Summary

Add the ability to view all branches in CircleCI for manual build triggering, regardless of PR status, without automatically triggering builds on every commit.

Current Behavior

Currently, CircleCI provides only two suboptimal options:

Non-PR builds ON: All commits to all branches automatically trigger builds, consuming unnecessary build credits.

Non-PR builds OFF: Branches without PRs are not visible in CircleCI, forcing teams to create placeholder PRs just to access branches for manual builds.

Requested Solution

Implement a third option that allows:

All branches to be visible in CircleCI's UI regardless of PR status

The ability to manually trigger builds on any visible branch

No automatic build triggering for non-PR branches

Use Case

Our workflow involves:

Creating frequent WIP branches for development

Occasionally needing to build specific branches for internal testing

Wanting to conserve build credits by only running builds when necessary

Avoiding PR clutter in our repository

Business Impact

This feature would:

Reduce unnecessary resource consumption and build credits

Eliminate workflow inefficiencies and repository clutter

Improve developer productivity by removing the need for workarounds

Provide greater flexibility in our CI/CD pipeline management

Proposed Implementation

A simple implementation could involve:

A new project setting: "Show all branches for manual builds without auto-triggering"

Branch listing that includes all branches regardless of PR status

Clear UI indication of which branches have automatic builds enabled

This change would significantly improve our team's workflow while maintaining the existing functionality for users who prefer the current behavior.