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