gitlab-ci

GitLab CI/CD

Automate your software delivery pipeline with GitLab's integrated CI/CD system.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Setting up CI/CD pipelines in GitLab
• Configuring GitLab runners (shared or self-hosted)
• Creating multi-stage deployment pipelines
• Implementing GitLab Auto DevOps
• Managing CI/CD variables and secrets

Prerequisites

• GitLab repository (gitlab.com or self-hosted)
• Basic understanding of YAML
• For self-hosted runners: Linux server or Kubernetes cluster

Pipeline Configuration

Create .gitlab-ci.yml in repository root:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

variables:
  NODE_VERSION: "20"

build:
  stage: build
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/
    expire_in: 1 hour

test:
  stage: test
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm test
  coverage: '/Coverage: \d+\.\d+%/'

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://example.com
  only:
    - main

Job Configuration

Rules-Based Execution

deploy:
  script: ./deploy.sh
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"
      when: manual
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
      when: never
    - when: on_success

Parallel Jobs

test:
  stage: test
  parallel: 3
  script:
    - npm test -- --shard=$CI_NODE_INDEX/$CI_NODE_TOTAL

Matrix Builds

test:
  stage: test
  parallel:
    matrix:
      - NODE_VERSION: ["18", "20", "22"]
        OS: ["alpine", "slim"]
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}-${OS}
  script:
    - npm test

Caching

cache:
  key:
    files:
      - package-lock.json
  paths:
    - node_modules/
  policy: pull-push

build:
  cache:
    key: build-cache
    paths:
      - .cache/
    policy: pull

Artifacts

build:
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/
      - coverage/
    reports:
      junit: junit.xml
      coverage_report:
        coverage_format: cobertura
        path: coverage/cobertura.xml
    expire_in: 1 week
    when: always