Gitlab pipeline is not starting when create merge request

General
1

I need to trigger the gitlab pipeline automatically when creating a Merge Request. This pipeline should start automatically before clicking on merge. I have written this pipeline but not working as I expected. Now work this by clicking on the merge button. I need this to start with automatically creating a Merge Request.

default:
    tags:
        - $RUNNER_TAG

stages:
    - sonarqube
    - merge

# SonarQube scan on the source branch (relative branch)
sonarqube-check:
    stage: sonarqube
    image: node:slim
    cache:
        key: "${CI_JOB_NAME}"
        paths:
            - .sonar/cache
    script:
        - apt-get update -y
        - apt-get install -y git
        - git checkout $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME # Check out the branch related to the MR
        - git pull origin $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME # Pull latest changes
        - yarn install
        - yarn coverage:ci
        - npx sonarqube-scanner -Dproject.settings=./sonar-project-el.properties
        # Extract project key from sonar-project.properties
        - PROJECT_KEY=$(grep sonar.projectKey sonar-project-el.properties | cut -d '=' -f2)
        # Fetch the quality gate result from SonarQube API
        - |
          QUALITY_GATE=$(curl -s -u $SONAR_LOGIN: $SONAR_HOST_URL/api/qualitygates/project_status?projectKey=$PROJECT_KEY | jq -r .projectStatus.status)
          if [ "$QUALITY_GATE" != "OK" ]; then
            echo "SonarQube quality gate failed. MR cannot be merged."
            exit 1
          fi
    allow_failure: false
    rules:
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
      when: never
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH != $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
      when: always

# Job for the automatic merge, triggered when the SonarQube check passes
merge-to-develop:
    stage: merge
    image: alpine/git
    script:
        - git fetch origin
        - git checkout develop
        - git pull origin develop
        - git merge --no-ff origin/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME  # Merge dynamically determined MR branch into develop
        - git push origin develop  # Push the merged changes to develop
    rules:
        - if: '$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == "develop"'  # Run only if MR targets develop
    when: on_success

How can I solve this issue?

2 
default:
    tags:
        - $RUNNER_TAG

stages:
    - sonarqube
    - merge

# SonarQube scan on the source branch (relative branch)
sonarqube-check:
    stage: sonarqube
    image: node:slim
    cache:
        key: "${CI_JOB_NAME}"
        paths:
            - .sonar/cache
    script:
        - apt-get update -y
        - apt-get install -y git
        - git checkout $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME # Check out the branch related to the MR
        - git pull origin $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME # Pull latest changes
        - yarn install
        - yarn coverage:ci
        - npx sonarqube-scanner -Dproject.settings=./sonar-project-el.properties
        # Extract project key from sonar-project.properties
        - PROJECT_KEY=$(grep sonar.projectKey sonar-project-el.properties | cut -d '=' -f2)
        # Fetch the quality gate result from SonarQube API
        - |
          QUALITY_GATE=$(curl -s -u $SONAR_LOGIN: $SONAR_HOST_URL/api/qualitygates/project_status?projectKey=$PROJECT_KEY | jq -r .projectStatus.status)
          if [ "$QUALITY_GATE" != "OK" ]; then
            echo "SonarQube quality gate failed. MR cannot be merged."
            exit 1
          fi
    allow_failure: false
    rules:
        - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"' # Trigger for MR events
          when: always

# Job for the automatic merge, triggered when the SonarQube check passes
merge-to-develop:
    stage: merge
    image: alpine/git
    script:
        - git fetch origin
        - git checkout develop
        - git pull origin develop
        - git merge --no-ff origin/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME  # Merge dynamically determined MR branch into develop
        - git push origin develop  # Push the merged changes to develop
    rules:
        - if: '$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == "develop"'  # Run only if MR targets develop
          when: on_success

Explanation of Changes

  1. Updated rules for sonarqube-check: Changed the rules to use when: always for merge request events. This will ensure that the job starts whenever a merge request is created.
  2. merge-to-develop job: This job is set to run only when the merge request targets the develop branch and only after a successful SonarQube check.

Additional Notes

  • Make sure the project has GitLab runners properly configured to run the pipeline.
  • If the pipeline still doesn’t trigger, check the GitLab project settings (Settings > CI/CD > General Pipelines) to verify if MR pipelines are enabled.
  • Check that the runner specified by $RUNNER_TAG has permission to run the jobs in your repository.