> But I do want to run integration tests before that feature branch gets merged upstream. Specifically, the integration tests should run against the version of

> But I do want to run integration tests before that feature branch gets merged upstream. Specifically, the integration tests should run against the version of the source code in the feature branch that the merge request is about. The target branch can be merged into the feature branch to have full coverage of the post-merge status, so the target branch's importance is really minimal here. > Yes, it would be a nice option to test the merge of the feature branch with master instead of the feature branch itself (you will have to retest all MR’s every time master is updated). Actually no, that's not what I was trying to get at. The tests just have to run against the version of the source code in the feature branch. If the integration tests need to cover anything else, it should be inserted into the feature branch manually. Stale branches are their own problem and are quite common, independent of CI-related testing. Running unit tests all the time is fine, but it would be nice if special additional tests can be triggered only for new merge requests and for updated merge request source branches but not feature branch pushes unassociated with merge requests.