Quality gates

A quality gate converts a release comparison into a repeatable approval policy. It belongs to one project and applies to one exact evaluation suite and environment.

Use a gate when “the candidate looks acceptable” needs to become explicit rules such as:

• Evaluate at least 50 cases.
• Keep correctness pass rate at or above 95%.
• Allow no more than a two-percentage-point correctness regression.
• Keep P95 trace duration within 15% of the baseline.

How a gate is evaluated

Completed candidate + completed baseline
                ↓
Same suite and environment
                ↓
Minimum case count + every configured rule
                ↓
pass | fail | insufficient_data

The candidate and baseline must be different completed runs with the same suite and environment. The gate must match that same scope.

Interpret the verdict

Verdict	Meaning	Release action
pass	The minimum case count and every rule passed.	The gate approves this comparison.
fail	At least one calculable rule exceeded its limit.	Investigate the failed rules and changed cases.
insufficient_data	Lens could not calculate one or more requirements.	Fix the evidence; do not treat it as approval.

A failure takes precedence over insufficient data when both occur. Otherwise, any insufficient rule makes the overall verdict insufficient_data.

What a gate does not do

Lens evaluates and records the policy result. The web comparison does not merge a pull request, deploy a service, or stop a build. Use the authenticated public endpoint described in CI enforcement when the verdict must control automation.

Quality gates are also available as an alert signal. A Failed quality gate alert can open an in-product incident for fail or insufficient_data; a later passing check for the same gate and run pair resolves it. See Alert rules.

Ownership

All project members can view gates and apply them in Compare. Only owners and admins can create, edit, or delete them. Gate names are unique within a project, ignoring case.

Deleting a gate also removes alert rules that depend on it. It does not remove earlier evaluation runs.

Start with Configure gates, then wire the stable policy into CI enforcement.