Merge dev branch with master after semantic release updates it

I’m using two branches, one for development (dev) and one for production (master). I’ve setup semantic releases in my repository, which works as expected for now.

The issue I’m having, when I want to create a release (merge from dev to master) I have to make sure that the dev branch is in sync with master. The reason being having an additional commit due to semantic versioning:

  • master has version 1.1.0
  • dev still has version 1.0.1-dev.6

So before I can merge my new changes to dev I have to first sync master so that dev has v 1.1.0.

My question is is there a way to automate this process. I’ve been reading the gitlab documentation about merge trains which might be what I want. Can someone help me set them up to sync dev with master after release?

This is my test repo where I’m testing my pipeline, but I need this on a self hosted EE instance.