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Commit Status - CI/CD Glossary Definition

A commit status is a pass/fail state attached to a specific commit by CI or an external service.

A commit status is a state (error, failure, pending, or success) posted against a commit SHA through the GitHub Statuses API, each identified by a context name. Statuses are the older mechanism that predates Check Runs.

Statuses vs checks

Commit statuses are simple state + context + target URL entries. Check Runs are richer (annotations, output, re-run support). Both can be marked as required for merging.

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