Change requests in a space
Learn about collaborating on a single change request in a space — including how to review, resolve conflicts and merge
When you’re within a space, you can make changes by opening a new change request, or browse existing change requests to see what other people are working on.
Creating a change request
Inside a space where live edits are disabled, click the Edit button in the space header to start a new change request.
This will open a new change request, where you can edit or delete content as needed. Your changes are saved automatically, and other people can join you in a change request to collaborate in real-time.
When creating a change request, you can add a title and description to provide more context about the changes you’re making.
Once you’re happy with your changes, you can use the button in the header bar to Request a review of your change request, or Merge it directly into the main branch.
Creating a change request with GitBook Agent
GitBook Agent is an AI teammate that can plan and implement change requests based on any instructions you give it.
To open a new change request with GitBook Agent, click the GitBook Agent icon in the upper right corner next to the “Edit” button, and ask GitBook to implement any changes you want.
Some things you can ask it to do include:
Add usage examples
Improve page SEO
Enhance clarity
Check for consistency
Fix typos and spelling errors
Link related content
+ more
Head to Writing with GitBook Agent to learn more.
Previewing a change request
You can preview the changes you’ve made in a change request by clicking the Preview option in the space header. This will switch to a preview of your published docs with the proposed changes included, so you can see your changes in the entire context of your published documentation.
Below the Preview button is a URL for your site preview. Click this and your site preview will open in full in a new tab.
When you open a preview URL in a new tab, you will also see the Preview toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. This toolbar lets you quickly jump back into GitBook to view, edit, or comment on the change request, or open the live version of your site.
If your content is published using share links or authenticated access, the preview function won't appear.
Request a review on a change request
Request a review on your change request when you want to ask members of your team to check your content before you merge the changes into the main branch.
Select the Overview tab in the space header bar to open an overview of your change request — including all the changes you’ve made in diff view.
Here you can add a description to your change request to give your reviewers some context, and tag specific people that you want to check your work.
When you click Request a review, the change request’s status will change to In review, and anyone you tagged in your review request will get a notification.
If your changes don’t require a review, you have the appropriate permissions, and you don’t have any blocking merge rules, you can merge your changes into the main version directly instead.
If you don’t tag anyone in your review request, everyone with reviewer permissions will get a notification about your request. If no reviewers are in the space, the next role above reviewer will be notified.
Diff view
When you open the Changes tab in the space header, the diff view will appear. Diff view highlights every page and block that’s been edited in a change request. It will highlight any edited pages in the table of contents, and on the pages it will show the specific blocks that have been added, edited or removed.
There are two options when using diff view:
Show all pages – This is the default mode for diff view, which will show both modified and non-modified pages in the table of contents. This is good for seeing which pages have been edited in the context of the entire space.
Show only changed pages – This mode will show only the modified pages in the table of contents, which helps you focus on the changed content. This is particularly helpful in larger spaces with many pages and sub-pages.
You can switch to the Changes tab to check the diff view in any change request.
Merging a change request
Merging a change request will add the change request’s changes into the main branch of content, creating an updated version and a new entry in the space’s version history.
You might not be able to merge a change request if you don’t have the right permissions, or if your change request hasn’t passed your organization or space’s merge rules.
Resolving merge conflicts
Sometimes, when you want to merge a change request, you may discover conflicts between the main content and the content you’re trying to merge. In the simplest form, a conflict is a piece of content that could not be merged automatically.
If this happens, you’ll be presented with a conflict alert, and a list of the conflicts you’ll need to resolve before continuing the merge.
You have two options when it comes to resolving a merge conflict — selecting a version to merge or manually editing the content.
Selecting a version to merge
You can resolve a merge conflict by selecting a version you want to merge — either your incoming content, or the content that was previously there. This allows you to choose between one change and another — either your recent work, or the original content.
If you’re dealing with a merge conflict that can be resolved this way, you can select the version you want to keep, and the other version will be deleted.
Manually editing
If you don’t want to choose between versions, you can resolve a merge conflict by manually editing the conflict. You’ll be able to delete the blocks you don’t need, or even rewrite them entirely. Once you’re happy with the changes, you can move on to the next conflict until they’re all resolved.
Archiving a change request
If you decide not to merge a change request and want to remove it from the queue, you can archive it.
To archive a change request, first open it up. Then click the Actions menu 
next to the change request’s title and choose Archive. You can find and reopen archived change requests later by opening the Change Requests menu and selecting the Archived tab.
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