A pull request has two state: APPROVED reviews from different reviewers. Branch protection requires required_approvals: 1. The merge attempt returns HTTP 405 — "Does not have enough approvals". The protection config looks correct, the reviews look correct, and the error message looks misleading. The actual root cause is hidden in a field most operators never check: official.

What official means#

Every Gitea review carries an official boolean. Branch protection’s required_approvals counts only reviews where official: true. A reviewer’s APPROVE only flips to official: true if they were a write-level repository collaborator at the moment the review was filed.