Azure Repos and Artifacts

Azure Repos and Azure Artifacts are the source control and package management components of Azure DevOps. Together, they provide a secure, scalable foundation for managing your code and its dependencies throughout the development lifecycle.

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Azure Repos: Git Source Control

Azure Repos provides unlimited free private Git repositories with enterprise-grade features for code collaboration.

Repository Management

# Clone a repository
git clone https://dev.azure.com/myorg/myproject/_git/my-repo

# Create a new branch
git checkout -b feature/add-user-api

# Push and set upstream
git push -u origin feature/add-user-api

Repository Settings

Setting	Description
Default branch	The main branch (usually main)
Permissions	Who can read, contribute, manage, and force-push
Branch policies	Quality gates applied to specific branches
Cross-repo policies	Policies that apply to all repositories in a project
Commit message validation	Enforce commit message formats

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Branch Policies in Detail

Branch policies are one of the most important features of Azure Repos. They enforce quality standards before code reaches your main branch.

Available Policies

Policy	Description
Require a minimum number of reviewers	At least N people must approve the PR
Check for linked work items	Every PR must reference a work item
Check for comment resolution	All review comments must be resolved
Limit merge types	Allow only squash, rebase, or basic merge
Build validation	One or more CI pipelines must succeed
Status checks	External services must report a successful status
Automatically include reviewers	Add specific reviewers based on file paths
Reset approval on push	Require re-approval when new changes are pushed

Build Validation

Build validation is perhaps the most critical policy — it ensures no code reaches your main branch without passing CI:

Developer opens PR → CI pipeline runs automatically → Tests pass → Reviewers approve → Merge allowed

If the CI pipeline fails, the PR cannot be completed. This prevents broken builds from reaching the main branch.

Automatic Reviewers

You can automatically add reviewers based on the file paths changed:

Path Pattern	Required Reviewer
/src/security/*	Security team
/infra/*	Platform team
/src/api/payments/*	Payments team lead
*.sql	DBA team

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Pull Request Workflows

Creating a Pull Request

A pull request (PR) is the standard way to merge code:

1. Create a feature branch and push changes
2. Open a PR in Azure DevOps (or use the CLI)
3. Reviewers examine the code, leave comments, and approve
4. CI pipelines run automatically (build validation)
5. When all policies are satisfied, complete the PR

PR Merge Strategies

Strategy	Result	Best For
Merge commit	Creates a merge commit preserving all branch history	Teams that want full history
Squash merge	Combines all branch commits into a single commit	Clean, linear history
Rebase	Replays commits on top of the target branch	Linear history without merge commits
Semi-linear merge	Rebase + merge commit	Linear history with merge points

PR Auto-Complete

Set a PR to auto-complete when all policies are satisfied:

• The PR merges automatically once reviewers approve and CI passes
• Optional: delete the source branch after merge
• Optional: link work items to the PR for automatic state transitions

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Code Search

Azure Repos provides powerful code search across all repositories:

• Full-text search — search code, comments, and commit messages
• Regex support — use regular expressions for precise matching
• Filters — narrow results by repository, branch, file path, or file type
• Semantic search — find classes, methods, and functions by name

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Azure Artifacts: Package Management

Azure Artifacts provides hosted package feeds for managing your internal and external dependencies.

Why Use Azure Artifacts?