---
title: Mitigation
description: Quarantine problematic tests to unblock CI without losing visibility.
---

When a flaky or broken test blocks CI, teams face a tough choice: fix it
immediately, delete it, or ignore it. Quarantine offers a better option. The
test keeps running, but its failures no longer block merges. You maintain full
visibility without disruption.

## How quarantine works

A quarantined test still executes in your CI pipeline and its results are
still collected by Mergify. The difference is that failures are ignored for
merge decisions.

This means:

- Your CI stays green while you work on a fix

- Historical data is preserved, so you can track whether the test improves
  or worsens over time

- Other team members can see the test is quarantined and why

Quarantine works on any branch, not just the default branch.

:::note
  Quarantined tests must still be uploaded through one of the supported CI
  integrations. See the
  [test framework configuration](/ci-insights#test-framework-configuration)
  for setup details.
:::

## Manual quarantine

You can manually add or remove specific tests from quarantine through the
Mergify dashboard. This is useful when you've identified a problematic test
through [Detection](/test-insights/detection) and want to stop it from
blocking your team while you investigate.

For technical details on how quarantine integrates with your CI pipeline,
see the [Quarantine documentation](/ci-insights/quarantine).

## Auto-quarantine

Auto-quarantine lets Mergify automatically quarantine tests without manual
intervention. By default, only flaky tests are quarantined automatically.
You can also enable quarantining of known broken tests through an additional
option.

This is useful for teams that want hands-off management of unreliable tests.
You can enable or disable auto-quarantine per repository from the Mitigation
page in the dashboard.

## Practical workflows

### Quarantining a test from Detection

When you identify a high-impact flaky or broken test in
[Detection](/test-insights/detection), you can quarantine it directly to
stop it from blocking merges while you work on a fix.

### Reviewing quarantined tests

Periodically check the Mitigation page to review quarantined tests. Look
for tests whose health status has improved; these may be ready to be
removed from quarantine.

### Enabling auto-quarantine

For repositories where broken tests frequently block CI, enable
auto-quarantine to let Mergify handle it automatically. This reduces manual
overhead and keeps your CI pipeline moving.

## Setup

Mitigation uses the same CI integration as Detection. To ensure quarantine
works correctly, your CI must be configured to check quarantine status. See
the [Quarantine documentation](/ci-insights/quarantine) for technical setup
details.