Quality gates that block stories from "done" until AC are verified, tests pass, and review is complete.

Most teams have a Definition of Done that lives on a Confluence page nobody reads. Stride enforces it: stories can't transition to Done until AC are verified, tests pass, code is reviewed, and any other team-specific gates are met. Drift between intent and reality drops to zero.

The problem

Definitions of Done are aspirational. In practice, stories get marked Done because the engineer thinks they're done — before tests, before docs, before security review, before the AC are actually verified. The work gets accepted, the tech debt accumulates, and the team retrospectives note 'we keep accepting stories that aren't done' for the fifth quarter in a row.

How Stride solves it

Stride lets you define quality gates per project: AC verified, tests passing in CI, code reviewed and approved, security scan passed, performance test green, docs updated. Stories visually cannot move to Done until every gate clears. The DoD becomes enforced, not aspirational.

Per-project quality-gate config (AC, tests, review, security, performance, docs)
Visual indicator on every story showing which gates are clear / pending / failed
Automated gates: CI passing, security scan, accessibility audit (via integrations)
Human gates: AC verified by PM, code reviewed by 2+ people, design review
Override flow: time-pressure exceptions go through an explicit override with rationale captured
Audit log: who overrode which gate when (compliance-friendly)

Best for

Teams whose retrospectives consistently surface "we accept stories before they're really done" — and who have leadership willing to enforce the discipline.

Not for

Teams without an existing DoD to formalise — start with /glossary/definition-of-done first. Also not a fit for teams whose 'gates' are entirely informal and would resent a tool surface enforcing them; in that case, the social contract isn't ready.

Frequently asked

What if a gate breaks at deploy time (e.g. CI flake)?

The story stays in In Review until the gate clears. Flakes are flagged distinctly from real failures — the team sees "gate failing due to flake" with the test-flake history attached. Re-running the gate is a one-click action.

Can I override a gate in an emergency?

Yes — every gate has an override with a required rationale field. The override is captured in the audit log with who, when, why. Most teams configure overrides to require a senior engineer's approval and a post-hoc retrospective entry.

How do quality gates interact with the sprint?

Stories with un-cleared gates don't count toward sprint completion. The retrospective shows the gap clearly: 8 stories closed, but only 5 fully passed every gate. The team decides whether to ship the partials or hold.

What integrations power the automated gates?

GitHub Actions (CI status), GitHub PR review state, Snyk/Sentry (security scan), axe-core (a11y), Lighthouse (performance). Plus any webhook-driven status checker you can POST to /api/quality-gates/check.

See quality gates in Stride

14 days of Stride Pro, no credit card. The sample project includes every module so you can explore end-to-end in five minutes.

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