CI/CD & Velocity
Quality gate
A quality gate is an automated pass/fail checkpoint in a CI/CD pipeline that blocks a build from progressing unless it meets defined criteria — like test pass rate, coverage, or flakiness thresholds.
Quality gates encode “what good enough looks like” as code so the decision to ship is consistent and automatic rather than a judgment call. Typical gate conditions include a minimum pass rate, a coverage floor, no new critical failures, a flake-rate ceiling, or no performance regression.
The art is choosing gates that block real risk without becoming noise. Gates that are too strict get overridden and ignored; too loose and they wave through regressions. AI-assisted gates add risk scoring on top of fixed thresholds.
- Automated checkpoint that blocks a risky build from shipping.
- Common criteria: pass rate, coverage, flake rate, no new critical failures.
- Must balance catching risk against becoming ignorable noise.
Related terms
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Last reviewed June 11, 2026