External users can freely upload their new data to the datahub repository. Currently, however, as part of this upload process, studies must manually be imported into a staging database, which presents a hassle for both users and maintainers, and impedes the quality control review process for adding new studies to cBioPortal.

This could be improved via an addition of an automated deployment process which triggers upon PR creation, spinning up a staging environment with the new data already imported. This staging environment could also automatically be spun down when the corresponding PR is closed or merged.

For more insight into the specifics of this issue, see here.