Gitlab Cli Skills

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