Configuring custom deployment protection rules

Use GitHub Apps to automate protecting deployments with third-party systems.

Who can use this feature?

Custom deployment protection rules are available in public repositories for all plans. For access to custom deployment protection rules in private or internal repositories, you must use GitHub Enterprise. For more information, see "GitHub’s plans."

About custom deployment protection rules

Custom deployment protection rules are powered by GitHub Apps. Once a deployment protection rule is configured and installed in a repository, it can be enabled for any environments in the repository.

After you enable a custom deployment protection rule on an environment, every time a workflow step targets that environment, the deployment protection rule will run automatically. For more information about targeting an environment for deployments, see "Managing environments for deployment."

When a custom deployment protection rule is triggered it will wait for up to 30 days for a webhook event response before it times out and the workflow job fails.

For more information about creating your own custom deployment protection rules, see "Creating custom deployment protection rules."

Note

Any number of GitHub Apps-based deployment protection rules can be installed on a repository. However, a maximum of 6 deployment protection rules can be enabled on any environment at the same time.

Using existing custom deployment protection rules

You can choose to create your own custom deployment protection rules or you may use any existing custom deployment protection rules.

The following is a list of official partner implementations for deployment protection rules.

Datadog: you can enforce protection rules on your GitHub Actions deployment workflows using Datadog monitors. For more information, see Gating your GitHub Actions Deployments with Datadog Monitors in the Datadog documentation.
Honeycomb: you can define thresholds to reject or approve deployments based on data you are sending to Honeycomb. For more information, see the Honeycomb app in the GitHub Marketplace.
New Relic: for more information, see the New Relic app in the GitHub Marketplace.
NCM NodeSource: for more information, see the NCM NodeSource app in the GitHub Marketplace.
Sentry: for more information, see the Sentry Deployment Gate app in the GitHub Marketplace.
ServiceNow: for more information, see GitHub integration with DevOps Change Velocity in the ServiceNow documentation.

Prerequisites

In order for a custom deployment protection rule to be available to all environments in a repository, you must first install the custom deployment protection rule on the repository. For more information, see "Installing your own GitHub App."

After a custom deployment protection rule has been installed in a repository, it must be enabled for each environment where you want the rule to apply.

Enabling custom deployment protection rules for the environment

On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.
Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.
In the left sidebar, click Environments.
Select the environment you want to configure.
Under "Deployment protection rules," check the box next to each custom deployment protection rule you want to enable for the environment.
Click Save protection rules.

Once a custom deployment protection rule has been enabled for an environment, it will automatically run whenever a workflow reaches a job that references the environment. You can see the results of an approval or rejection for your deployment by reviewing the details of the deployment. For more information, see "Reviewing deployments."