Mergepatrol vs Mergify

2026-10-31

Mergify is one of the longest-running merge queues for GitHub, configured with rules in .mergify.yml. Mergepatrol is a newer, open-source queue that puts a coding agent on the two things that eject pull requests most: rebase conflicts and failed checks. Checked against Mergify’s docs, changelog and pricing on 31 October 2026.

At a glance

	Mergify	Mergepatrol
Price	Open Source $0; Free $0 for up to 5 users on private repos; Max $21 a seat a month; Enterprise custom	Public repos free; private repos $15 a seat a month after a 14-day trial; self-hosted free
Configuration	`.mergify.yml`: `queue_rules`, conditions, priorities, scopes	`.mergepatrol/mergepatrol.yml`: label, batch size, verify commands, agent settings, extra branches
Batching	`batch_size`, `batch_max_wait_time`; a failed batch is bisected	`batch_size`; a failed batch is split in half down to the PR that broke it
Parallel testing	Up to 128 speculative checks	No speculative builds: one batch of up to `batch_size` PRs (8 by default)
A PR that conflicts with its base	We found no conflict resolution in Mergify’s docs	An agent resolves the conflict, your `verify` commands run, and the PR keeps its place
A required check that fails	Back to its author. Mergify can hand a quarantined flaky test to Claude Code or Cursor as a prompt	An agent commits a fix on the PR, up to `fix_ci.attempts` times
Stacked PRs	Queues GitHub stacked PRs; a stack enters the queue together	A `gh stack` stack queues and merges as one item, all or nothing
Agent code review	No	Optional, per workspace
Source	Proprietary SaaS	Apache-2.0, self-hostable

Where Mergify is the better fit

Large monorepos with many concurrent builds. Speculative checks, scopes and two-step CI let Mergify test many queued pull requests in parallel, which a team landing hundreds of PRs a day may need.
Rule-heavy workflows. If you want queue behaviour driven by conditions on labels, paths, authors and checks, Mergify’s rules engine is built for it.
Small private teams that want to pay nothing. Mergify’s free plan covers up to 5 users on private repos; Mergepatrol’s private plan is paid after the trial.

Where Mergepatrol is the better fit

Pull requests keep getting ejected for conflicts. Mergepatrol runs a plain git rebase first and an agent only on a real conflict, then your verify commands, before anything is pushed. See Resolve rebase conflicts automatically.
Failed checks that the PR could fix. The fix agent reads the failure and commits a fix on the PR while it keeps its place. A failure that is not the PR’s, such as a flaky test, ejects it.
You want a short config. A label to queue, a batch size, and the commands that check an agent’s work. Most repos run on the defaults the setup PR writes.
You want to run it yourself. Mergepatrol is Apache-2.0 and starts with docker compose up.
Coding agents queue your PRs. An MCP server lets an agent queue, read and review PRs with its own GitHub token.

Switching

Install Mergepatrol on the repositories and merge its setup PR.
Remove the repo’s queue_rules from .mergify.yml, or uninstall Mergify there. Two queues on one branch race each other for merges.
Set batch_size in .mergepatrol/mergepatrol.yml to what you used in Mergify, and verify to your fastest checks.
Change whatever queued with Mergify, a label or a command, to add the mergepatrol label. <label>:priority jumps the queue.

FAQ

Does Mergify resolve merge conflicts? We found no conflict resolution in Mergify’s documentation as of 31 October 2026. Its AI feature for failing CI hands a quarantined test to Claude Code or Cursor as a prompt, outside the queue.

Does Mergepatrol support priorities? Yes, with a second label, mergepatrol:priority by default, or priority on the queue_pull MCP tool. It has no rules engine beyond that.