---
title: "Checks and CI"
description: "Checks on a branch's commits, the ones Merge waits for, and the CI services that post them."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gitpando.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Checks and CI

A check is a result on one commit: its name (the context, such as `ci`), its state, a link and a short line. A branch shows the checks on its newest commit, on its page in the web app and in `pando branch list`. Pando shows the CI service's mark beside a check that service posted.

| State | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `pending` | running or waiting |
| `success` | passed |
| `failure` | failed |
| `error` | could not run |

Pando runs no CI of its own. A CI service runs your tests and posts the checks.

## Checks that Merge waits for

Name them per project in the repository's `.pando/pando.toml`:

```toml
[repos."projects/web"]
required_checks = ["ci"]
```

Merge then waits until each named check is `success` on the branch's newest commit.

The server reads this file from main, so it changes through review. In a repository with projects, `pando init` uploads it with the rest of the folder; after that, `.pando/` changes only through a reviewed branch of the repository's `meta` repo (`https://<server>/<owner>/<name>/meta.git`), merged into its main. In a plain repository, the file lives on its own main and the table is `[repos."."]`.

Anyone who may merge can merge past red or missing checks with `pando merge --force`, or Merge anyway in the web app; the merge is recorded as forced.

## Who posts checks

- **Buildkite**, connected to the repository: Pando starts a build on each push, and each step with a `key` becomes a check of that name. See [CI with Buildkite](/ci/buildkite/).
- **A build step itself**, with `pando status success` (or `pending`, `failure`, `error`) in a build Pando started.
- **Any other CI**, through a `web` hook: each delivery carries a token that can post checks on its one commit. [Blacksmith and Depot through GitHub Actions](/ci/github-actions/) use this.
- **A member**, through the API, with their own credential: `POST /v1/monorepos/{owner}/{monorepo}/repos/{repo}/statuses/{sha}`. See the [API reference](/api/).

Source: https://docs.gitpando.com/ci/index.mdx