---
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 broken tests. When
enabled, tests that are classified as broken are quarantined without manual
intervention.

This is useful for teams that want hands-off management of consistently
failing 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.