Skills glab

Name: glab
Author: openclaw

GitLab CLI for managing issues, merge requests, CI/CD pipelines, and repositories. Use when: (1) Creating, reviewing, or merging MRs, (2) Managing GitLab issues, (3) Monitoring or triggering CI/CD pipelines, (4) Working with self-hosted GitLab instances, (5) Automating GitLab workflows from the command line. Requires GITLAB_TOKEN (recommend minimal scopes). The `glab api` command enables arbitrary API calls - use read-only tokens when possible.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/bezkom/glab" ~/.claude/skills/openclaw-skills-glab && rm -rf "$T"

OpenClaw · Install into ~/.openclaw/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/bezkom/glab" ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-skills-glab && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/bezkom/glab/SKILL.md

GitLab CLI (glab)

Official CLI for GitLab. Manage issues, merge requests, pipelines, and more from the terminal.

Source: Inspired by NikiforovAll/glab-skill on Smithery.

⚠️ Security Notice

The

glab api

command provides unrestricted GitLab API access with your token.

A compromised or overly-permissive token can delete projects, modify settings, expose secrets
Recommendation: Use tokens with minimal scopes:
- ```
read_api
```
  - Read-only operations
- ```
api
```
  - Full access (only when write operations needed)
For automation, consider project-level tokens with limited scope
Never use tokens with
```
sudo
```
scope unless required

Prerequisites

Required binaries:

```
glab
```
- GitLab CLI
```
jq
```
- JSON processor (for scripts and API parsing)

Required credentials:

```
GITLAB_TOKEN
```
- GitLab personal access token

Optional configuration:

```
GITLAB_HOST
```
- Self-hosted GitLab instance (default: gitlab.com)

# Verify installation
glab --version
jq --version

# Authenticate (interactive)
glab auth login

# Or via environment
export GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
export GITLAB_HOST="gitlab.example.org"  # for self-hosted

# Verify auth
glab auth status

Quick Reference

Merge Requests:

glab mr create --title "Fix" --description "Closes #123"
glab mr list --reviewer=@me          # MRs awaiting your review
glab mr checkout 123                  # Test MR locally
glab mr approve 123 && glab mr merge 123

Issues:

glab issue create --title "Bug" --label=bug
glab issue list --assignee=@me
glab issue close 456

CI/CD:

glab ci status                        # Current pipeline status
glab pipeline ci view                 # Watch pipeline live
glab ci lint                          # Validate .gitlab-ci.yml
glab ci retry                         # Retry failed pipeline

Working Outside Repo:

glab mr list -R owner/repo            # Specify repository

Advanced API Access:

See references/api-advanced.md for

glab api

usage. This command enables arbitrary GitLab API calls and should be used with appropriately-scoped tokens.

Core Workflows

Create and Merge MR

# 1. Push branch
git push -u origin feature-branch

# 2. Create MR
glab mr create --title "Add feature" --description "Implements X" --reviewer=alice,bob --label="enhancement"

# 3. After approval, merge
glab mr approve 123
glab mr merge 123 --remove-source-branch

Review MR

# List MRs for review
glab mr list --reviewer=@me

# Checkout and test
glab mr checkout 123

# Approve or comment
glab mr approve 123
glab mr note 123 -m "Looks good, just one suggestion..."

Monitor Pipeline

# Watch current branch pipeline
glab pipeline ci view

# Check specific pipeline
glab ci view 456

# View failed job logs
glab ci trace

# Retry
glab ci retry

Self-Hosted GitLab

# Set default host
export GITLAB_HOST=gitlab.example.org

# Or per-command
glab mr list -R gitlab.example.org/owner/repo

Scripts

Script	Description
`glab-mr-await.sh`	Wait for MR approval and successful pipeline
`glab-pipeline-watch.sh`	Monitor pipeline with exit codes for CI

# Wait for MR to be approved and merged
./scripts/glab-mr-await.sh 123 --timeout 600

# Watch pipeline, exit 0 on success, 1 on failure
./scripts/glab-pipeline-watch.sh --timeout 300

Script environment variables:

```
TIMEOUT
```
- Max wait time in seconds (default varies by script)
```
INTERVAL
```
- Polling interval in seconds (default 5-10s)

Troubleshooting

Error	Fix
`command not found: glab`	Install glab
`command not found: jq`	Install jq
`401 Unauthorized`	Set `GITLAB_TOKEN` or run `glab auth login`
`404 Project Not Found`	Verify repo name and permissions
`not a git repository`	Use `-R owner/repo` flag
`source branch already has MR`	`glab mr list` to find existing

For detailed troubleshooting, see references/troubleshooting.md.

Progressive Disclosure

references/api-advanced.md -
```
glab api
```
usage with security considerations
references/commands-detailed.md - Full command reference with all flags
references/troubleshooting.md - Detailed error scenarios and solutions

Load these when you need specific flag details or are debugging issues.

Best Practices

Always verify auth:
```
glab auth status
```
Use minimal-scope tokens for read operations
Link MRs to issues: "Closes #123" in description
Lint CI config before pushing:
```
glab ci lint
```
Use
```
--output=json
```
for scripting
Most commands have
```
--web
```
to open in browser