GitLab

GitLab

Connect Operator to GitLab for repository management and merge requests.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Purpose	Verification
git	Version control	git --version
glab	GitLab CLI	glab --version
GitLab account	Repository access	-
Push access	Create branches/MRs	-

Install GitLab CLI

The glab CLI handles authentication and API operations. Operator uses glab directly rather than raw API calls.

macOS

brew install glab

Linux

# Debian/Ubuntu
curl -fsSL https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cli/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/glab_amd64.deb -o glab.deb
sudo dpkg -i glab.deb

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install glab

Windows

winget install --id GLab.GLab

Authenticate

The glab CLI manages authentication, including OAuth flows and credential storage:

glab auth login

Follow the prompts to authenticate via browser or token. Verify with:

glab auth status

Configuration

Add GitLab to your Operator configuration:

# ~/.config/operator/config.toml

[git.gitlab]
enabled = true
token_env = "GITLAB_TOKEN"       # env var for token (used as fallback if glab CLI auth is unavailable)
host = "gitlab.com"              # or your self-hosted instance (e.g., "gitlab.example.com")

If token_env is set, export the token:

export GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-xxxxx"

Merge request operations (create, monitor, review tracking) are not yet implemented. Provider detection, configuration, and glab CLI authentication work today.

Provider Auto-Detection

Operator auto-detects GitLab from your git remote URL, including self-hosted instances (any URL containing gitlab.):

# All of these are auto-detected as GitLab:
git@gitlab.com:owner/repo.git
https://gitlab.com/owner/repo
https://gitlab.example.com/owner/repo

You can also set the provider explicitly:

[git]
provider = "gitlab"

Shared Git Settings

Branch naming and worktree settings live under the shared [git] section (see Supported Git Repositories for details):

[git]
branch_format = "{type}/{ticket_id}"
use_worktrees = false

Troubleshooting

Authentication errors

Check your auth status:

glab auth status

Permission denied

Ensure you have push access to the repository and your glab session is authenticated.

Self-hosted connectivity

If using a self-hosted GitLab instance, verify the host value in your config matches the instance hostname and that the instance is reachable:

glab auth status --hostname gitlab.example.com