Feature which automatically approves pull requests if the comments have been resolved?

[Chris Kourpas]

As a business where several PRs are being managed at once and hands and eyes aren't always available to check and approve every one quickly, we're wondering if there's a feature which would allow a reviewer to check over the PR once, add comments and then be able to select an option per PR which is something like:

"Approve on comment resolution".

For example if my name is Dave and I tick that box, once my comments have been resolved, my user "Dave" will automatically approve the PR.

This could be a per comment option so more complex comments aren't automatically approved. But for simple things like typos it is a pain to have to wait for the person who made the comments to become available to re-check and approve the PR when they have tasks of their own to be getting on with.

[Gabriela · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chris Kourpas

Ajay's right that there's no native "auto-approve on comment resolution", and honestly I wouldn't expect one — the approval is meant to be the reviewer signing off on the whole change.

For the typo case you can still get most of the way there without waiting on Dave. Have the reviewer approve in the same pass and turn the trivial comments into pull request tasks (Create task on the comment). Then enable the "No unresolved pull request tasks" merge check in Repository settings > Branch restrictions — the PR still can't merge until those tasks are ticked off, but anyone including the author can tick them, so nobody has to come back to re-approve.

On Premium, just make sure "Reset approvals when the source branch is modified" isn't switched on, otherwise pushing the fix drops his approval and you're back to waiting.

[Chris Kourpas]

Thanks @Gabriela , I was unaware of that feature. I will look into it and that may be the answer here.

[Saxea _Flowie_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chris Kourpas

As others have already pointed out, Bitbucket doesn't support this workflow out of the box. However, you can implement it using Flowie, our Bitbucket app, by combining the No Unresolved Comments merge check with the Smart Auto Merge feature.

If you have any questions about setting up this workflow, feel free to reach out to our support.

Hope this helps.

[Viswanathan Ramachandran · Accepted solution]

hi @Chris Kourpas 

Interesting perspective, but I would be cautious about automatically approving a PR when comments are resolved.

The purpose of an approval is not only to confirm that comments have been addressed. it is also confirmation that the reviewer has validated the final state of the code. A resolved comment does not always mean the intended change was implemented correctly, and it can create a false sense of assurance.

A pattern that works better in larger teams is to separate feedback types:

• Non-blocking comments (typos, formatting, minor suggestions) -> resolve without requiring another approval.
• Blocking comments (security, logic, architecture, compliance concerns) -> require the reviewer to re-check and approve.

Another option is to improve the workflow around reviewer availability:

• Use ownership rules so the right people are automatically requested.
• Use backup reviewers or reviewer rotation.
• Use CI/CD checks and automated quality gates for things machines can validate.

In regulated or high-risk environments, I would avoid any workflow where the system effectively approves its own changes after the author marks comments as resolved.

[Chris Kourpas]

Thanks @Viswanathan Ramachandran 

I understand there's an element of safety required, but I trust all my colleagues to be able to resolve small things like typo corrections, so I feel there should be some flexibility there. If I ask for a typo correction for example and could mark that one comment as "auto approve once resolved", that would save businesses like ours a lot of time.

Does BitBucket itself have a feature request process? Not that I think my one request for this feature will sway their devs minds, but maybe if enough people request it there'll be some flexibility one day.

[Viswanathan Ramachandran]

hi @Chris Kourpas 

I don’t believe Bitbucket currently supports an Approve on comment resolution workflow.

However, see https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/review-code-in-a-pull-request/ where Bitbucket does support resolving pull request comment threads and using tasks/merge checks to ensure required items are completed, but the final approval action is still intentionally a separate reviewer decision. 

From a governance perspective, I think keeping these separate is the safer model. Resolving comments confirms that feedback has been addressed, but it does not always confirm that the final implementation is correct. Automatically converting resolution into approval could weaken the meaning of an approval, especially for security, compliance, or production-critical changes.

A pattern that may work better would be:

• Mark low-risk feedback (typos, formatting, minor suggestions) as non-blocking.
• Keep approval required for changes involving logic, security, architecture, or business risk.
• Use automation for objective checks (builds, tests, security scans, quality gates).
• Consider reviewer rotation or backup reviewers to avoid PRs waiting unnecessarily.

A useful enhancement request can be something like “allow reviewers to classify comments as blocking/non-blocking and require re-approval only for blocking feedback” rather than automatically approving after all comments are resolved. This would improve developer velocity while preserving the purpose of code review.

[Ajay _view26_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chris Kourpas 

This is a pretty common pain point — unfortunately Bitbucket Cloud doesn't have a native "auto-approve on comment resolution" feature today.

The approval step is intentionally manual because Atlassian treats it as a human attestation that the reviewer is satisfied with the overall change, not just individual line-level feedback.

[Chris Kourpas]

Thanks @Ajay _view26_ 

I understand there's an element of safety required, but I trust all my colleagues to be able to resolve small things like typo corrections, so I feel there should be some flexibility there. If I ask for a typo correction for example and could mark that one comment as "auto approve once resolved", that would save businesses like ours a lot of time.

Does BitBucket itself have a feature request process? Not that I think my one request for this feature will sway their devs minds, but maybe if enough people request it there'll be some flexibility one day.

[Gabriela]

Yeah, there is. For Bitbucket Cloud the main route now is the Give feedback option in the product help menu — that's where Atlassian collects suggestions since they stopped letting people file tickets directly. The public tracker still exists too, the BCLOUD project on jira.atlassian.com. You can't create a new suggestion there yourself anymore (they closed that off back in 2022), but you can search for an existing one and then watch and vote on it. Votes are what gets Atlassian's attention, so your "if enough people ask" angle does hold up. If nothing matches, send it in through Give feedback and they'll open the BCLOUD entry for you.