Azure DevOps Repos

Azure DevOps Repos

Shared Workflow Routing

• Use the shared workflow spec for deterministic multi-plugin routing: workflows/multi-plugin-workflows.md.
• Apply the trigger phrases, handoff contracts, auth prerequisites, validation checkpoints, and stop conditions before escalating to the next plugin.

Overview

Azure Repos provides unlimited free private Git repositories with enterprise-grade pull request workflows, branch policies, and code search. Every repository supports branch policies that enforce code quality gates — minimum reviewers, build validation, comment resolution, work item linking, and merge strategy control.

Git authentication supports multiple passwordless options: Git Credential Manager (GCM) with Entra OAuth broker, SSH keys, Workload Identity Federation (WIF) for CI/CD, and managed identity for Azure-hosted compute. PATs remain supported but are discouraged for interactive use.

REST API — Repositories

REST API — Pull Requests

Create PR Body

{
  "sourceRefName": "refs/heads/feature/auth",
  "targetRefName": "refs/heads/main",
  "title": "Add OAuth 2.0 PKCE authentication",
  "description": "Implements the PKCE flow for SPA clients.\n\nCloses #1234",
  "reviewers": [{ "id": "<reviewer-user-id>" }],
  "isDraft": false,
  "completionOptions": {
    "mergeStrategy": "squash",
    "deleteSourceBranch": true,
    "transitionWorkItems": true
  }
}

REST API — Branch Policies

Policy Type GUIDs

Git Authentication — Quick Reference

Best Practices

• Use GCM with Entra OAuth for interactive Git access — eliminates PAT management overhead.
• Configure branch policies on main and release/*: minimum 2 reviewers, build validation, comment resolution.
• Use refs/heads/ prefix consistently in API calls (not bare branch names).
• Enable auto-complete on PRs to merge immediately when all checks pass.
• Use squash merge for feature branches, merge commit for release branches.
• Link work items to PRs via #1234 syntax in PR description for traceability.
• Use code search API for cross-repo dependency discovery.
• Rotate PATs on a 90-day schedule; prefer WIF for automation.

Progressive Disclosure — Reference Files