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

• 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

• 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