CODEOWNERS in Azure Repos?
Many of you are probably familiar with the CODEOWNERS file in GitHub.
In case you are not familiar, lets start with a little information on the subject.
CODEOWNERS
In GitHub you can create a file called CODEOWNERS in your repo to specify who the code owners are for this repo. With this file in place and branch protection set to use CODEOWNERS.
The people or teams listed in this file are automatically requested to review any PR’s on this repo. You can have multiple Code Owners and code owners for different folders/files/file extensions.
For example by adding this content to the CODEOWNERS file in the main branch you are saying, to merge into the main branch the developer Team must approve the PR. However if there is a change to any file with a .sql extension someone from the dba team needs to approve.
* @myorg/developer
*.sql @myorg/dbaYou can learn more about GitHub CODEOWNERS here.
Azure Repos
Azure Repos does not have a CODEOWNERS file, however we can still accomplish the same thing using an Azure Repos branch policy called Automatically included reviewers.
Note: Branch Policies in Azure Repos are the same as Branch Protection in GitHub. It’s how we define the rules that govern how can we push code into a branch.
Branch Policies in Azure Repos?
In Azure Repos go to Project Settings — Repos — Repositories, this will show a list of all the repos in your Team Project.
Select the Repo you want to add a Branch Policy for, then switch to the Policies tab.
The top half of the page is Repository Policies. We want Branch Policies, which is at the bottom of the page. Scroll down and select the branch you want to update.
Another way to get here: Under Repos, select your repo then select Branches on the navigation bar on the left. From the list of branches click on the context menu for the branch you want, and select Branch Policies.
Automatically included reviewers
On the branch policies page, we are interested in the section under the heading Automatically included reviewers.
The plus button on the right lets you add rules.
In the example below, I’m defining a reviewer policy that ensures when a file matching *.sql is changed, someone from the DBA team must approve any PR containing this change, before changes can be merged into this branch.
Each rule added is similar to an entry in the CODEOWNERS file in GitHub.
Like the CODEOWNERS file I can add multiple reviewers based on different folders and file types.
The above example is the GitHub CODEOWNERS equivalent of this:
* @myOrg/developer
*.sql @myOrg/dba
azure-pipelines*.yml @myOrg/pipelinesIf I make a change to any file other than azure-pipelines*.yml or a *.sql file the PR will require someone on the Developer team to approve.
However if a change is made to a pipeline.yml or sql file, the PR will require those teams as well.
You can find the official documentation for this policy here.
