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+# Authorization for Merge requests
+
+There are two main ways to have a merge request flow with GitLab: working with protected branches in a single repository, or working with forks of an authoritative project.
+
+## Protected branch flow
+
+With the protected branch flow everybody works within the same GitLab project.
+
+The project maintainers get Master access and the regular developers get Developer access.
+
+The maintainers mark the authoritative branches as 'Protected'.
+
+The developers push feature branches to the project and create merge requests to have their feature branches reviewed and merged into one of the protected branches.
+
+Only users with Master access can merge changes into a protected branch.
+
+### Advantages
+
+- fewer projects means less clutter
+- developers need to consider only one remote repository
+
+### Disadvantages
+
+- manual setup of protected branch required for each new project
+
+## Forking workflow
+
+With the forking workflow the maintainers get Master access and the regular developers get Reporter access to the authoritative repository, which prohibits them from pushing any changes to it.
+
+Developers create forks of the authoritative project and push their feature branches to their own forks.
+
+To get their changes into master they need to create a merge request across forks.
+
+### Advantages
+
+- in an appropriately configured GitLab group, new projects automatically get the required access restrictions for regular developers: fewer manual steps to configure authorization for new projects
+
+### Disadvantages
+
+- the project need to keep their forks up to date, which requires more advanced Git skills (managing multiple remotes)