CI/CD Components (Experimental)

Version history

This feature is an experimental feature and an epic exists to track future work. Tell us about your use case by leaving comments in the epic.

Components Repository

A components repository is a GitLab project with a repository that hosts one or more pipeline components. A pipeline component is a reusable single pipeline configuration unit. You can use them to compose an entire pipeline configuration or a small part of a larger pipeline. It can optionally take input parameters.

Create a components repository

To create a components repository, you must:

  1. Create a new project with a README.md file.

  2. Create a template.yml file inside the project’s root directory that contains the configuration you want to provide as a component. For example:

    spec:
  inputs:
    stage:
      default: test
---
component-job:
  script: echo job 1
  stage: $[[ inputs.stage ]]

Directory structure

A components repository can host one or more components.

Components repositories must follow a mandatory file structure, containing:

  • template.yml: The component configuration, one file per component. If there is only one component, this file can be in the root of the project. If there are multiple components, each file must be in a separate subdirectory.
  • README.md: A documentation file explaining the details of the all the components in the repository.

For example, if the project is on GitLab.com, named my-component, and in a personal namespace named my-username:

  • Containing a single component and a simple pipeline to test the component, then the file structure might be:

    ├── template.yml
├── README.md
└── .gitlab-ci.yml

    This component is referenced with the path gitlab.com/my-username/my-component@<version>.

  • Containing one default component and multiple sub-components, then the file structure might be:

    ├── template.yml
├── README.md
├── .gitlab-ci.yml
├── unit/
│   └── template.yml
└── integration/
    └── template.yml

    These components are identified by these paths:

    • gitlab.com/my-username/my-component
    • gitlab.com/my-username/my-component/unit
    • gitlab.com/my-username/my-component/integration

It is possible to have a components repository with no default component, by having no template.yml in the root directory.

Additional notes:

Nesting of components is not possible. For example:

├── unit/
│   └── template.yml
│   └── another_folder/
│       └── nested_template.yml

Test a component

Testing components as part of the development workflow to ensure that quality maintains high standards is strongly recommended.

Testing changes in a CI/CD pipeline can be done, like any other project, by creating a .gitlab-ci.yml in the root directory.

For example:

include:
  # include the component located in the current project from the current SHA
  - component: gitlab.com/$CI_PROJECT_PATH@$CI_COMMIT_SHA
    inputs:
      stage: build

stages: [build, test, release]

# Expect `component-job` is added.
# This is an example of testing that the included component works as expected.
# You can leverage GitLab API endpoints or 3rd party tools to inspect data generated by the component.
ensure-job-added:
  stage: test
  image: badouralix/curl-jq
  script:
    - |
      route="https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/$CI_PROJECT_ID/pipelines/$CI_PIPELINE_ID/jobs"
      count=`curl --silent --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $API_TOKEN" $route | jq 'map(select(.name | contains("component-job"))) | length'`
      if [ "$count" != "1" ]; then
        exit 1
      fi

# If we are tagging a release with a specific convention ("v" + number) and all
# previous checks succeeded, we proceed with creating a release automatically.
create-release:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v\d+/
  script: echo "Creating release $CI_COMMIT_TAG"
  release:
    tag_name: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
    description: "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG of components repository $CI_PROJECT_PATH"

After committing and pushing changes, the pipeline tests the component then releases it if the test passes.

Release a component

Component repositories are released using the release keyword within a CI pipeline.

Like in the example above, after all tests pass in a pipeline running for a tag ref, we can release a new version of the components repository.

All released versions of the components repository are displayed in the Components Catalog page for the given resource, providing users with information about official releases.

Use a component in a CI/CD configuration

A pipeline component is identified by a unique address in the form <fully-qualified-doman-name>/<component-path>@<version> containing:

  • A fully qualified domain name (FQDN): The FQDN must match the GitLab host.
  • A specific version: The version of the component can be (in order of highest priority first):
    • A commit SHA, for example gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast@e3262fdd0914fa823210cdb79a8c421e2cef79d8.
    • A tag. for example: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast@1.0.
    • ~latest, which is a special version that always points to the most recent released tag, for example gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast@~latest.
    • A branch name, for example gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast@main.
  • A component path: Contains the project’s full path and the directory where the component YAML file template.yml is located.

