Quality Gate is a quality control mechanism used in software development to ensure code meets predefined standards before moving to production or further stages of the pipeline. It is typically integrated into the Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) workflow and automatically evaluates code against specific metrics such as test coverage, code duplication, bugs, and security vulnerabilities.

The purpose of a quality gate is to maintain a minimum level of code quality and prevent technical debt from accumulating in the codebase. If the code does not meet the required thresholds, the quality gate blocks the pipeline, forcing the developers to address the issues before proceeding. Tools like SonarQube are widely used to set up and enforce quality gates by analyzing the code in real-time and generating reports.

A quality gate helps teams maintain consistent code quality across multiple developers and projects by providing a standardized way to assess the code. It enforces coding best practices, improves maintainability, and reduces the risk of bugs making it into production. Over time, it leads to fewer production issues and faster release cycles by ensuring that the code remains stable throughout development.