---
title: Built‑in Merge Protections
description: "Protections available out of the box: Depends-On, Merge-After, Configuration Changed."
---

These protections are automatically interpreted, no configuration required.

## Depends-On

Block merging until specified pull requests are merged.

Declare dependencies in the PR body:

```text
Depends-On: #123
Depends-On: https://github.com/org/repo/pull/123
Depends-On: org/repo#123
```

<Image src={dependsOnBody} alt="Using Depends-On in the pull request body on GitHub" />

Rules:
- All referenced PRs must be in repositories with Mergify enabled
- They must belong to the same organization
- Cycles are ignored (a PR depending on itself or circular chains)

Use cases:
- Feature split across multiple repos
- Schema then implementation
- Chained refactors

### Seeing dependencies in the merge queue

Because a pull request with a `Depends-On:` header merges after the ones it
depends on, it can sit behind a lower-priority pull request for no visible
reason. The [merge queue](/merge-queue) shows why: a queued pull request held
back by a dependency carries a dependency icon in the list, and its side panel
gains a **Depends On** section linking to each queued pull request it waits for.
The merge queue status [API](/api/usage) reports the same list as
`depends_on_pull_requests`.

This display covers dependencies inside a [stack](/merge-queue/stacks) in the
same repository. A dependency on a pull request in another repository still
blocks the merge, but the queue does not show it.

## Merge-After

Delay merging until a future time using a header in the PR description:

```text
Merge-After: 2025-09-01T09:00:00Z
```

Supports the standard [timestamp format](/configuration/data-types#timestamp).
Useful for coordinated releases or off-peak deploy windows.

<Image src={mergeAfterBody} alt="Using Merge-After in the pull request body on GitHub" />