Archery Apprentice Documentation

branch-protection

3 min read

Branch Protection Configuration

Repository: archery-apprentice (main repo) Protected Branch: main Last Updated: 2025-10-24

Required Status Checks

✅ Required: test_and_coverage

Purpose: Primary quality gate that ensures code meets quality standards before merge.

What It Does:

  • Builds both debug and release APKs
  • Runs full unit test suite (testDebugUnitTest)
  • Generates code coverage reports with JaCoCo
  • Posts coverage report to PR
  • Blocks merge if tests fail ✅

Configuration:

Settings → Branches → Branch protection rules → main
☑️ Require status checks to pass before merging
☑️ Require branches to be up to date before merging
☑️ test_and_coverage

Typical Duration: 5-8 minutes

⚪ Optional: quick_checks

Purpose: Early feedback on lint and configuration issues.

What It Does:

  • Validates Gradle wrapper security
  • Verifies google-services.json configuration
  • Runs Android lint
  • Does NOT block merge (lint uses continue-on-error: true)

Why It’s Optional: Lint failures don’t block the job, so this check always passes. It’s useful for early visibility but not a true quality gate.

❌ Do NOT Require: decide_runner

Purpose: Infrastructure job that determines which runner to use (self-hosted vs GitHub-hosted).

Why Not Required:

  • Not a quality check
  • Just selects runner based on date/quota
  • Other jobs depend on it, so it will run anyway
  • Requiring it adds no value

Migration from Old Configuration

Before (Pre-PR#137)

Required status checks:
- build-and-test  (old job name)

After (Current)

Required status checks:
- test_and_coverage  (new job name)

Action Required: Update branch protection rules to replace build-and-test with test_and_coverage.

Workflow Job Architecture

Job Dependency Chain

decide_runner (infrastructure)
    ↓
    ├── quick_checks (optional, non-blocking)
    └── test_and_coverage (REQUIRED, blocks merge)

Job Responsibilities

JobTypeBlockingPurpose
decide_runnerInfrastructureN/ASelect runner (self-hosted vs GitHub)
quick_checksValidationNo*Lint + config verification
test_and_coverageQuality GateYesBuild + Test + Coverage

*quick_checks uses continue-on-error for lint, so it never fails.

Status Check Best Practices

✅ DO Require

  • Jobs that run tests
  • Jobs that validate build integrity
  • Jobs that check code quality (if blocking)

❌ DO NOT Require

  • Infrastructure jobs (runner selection, setup)
  • Jobs with continue-on-error: true (they always pass)
  • Jobs that only provide informational output

Troubleshooting

”Required status check is missing”

Cause: Old build-and-test check still configured but job was renamed.

Solution:

  1. Go to Settings → Branches → Edit branch protection rule
  2. Remove build-and-test from required checks
  3. Add test_and_coverage to required checks
  4. Save changes

”Status check never completes”

Cause: Job skipped due to [skip-ci] flag or path filters.

Solution:

  • Check PR title/commit message for [skip-ci]
  • Verify changed files aren’t all in paths-ignore filters
  • Check workflow logs for skip messages

References

Last Updated: 2025-10-24 Maintained By: @blamechris

Graph View