge.