Source Code

GitLab CLI Skills

Comprehensive GitLab CLI (glab) command reference and workflows.

Quick start

# First time setup
glab auth login

# Common operations
glab mr create --fill              # Create MR from current branch
glab issue create                  # Create issue
glab ci view                       # View pipeline status
glab repo view --web              # Open repo in browser

Skill organization

This skill routes to specialized sub-skills by GitLab domain:

Core Workflows:

glab-mr - Merge requests: create, review, approve, merge
glab-issue - Issues: create, list, update, close, comment
glab-ci - CI/CD: pipelines, jobs, logs, artifacts
glab-repo - Repositories: clone, create, fork, manage

Project Management:

glab-milestone - Release planning and milestone tracking
glab-iteration - Sprint/iteration management
glab-label - Label management and organization
glab-release - Software releases and versioning

Authentication & Config:

glab-auth - Login, logout, Docker registry auth
glab-config - CLI configuration and defaults
glab-ssh-key - SSH key management
glab-gpg-key - GPG keys for commit signing
glab-token - Personal and project access tokens

CI/CD Management:

glab-job - Individual job operations
glab-schedule - Scheduled pipelines and cron jobs
glab-variable - CI/CD variables and secrets
glab-securefile - Secure files for pipelines
glab-runner-controller - Runner controller and token management (EXPERIMENTAL, admin-only)

Collaboration:

glab-user - User profiles and information
glab-snippet - Code snippets (GitLab gists)
glab-incident - Incident management

Advanced:

glab-api - Direct REST API calls
glab-cluster - Kubernetes cluster integration
glab-deploy-key - Deploy keys for automation
glab-stack - Stacked/dependent merge requests
glab-opentofu - Terraform/OpenTofu state management

Utilities:

glab-alias - Custom command aliases
glab-completion - Shell autocompletion
glab-help - Command help and documentation
glab-version - Version information
glab-check-update - Update checker
glab-changelog - Changelog generation
glab-attestation - Software supply chain security
glab-duo - GitLab Duo AI assistant
glab-mcp - Model Context Protocol server for AI assistant integration (EXPERIMENTAL)

When to use glab vs web UI

Use glab when:

Automating GitLab operations in scripts
Working in terminal-centric workflows
Batch operations (multiple MRs/issues)
Integration with other CLI tools
CI/CD pipeline workflows
Faster navigation without browser context switching

Use web UI when:

Complex diff review with inline comments
Visual merge conflict resolution
Configuring repo settings and permissions
Advanced search/filtering across projects
Reviewing security scanning results
Managing group/instance-level settings

Common workflows

Daily development

# Start work on issue
glab issue view 123
git checkout -b 123-feature-name

# Create MR when ready
glab mr create --fill --draft

# Mark ready for review
glab mr update --ready

# Merge after approval
glab mr merge --when-pipeline-succeeds --remove-source-branch

Code review

# List your review queue
glab mr list --reviewer=@me --state=opened

# Review an MR
glab mr checkout 456
glab mr diff
npm test

# Approve
glab mr approve 456
glab mr note 456 -m "LGTM! Nice work on the error handling."

CI/CD debugging

# Check pipeline status
glab ci status

# View failed jobs
glab ci view

# Get job logs
glab ci trace <job-id>

# Retry failed job
glab ci retry <job-id>

Decision Trees

"Should I create an MR or work on an issue first?"

Need to track work?
├─ Yes → Create issue first (glab issue create)
│         Then: glab mr for <issue-id>
└─ No → Direct MR (glab mr create --fill)

Use glab issue create + glab mr for when:

Work needs discussion/approval before coding
Tracking feature requests or bugs
Sprint planning and assignment
Want issue to auto-close when MR merges

Use glab mr create directly when:

Quick fixes or typos
Working from existing issue
Hotfixes or urgent changes

"Which CI command should I use?"

What do you need?
├─ Overall pipeline status → glab ci status
├─ Visual pipeline view → glab ci view
├─ Specific job logs → glab ci trace <job-id>
├─ Download build artifacts → glab ci artifact <ref> <job-name>
├─ Validate config file → glab ci lint
├─ Trigger new run → glab ci run
└─ List all pipelines → glab ci list

Quick reference:

Pipeline-level: glab ci status, glab ci view, glab ci run
Job-level: glab ci trace, glab job retry, glab job view
Artifacts: glab ci artifact (by pipeline) or job artifacts via glab job

"Clone or fork?"

What's your relationship to the repo?
├─ You have write access → glab repo clone group/project
├─ Contributing to someone else's project:
│   ├─ One-time contribution → glab repo fork + work + MR
│   └─ Ongoing contributions → glab repo fork, then sync regularly
└─ Just reading/exploring → glab repo clone (or view --web)

Fork when:

You don't have write access to the original repo
Contributing to open source projects
Experimenting without affecting the original
Need your own copy for long-term work

Clone when:

You're a project member with write access
Working on organization/team repositories
No need for a personal copy

"Project vs group labels?"

Where should the label live?
├─ Used across multiple projects → glab label create --group <group>
└─ Specific to one project → glab label create (in project directory)

Group-level labels:

Consistent labeling across organization
Examples: priority::high, type::bug, status::blocked
Managed centrally, inherited by projects

Project-level labels:

Project-specific workflows
Examples: needs-ux-review, deploy-to-staging
Managed by project maintainers

Related Skills

MR and Issue workflows:

Start with glab-issue to create/track work
Use glab-mr to create MR that closes issue
Script: scripts/create-mr-from-issue.sh automates this

CI/CD debugging:

Use glab-ci for pipeline-level operations
Use glab-job for individual job operations
Script: scripts/ci-debug.sh for quick failure diagnosis

Repository operations:

Use glab-repo for repository management
Use glab-auth for authentication setup
Script: scripts/sync-fork.sh for fork synchronization

Configuration:

Use glab-auth for initial authentication
Use glab-config to set defaults and preferences
Use glab-alias for custom shortcuts

gitlab-cli-skills