GitLab CI

Platform-specific commands for investigating CI failures on GitLab CI/CD using glab.

Detect

The repository uses GitLab CI if .gitlab-ci.yml (or .gitlab/ci/*.yml referenced from it) exists at the repo root.

Notes on glab

• glab api does not support a --jq flag. Pipe to jq in the shell instead.
• Use :fullpath as the project identifier — glab auto-fills it from the current Git remote (e.g. glab api projects/:fullpath/...).
• glab ci ≡ glab pipe ≡ glab pipeline. The -O, --output json flag is incompatible with --live/--compact.

Get the MR and its latest pipeline

glab mr view --output json
glab ci status --branch <head-branch> --output json

The glab mr view JSON includes head_pipeline (when present) — its id and status are useful shortcuts.

Get failing jobs from a pipeline

glab api projects/:fullpath/pipelines/<pipeline-id>/jobs \
  | jq '[.[] | select(.status == "failed") | {id, name, stage}]'

Get failure logs

glab has no --log-failed shorthand. Trace each failing job by id (or name):

glab ci trace <job-id>

List recent pipelines

Use the run count N from the skill (default: 10) as the --per-page value. To find pipelines on branches other than the current one, list and filter with jq:

glab ci list --per-page <N> --output json \
  | jq '[.[] | select(.status != "running" and .status != "pending" and .ref != "<current-branch>")] | .[0:5]'

To pre-filter by status (e.g., only failed pipelines):

glab ci list --status failed --per-page <N> --output json

Available statuses: running, pending, success, failed, canceled, skipped, created, manual, scheduled.

Check specific jobs in a pipeline

glab api projects/:fullpath/pipelines/<pipeline-id>/jobs \
  | jq '[.[] | select(.name | test("<failing-job-pattern>")) | {id, name, status}]'

Get MR diff

glab mr diff --raw