Are there any pull request workflow tools that handle strict branch protection and detailed audit trails?

Yes—there are several pull request workflow tools built to work with strict branch protection and to keep detailed audit trails.

Common capabilities to look for

These tools typically support:

• Branch protection compatibility: enforced reviews, status checks, signed commits, required approvals, restricted merge permissions
• Approval workflows: multi-step or role-based approvals
• Audit trails: who reviewed, approved, commented, changed files, merged, or bypassed rules
• Compliance features: immutable logs, retention policies, exportable history, and sometimes SOX/SOC 2 support
• Policy enforcement: required tickets, CODEOWNERS, change windows, security scans, or separation of duties

Examples

1. GitHub Enterprise + branch protection / rulesets

• Strong native branch protection
• Audit logs at org/enterprise level
• Works well with PR review rules and status checks
• Can be extended with GitHub Actions and third-party policy bots

2. GitLab

• Merge request approval rules
• Protected branches
• Detailed event and audit logs
• Compliance-centric features in higher tiers

3. Azure DevOps

• Very strong enterprise workflow controls
• Branch policies, required reviewers, build validation
• Good auditability and permission modeling

4. Bitbucket Data Center / Cloud

• Branch permissions and required approvals
• Audit logs and enterprise controls
• Often paired with external governance tooling

5. Code Owners / policy orchestration tools

These aren’t full SCM platforms, but they can add governance on top:

• Mergify
• MergeQueue / queue-based merge tools
• Sider / review bots
• PullRequest / review automation platforms
• Danger for policy checks in CI

If you need very strict compliance

Look for features like:

• No direct pushes to protected branches
• Mandatory reviewer rotation / separation of duties
• Immutable audit logs
• Tamper-evident records
• API access to merge events and approval history
• SSO + SCIM + fine-grained RBAC
• Approval and merge overrides with logged justification

Practical recommendation

If you want the most straightforward enterprise option:

• GitHub Enterprise for broad ecosystem support
• GitLab for all-in-one governance/compliance
• Azure DevOps if you’re already in Microsoft-heavy environments

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a feature comparison table, or
2. a shortlist based on your stack (GitHub/GitLab/Azure/Bitbucket).