GitLab CLI (glab)

Manage GitLab projects entirely from the terminal using

glab

. This skill covers creating merge requests, triaging issues, running pipelines, cutting releases, and making raw API calls — all without leaving your shell.

When to Use

Creating, reviewing, approving, or merging merge requests
Creating, listing, updating, or closing issues and incidents
Running, retrying, canceling, or viewing CI/CD pipelines and jobs
Creating releases with assets and changelogs
Cloning, forking, or managing repositories
Managing CI/CD variables, schedules, and snippets
Making raw REST or GraphQL API calls to GitLab
Working with stacked diffs (experimental)
Managing labels, milestones, deploy keys, SSH/GPG keys
Authenticating to GitLab instances

Prerequisites

```
glab
```
installed (
```
brew install glab
```
,
```
apt install glab
```
, or see https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cli)
Authenticated via
```
glab auth login
```
(minimum scopes:
```
api
```
,
```
write_repository
```
)
Inside a Git repository with a GitLab remote (or use
```
-R OWNER/REPO
```
to target another project)

Command Structure

glab <command> <subcommand> [flags]

All commands support

-h

--help

and

-R

--repo OWNER/REPO

(to target a different project).

Reference Guides

Topic	File	Load when...
Merge requests	`references/merge-requests.md`	Creating, reviewing, approving, merging, or listing MRs
Issues	`references/issues.md`	Creating, listing, updating, closing, or triaging issues/incidents
CI/CD pipelines & jobs	`references/ci-cd.md`	Running, viewing, retrying, canceling pipelines or jobs; linting CI config
Releases	`references/releases.md`	Creating releases, uploading assets, managing changelogs
Repo, auth & config	`references/repo-and-config.md`	Cloning, forking, creating repos; authenticating; configuring glab
API, variables & advanced	`references/api-and-advanced.md`	Making raw API calls; managing variables, snippets, schedules, stacks, labels, milestones, aliases
Writing issues & MRs	`references/writing-issues-and-mrs.md`	Writing titles and descriptions for issues or merge requests; following conventional commits; structuring MR descriptions

Core Workflows

Create a Merge Request

Use conventional commit prefixes in titles. See

references/writing-issues-and-mrs.md

for full guidelines.

bash

# Interactive — prompts for title, description, target branch
glab mr create

# Non-interactive with conventional title, reviewers, and labels
glab mr create -t "feat(auth): add OAuth2 login (closes #123)" --yes -a assignee --reviewer reviewer1 --label "ready for review" -b main

# Draft MR from commit info
glab mr create -f --draft --label WIP

Review and Merge

bash

glab mr list --reviewer=@me          # MRs awaiting your review
glab mr diff 42                       # View changes
glab mr approve 42                    # Approve
glab mr merge 42                      # Merge (prompts for method)

Create an Issue

Use descriptive titles with type prefixes. See

references/writing-issues-and-mrs.md

for full guidelines.

bash

glab issue create -t "[Bug]: Login fails on iOS Safari 17 after timeout" -l bug,P1 -m v2.0
glab issue list --label bug --assignee=@me
glab issue close 99

Run and Monitor CI/CD

bash

glab ci run -b main                   # Trigger pipeline on branch
glab ci status                        # Current pipeline status
glab ci view                          # Interactive pipeline viewer
glab ci retry lint                    # Retry a specific job by name
glab ci lint                          # Validate .gitlab-ci.yml

Create a Release

bash

glab release create v1.2.0 ./dist/*.tar.gz \
  --notes "Bugfix release" \
  --milestone v1.2.0

Raw API Calls

bash

# REST
glab api projects/:fullpath/members

# GraphQL
glab api graphql -f query='{ currentUser { username } }'

# With pagination
glab api issues --paginate --output ndjson

Manage Variables

bash

glab variable list
glab variable set MY_SECRET "s3cret"
glab variable get MY_SECRET
glab variable delete MY_SECRET

All Top-Level Commands

Command	Purpose
`glab alias`	Create command shortcuts
`glab api`	Make authenticated REST/GraphQL API calls
`glab attestation`	Manage attestations
`glab auth`	Authenticate to GitLab instances
`glab changelog`	Generate changelogs
`glab check-update`	Check for glab updates
`glab ci`	Manage CI/CD pipelines and jobs
`glab cluster`	Manage cluster agents
`glab completion`	Generate shell completions (bash/zsh/fish/PowerShell)
`glab config`	Set and get glab configuration
`glab deploy-key`	Manage deploy keys
`glab duo`	Interact with GitLab Duo AI
`glab gpg-key`	Manage GPG keys
`glab incident`	Manage incidents
`glab issue`	Manage issues
`glab iteration`	Manage iterations
`glab job`	Manage CI/CD jobs
`glab label`	Manage labels
`glab mcp`	Model Context Protocol server
`glab milestone`	Manage milestones
`glab mr`	Manage merge requests
`glab opentofu`	OpenTofu integration
`glab release`	Manage releases
`glab repo`	Manage repositories
`glab schedule`	Manage pipeline schedules
`glab securefile`	Manage secure files
`glab snippet`	Manage snippets
`glab ssh-key`	Manage SSH keys
`glab stack`	Stacked diffs (experimental)
`glab token`	Manage personal access tokens
`glab user`	Interact with user accounts
`glab variable`	Manage CI/CD variables
`glab version`	Show glab version

Global Flags

Flag	Description
`-h, --help`	Show help for any command
`-R, --repo OWNER/REPO`	Target a different repository (also accepts `GROUP/NAMESPACE/REPO` or full URL)
`-v, --version`	Show glab version

Tips

Title conventions: Always use conventional commit prefixes for MR titles (
```
feat:
```
,
```
fix:
```
,
```
docs:
```
, etc.) and descriptive problem-statement titles for issues. See
```
references/writing-issues-and-mrs.md
```
.
Auto-detection: glab reads your Git remotes to determine the GitLab project. No need to specify
```
--repo
```
when inside the project directory.
Multiple instances: Use
```
glab auth login
```
for each GitLab host. glab picks the right credentials based on your remote URL.
Output formats: Many
```
list
```
commands accept
```
-F json
```
for machine-readable output.

Aliases: Create shortcuts with

glab alias set mrc 'mr create --fill --yes'

then use

glab mrc

Editor: Set
```
EDITOR
```
or
```
VISUAL
```
env vars to control which editor opens for descriptions.
Recover: Use
```
--recover
```
on
```
mr create
```
and
```
issue create
```
to save progress if creation fails.

glab

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

GitLab CLI (glab)

When to Use

Prerequisites

Command Structure

Reference Guides

Core Workflows

Create a Merge Request

Review and Merge

Create an Issue

Run and Monitor CI/CD

Create a Release

Raw API Calls

Manage Variables

All Top-Level Commands

Global Flags

Tips