CodeRabbit Documentation - AI code reviews on pull requests, IDE, and CLI

| Post-Merge Actions run automated follow-up work after a pull request is merged. Each action is a natural-language instruction that CodeRabbit executes agentically against the merged changes. It can open a follow-up pull request, post a report on the PR, or deliver output to a connected integration. Administrators configure actions at the organization or repository level. Post-Merge Actions are the merge-time counterpart to Pre-Merge Checks: pre-merge checks gate a PR before it lands, while post-merge actions do work after it lands.

Why use Post-Merge Actions?

Automate the busywork after merge: Append changelog entries, bump docs, or open cleanup PRs without a human remembering to.
Close the loop with your tools: File a Linear or Jira ticket, open a GitHub issue, or post a Slack summary the moment work lands.
Keep authors in control: Every action is previewed as a checkbox in the PR walkthrough before merge, so authors and reviewers can skip actions that do not fit.
Scoped to what merged: Actions receive the merged diff, PR summary, and objectives, so their instructions can target exactly the changes that landed.

How Post-Merge Actions work

Preview during review

While CodeRabbit reviews an open PR, each enabled action appears as a checkbox in the 🚀 Post-Merge Actions section of the walkthrough. A box is checked only when CodeRabbit determines that the action applies to this PR’s changes. If it cannot determine applicability, the box remains unchecked.

Skip actions (optional)

The PR author or a reviewer can skip actions they do not want with a skip command before merging.

Run on merge

When the PR is merged into the default branch, CodeRabbit runs every action whose box is still checked. Each action executes agentically in a secure sandbox clone of the repository with access to the merged diff and PR context.

Report results

CodeRabbit posts a single result comment on the merged PR summarizing each action’s outcome. If any action fails, the PR author is @mentioned so the failure surfaces to them.

Actions run only when a PR is merged into the repository’s default branch. Merges into other branches do not trigger post-merge actions.

Output modes

Each action picks the output mode that fits its instructions:

Code changes

The agent edits or creates files, such as appending to a changelog. The changes are opened as a follow-up pull request against the default branch.

Text report

The agent produces a free-form report or summary, surfaced inline in the result comment on the merged PR.

Integration

The agent delivers output through a connected MCP tool, for example by creating a Linear or Jira ticket, opening a GitHub issue, or posting to Slack.

Follow-up pull requests opened by a code-changes action are titled with a 🔧 CodeRabbit Post-Merge Recipe: prefix. Merging one of these follow-up PRs never triggers another round of post-merge actions, so actions cannot recurse.

Configuration

Post-Merge Actions can be configured via the web interface or the .coderabbit.yaml file. Each action has:

Enabled: Whether the action runs after merge. The default is true.
Name: A display name, unique among configured actions without regard to case, up to 100 characters.
Prompt: Deterministic natural-language instructions describing the action to perform, up to 10,000 characters.

You can configure up to 5 post-merge actions.

To create tickets, post Slack messages, or use other integrations, first configure and enable the relevant MCP server.

Web interface
Configuration file

Configure Post-Merge Actions through the CodeRabbit dashboard:

Navigate to Settings

In CodeRabbit, open Settings and configure actions at the organization or repository level.

Add an action

Add an action with:

Name (≤ 100 chars, unique within the org)
Prompt (≤ 10,000 chars; natural language)
Enabled (on | off)

Apply changes

Click Apply Changes to save. The new actions apply to subsequent reviews and merges.

For version-controlled configuration, add actions to your .coderabbit.yaml file:

YAML

reviews:
  post_merge_actions:
    - name: "Update changelog"
      enabled: true
      prompt: "If this PR contains user-facing changes, append a concise entry to CHANGELOG.md under the Unreleased section describing the change. Skip purely internal refactors, tests, and CI changes."
    - name: "File follow-up ticket"
      enabled: true
      prompt: "If this PR references a known TODO or leaves follow-up work described in the PR description, create a Linear ticket summarizing the follow-up and link back to this PR."
    - name: "Notify release channel"
      enabled: false
      prompt: "Post a one-paragraph summary of the merged changes to the #releases Slack channel."

The prompt can include filter conditions, such as labels, changed paths, or branch names. During review, CodeRabbit evaluates each enabled action against the pull request. Actions that do not apply, or whose applicability cannot be determined, remain unchecked and do not run after merge.

Skipping actions

The PR author or a reviewer can opt out of actions before merging with a chat command.

Skip all actions

@coderabbitai skip post-merge actions

Skip specific actions

Pass one or more --name flags to skip only those actions (names are matched exactly, casing preserved):

@coderabbitai skip post-merge actions --name "Update changelog" --name "Notify release channel"

The skip command clears the selected action’s checkbox in the 🚀 Post-Merge Actions section. Only actions whose boxes are still checked at merge time run.

Skipping applies only to that PR. Future PRs still evaluate and offer actions as configured.

Results comment

After a merged PR’s actions run, CodeRabbit posts a single 🚀 Post-Merge Actions result comment listing each action and its outcome:

✅ Success: A detail line includes a link to the follow-up PR, the text report, or a note that output was delivered through a connected integration.
❌ Failure: A short reason is included. When any action fails, the PR author is @mentioned at the top of the comment.

Re-triggering post-merge actions after they run is not supported; the result comment is a record of the single run.

See Manage code reviews for more commands and behaviors.

What’s next

Pre-Merge Checks

Enforce quality gates and custom requirements before pull requests merge, the merge-time counterpart to post-merge actions.

MCP servers

Connect the tools that integration actions use to file Linear or Jira tickets, open GitHub issues, or post to Slack.

PR Walkthroughs

See how the walkthrough comment surfaces each action as a checkbox before merge.

​Why use Post-Merge Actions?

​How Post-Merge Actions work

​Output modes

Code changes

Text report

Integration

​Configuration

​Skipping actions

​Skip all actions

​Skip specific actions

​Results comment

​What’s next

Pre-Merge Checks

MCP servers

PR Walkthroughs

Why use Post-Merge Actions?

How Post-Merge Actions work

Output modes

Configuration

Skipping actions

Skip all actions

Skip specific actions

Results comment

What’s next