GitLab CI

GitLab CI

GitLab CI/CD is built directly into the GitLab platform. It provides a complete DevOps lifecycle in a single application with no external tools needed.

Pipeline Configuration

  # .gitlab-ci.yml
  stages:
    - build
    - test
    - deploy

  build:
    stage: build
    image: node:20
    script:
      - npm ci
      - npm run build
    artifacts:
      paths:
        - dist/

  test:
    stage: test
    image: node:20
    script:
      - npm ci
      - npm test
    coverage: '/All files\s*\|\s*([\d\.]+)/'

  deploy_staging:
    stage: deploy
    image: alpine:latest
    script:
      - apk add --no-cache openssh-client
      - ssh deploy@staging "cd /app && git pull && pm2 restart all"
    only:
      - main
    when: manual

GitLab CI Key Concepts

• Stages — Define pipeline phases (build, test, deploy)
• Jobs — Individual tasks within a stage
• Runners — Agents that execute jobs (shared or specific)
• Artifacts — Files produced by jobs (binaries, reports)
• Cache — Speed up builds by caching dependencies

GitLab CI Features

  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │        GitLab CI/CD Features            │
  ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │  Auto DevOps    — Auto-detect & build   │
  │  Environments  — Track deployments      │
  │  Review Apps   — Per-branch previews    │
  │  Container Registry — Built-in registry │
  │  Security Scans — SAST, DAST, dependency│
  │  Metrics       — Monitor deployments    │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────┘