Set Up Quality Gates

Quality gates define the minimum standards your code must meet. When a scan or PR review runs, CodeStax evaluates the results against your gate conditions. If any condition fails, the gate fails — and you can optionally block merges until issues are resolved.

What Quality Gates Check

Setting Up Your First Quality Gate

Configuration Reference

Core Gate Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Risk Threshold	Slider (0-100)	75	Maximum acceptable risk score. Lower = stricter
Block Merge on Gate Failure	Toggle	Off	When enabled, PRs that fail the gate cannot be merged
Reliability Rating	A-E selector	A, B	Minimum acceptable reliability grade
Security Rating	A-E selector	A	Minimum acceptable security grade
Maintainability Rating	A-E selector	A, B, C	Minimum acceptable maintainability grade
Max Cyclomatic Complexity	Slider (0-100)	60	Maximum complexity score before gate fails
Max Critical Issues	Dropdown	0 (Zero tolerance)	Maximum critical findings allowed
Max High Issues	Dropdown	Unlimited	Maximum high-severity findings allowed

Code Quality Gate Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Fail on Dead Code	Toggle	Off	Fail the gate if dead/unreachable code is detected
Fail on Duplicates Above %	Slider (0-50%)	Disabled (0)	Fail the gate if code duplication exceeds this percentage

How Gates Are Evaluated

Quality gates use an all-must-pass model. Every configured condition is checked independently:


Gate Result = ALL conditions must pass

Condition 1: Risk Score (45) < Threshold (75)     ✓ Pass
Condition 2: Reliability Rating (B) in [A, B]      ✓ Pass
Condition 3: Security Rating (B) in [A]            ✗ FAIL
Condition 4: Complexity Score (38) < Max (60)       ✓ Pass
Condition 5: Critical Issues (0) <= Max (0)         ✓ Pass

Overall: FAILED (Security rating B not in allowed [A])

The quality gate status appears on:

The Code Health Dashboard as a pass/fail badge
PR review comments posted to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket
Commit status checks that block or allow merging

Per-Repository Overrides

Different repositories may need different standards. A greenfield microservice might have strict gates, while a legacy monolith needs more lenient ones.

Recommended Starting Configuration

For teams new to quality gates:

Setting	Recommended Start	Tighten To (After 1 Month)
Risk Threshold	75	60
Reliability	A, B, C	A, B
Security	A, B	A
Maintainability	A, B, C	A, B, C
Max Critical	0	0
Max High	Unlimited	10
Block Merge	Off	On

Configure Code Quality Tools — Adjust what the scanner reports
Set Up PR Reviews — Enforce gates on pull requests
Monitor Code Health — Track quality trends over time