In a gitlab pipeline, I have 3 jobs from 3 stages for deploying to an environment, eg. staging environment. In real application, the first stage is bootstrap stack, the second is application stack proposed changes and third stage is apply changes to application stack. All apply changes to staging environment. I have mocked the current pipeline with a test pipeline which is given below. I have when: manual in the deploy stage stage’s job and have defined needs for second stage and the third stage. When pipeline is approved at first stage it also requires approval at other two stages.

I want only one approval should be enough to complete the deployment to staging environment.

This is how the current pipeline setup looks like:

stages:
    - build
    - deploy dev
    - test dev feature
    - deploy stage
    - test stage deploy
    - integration test stage
    - deploy prod
    - go live

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo "Build artifacts"

deploy_dev:
  stage: deploy dev
  environment: dev
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to dev" > deploy_dev.log
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - deploy_dev.log

test_feature_dev:
  stage: test dev feature
  environment: dev
  script:
    - echo "test the developer feature" > dev_feature.log
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dev_feature.log

deploy_stage:
  stage: deploy stage
  environment: stg
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to staging env" > deploy_stg.log
  only:
    - main
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - deploy_stg.log
  when: manual

test_feature_stage:
  stage: test stage deploy
  environment: stg
  script:
    - echo "test the staging" > stage_feature.log
  only:
    - main
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - stage_feature.log
  needs:
    - deploy_stage

integration_test_stage:
  stage: integration test stage
  environment: stg
  script:
    - echo "integratin test" > integration_test.log
  only:
    - main
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - integration_test.log
  needs:
    - test_feature_stage

deploy_prod:
  stage: deploy prod
  environment: prod
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to production env" > deploy_prod.log
  only:
    - main
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - deploy_prod.log
  when: manual

go_live:
  stage: go live
  environment: prod
  script:
  - echo "Going live... stay tuned -> "
  only:
    - main
  needs:
    - deploy_prod

After manual approval at deploy stage, the test stage deploy and integration test stage should run by itself without need for an approval. However, the pipeline enters the block at test stage deploy and also at integration test stage and requires manual approval.

Additional information, in pipeline setup, the 2 approval rules are in place: A maintainer group which can approve the build and A maintainer + developer group who can deploy to stage environment.

I need only one approval should be enough which is at deploy stage. However, have to provide approval at all thress stages. Any pointers how it can be fixed?