glab-artifact-registry

glab artifact-registry

Exchange the active GitLab credential for a short-lived Artifact Registry access token. The command group also accepts the glab ar alias. This command group is experimental; verify live help and the target GitLab instance before using it in durable automation.

Prerequisites

• GitLab Enterprise Edition 19.1 or later.
• The instance administrator enabled the gate_token_exchange_endpoint feature flag.
• glab is authenticated to the intended hostname.

The token is ephemeral but still a credential. Never print it in logs, store it in a repository, include it in command arguments, or paste it into issue/MR content.

Check access first

status performs the token exchange and prints non-secret identity metadata: issuer, subject, audience, and expiry. Each check mints and immediately discards a server-side token; prefer JSON for automation and do not call it in a tight loop.

glab artifact-registry status --hostname gitlab.example.com --output json

# Extract only non-secret expiry metadata
glab artifact-registry status \
  --hostname gitlab.example.com \
  --output json \
  --jq '.expires_at'

Confirm that the issuer, subject, and audience identify the intended instance, actor, and registry before requesting a token for another process.

Request a short-lived token

Text output is the bare token on stdout so a shell can capture or pipe it. Default duration is 15 minutes; accepted durations range from 1 second through 12 hours. Use the shortest duration that covers the operation.

# Avoid command tracing and keep the token only in a process-local variable
set +x
artifact_token="$(glab artifact-registry get-token \
  --hostname gitlab.example.com \
  --duration 15m)"

# Feed via stdin, not as a command-line argument. Obtain the registry host and
# required username from the target registry's documentation or administrator.
printf '%s' "$artifact_token" | \
  docker login <artifact-registry-host> \
    --username '<registry-username>' \
    --password-stdin
unset artifact_token