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Last Reviewed: 2026-06-24

External Repositories

Introduction

Pantheon's external repository integration connects a GitHub or GitLab repository directly to a Pantheon site.

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Pantheon's external repository integration connects a GitHub or GitLab repository directly to a Pantheon site. This allows you to use your preferred VCS provider as your code repository while still using Pantheon to run your site.

Once enabled, this integration accommodates a pull request (GitHub) or merge request (GitLab) workflow where a Multidev environment is created for each open PR or MR. This allows you to test the code before merging it.

Diagram of the external repositories process of deploying a PR to a Pantheon Multidev

Merging a pull or merge request, or pushing code directly to the main branch, automatically deploys the code to the Pantheon Dev environment.

Diagram of the external repositories process of deploying main to Pantheon

How This Differs from Build Tools

The external repository integration is distinct from Build Tools. Build Tools uses a CI service (such as CircleCI or GitHub Actions) as an intermediary to build and deploy your site. The external repository integration connects your repository directly to Pantheon without requiring a separate CI pipeline.

More Resources

  • Multidev - Learn about Pantheon's Multidev environments created for each pull request or merge request
  • Next.js Documentation - Official Next.js documentation