Problem

Currently, OneDev has a built-in CreateBranchStep that can be used in CI/CD jobs to automatically create a branch when an issue transitions to a certain state. This is great.

However, there is no equivalent CreatePullRequestStep. To auto-create a pull request after the branch is created, you have to write a CommandStep with a curl call to the REST API (POST /~api/pulls), which requires:

• Setting up access tokens and job secrets
• Hardcoding or looking up project IDs
• Manually constructing JSON payloads
• Figuring out the correct API authentication

This is unnecessarily complex for what should be a basic workflow.

Desired Solution

Add a CreatePullRequestStep as a first-class built-in step type (just like CreateBranchStep), with the following fields:

• Source Branch - supporting variables like @suggested_issue_branch@
• Target Branch - defaulting to the project's default branch (e.g., main)
• Title - supporting variables like Issue @issue_number@ - @issue_title@
• Description - supporting variables, defaulting to something like fix #@issue_number@
• Merge Strategy - dropdown (Create Merge Commit, Squash, Rebase)
• Reviewer IDs - optional
• Assignee IDs - optional

Use Case

The ideal workflow that many teams expect (and that GitLab CE provides with one click) is:

1. Create an issue
2. Transition issue to "In Progress"
3. Branch is auto-created ✅ (already possible with CreateBranchStep)
4. Pull request is auto-created ❌ (this is the missing piece)
5. Developer works on the branch and commits with fix #123
6. PR is merged → issue auto-closes

Example Build Spec (Desired)

jobs:
- name: Auto Create Issue Branch and PR
  steps:
  - type: CreateBranchStep
    name: Create Branch
    branchName: '@suggested_issue_branch@'
    branchRevision: main
  - type: CreatePullRequestStep
    name: Create Pull Request
    sourceBranch: '@suggested_issue_branch@'
    targetBranch: main
    title: '@issue_number@ - @issue_title@'
    description: 'fix #@issue_number@'
    mergeStrategy: CREATE_MERGE_COMMIT
  triggers:
  - type: IssueInStateTrigger
    state: In Progress

Why This Matters

• The CreateBranchStep was a fantastic addition - this is the natural next step
• The REST API workaround is fragile and requires managing secrets/tokens
• GitLab CE offers this as a one-click workflow out of the box
• This would make OneDev's issue → branch → PR → merge → close workflow fully seamless without any API hacking

Thank you for considering this. OneDev's CI/CD flexibility is already incredibly powerful - this would complete the picture and allow us to migrate away from OneDev GitLab