# `author_value`

If the PR author is a also an eligible reviewer, you can count their approval automatically.

An author's own review never counts toward [`require`](require.md) — even on platforms that allow self-approval (GitLab allows it by default on the Free tier). `author_value` is the one way to give the author credit toward their own PR.

By default, `author_value` is `0`. Typically you will use `1` to count the author as one approval, but you can use bigger numbers to give the author more weight in the approval process.

```toml
[[scopes]]
name = "app"
author_value = 1
require = 1
reviewers = ["dev1"]
```