How to handle declined GitLab MRs in Jira Automation?

[Guelmis Martínez]

I'm looking for recommendations on the best way to automatically transition a Jira issue to "Rejected" when the linked GitLab merge request is declined.

The main constraint is that GitLab only includes "open" and "closed" states for MRs. There is no distinct "declined" or "rejected" state sent and they only have open threads to prevent a merge from happening. At least to my knowledge extent.

I'd love any suggestions from the community on how you have auto-handled declined merge requests using Jira Automation and GitLab events.

What is the cleanest approach? Is there a way to reliably infer a decline without introducing many false positives?

Alternatively, should I handle declined MRs through a different Jira workflow?

Any guidance is much appreciated! I'm sure others have faced similar issues syncing GitLab and Jira states.