For example, for a component repository located at gitlab-org/dast on gitlab.com:

  • The path gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast tries to load the template.yml from the root directory.
  • The path gitlab.com/gitlab-org/dast/api-scan tries to load the template.yml from the /api-scan directory.

Additional notes:

  • You can only reference components in the same GitLab instance as your project.
  • If a tag and branch exist with the same name, the tag takes precedence over the branch.
  • If a tag is named the same as a commit SHA that exists, like e3262fdd0914fa823210cdb79a8c421e2cef79d8, the commit SHA takes precedence over the tag.

Best practices

Avoid using global keywords

When using global keywords all jobs in the pipeline are affected. Using these keywords in a component affects all jobs in a pipeline, whether they are directly defined in the main .gitlab-ci.yml or in any included components.

To make the composition of pipelines more deterministic, either:

  • Duplicate the default configuration for each job.
  • Use extends feature within the component.
##
# BAD
default:
  image: ruby:3.0

rspec:
  script: bundle exec rspec

##
# GOOD
rspec:
  image: ruby:3.0
  script: bundle exec rspec

Replace hard-coded values with inputs

A typical hard-coded value found in CI templates is stage: value. Such hard coded values may force the user of the component to know and adapt the pipeline to such implementation details.

For example, if stage: test is hard-coded for a job in a component, the pipeline using the component must define the test stage. Additionally, if the user of the component want to customize the stage value it has to override the configuration:

##
# BAD: In order to use different stage name you need to override all the jobs
# included by the component.
include:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ruby-test@1.0

stages: [verify, deploy]

unit-test:
  stage: verify

integration-test:
  stage: verify

##
# BAD: In order to use the component correctly you need to define the stage
# that is hard-coded in it.
include:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ruby-test@1.0

stages: [test, deploy]

To improve this we can use input parameters allowing the user of a component to inject values that can be customized:

##
# GOOD: We don't need to know the implementation details of a component and instead we can
# rely on the inputs.
include:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ruby-test@1.0
    inputs:
      stage: verify

stages: [verify, deploy]

##
# inside the component YAML:
spec:
  inputs:
    stage:
      default: test
---
unit-test:
  stage: $[[ inputs.stage ]]
  script: echo unit tests

integration-test:
  stage: $[[ inputs.stage ]]
  script: echo integration tests

Prefer inputs over variables

If variables are only used for YAML evaluation (for example rules) and not by the Runner execution, it’s advised to use inputs instead. Inputs are explicitly defined in the component’s contract and they are better validated than variables.

For example, if a required input is not passed an error is returned as soon as the component is being used. By contrast, if a variable is not defined, it’s value is empty.

##
# BAD: you need to configure an environment variable for a custom value that doesn't need
# to be used on the Runner 
unit-test:
  image: $MY_COMPONENT_X_IMAGE
  script: echo unit tests

integration-test:
  image: $MY_COMPONENT_X_IMAGE
  script: echo integration tests

##
# Usage:
include:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ruby-test@1.0

variables:
  MY_COMPONENT_X_IMAGE: ruby:3.2

##
# GOOD: we define a customizable value and accept it as input
spec:
  inputs:
    image:
      default: ruby:3.0
---
unit-test:
  image: $[[ inputs.image ]]
  script: echo unit tests

integration-test:
  image: $[[ inputs.image ]]
  script: echo integration tests

##
# Usage:
include:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ruby-test@1.0
    inputs:
      image: ruby:3.2

Use semantic versioning

When tagging and releasing new versions of components we recommend using semantic versioning which is the standard for communicating bugfixes, minor and major or breaking changes.

We recommend adopting at least the MAJOR.MINOR format.

For example: 2.1, 1.0.0, 1.0.0-alpha, 2.1.3, 3.0.0-rc.1.

CI/CD Catalog

The CI/CD Catalog is a list of components repositories, each containing resources that you can add to your CI/CD pipelines.

Mark the project as a catalog resource

Introduced in GitLab 16.1.

After components are added to a components repository, they can immediately be used to build pipelines in other projects.

However, this repository is not discoverable. You must mark this project as a catalog resource to allow it to be visible in the CI Catalog so other users can discover it.

To mark a project as a catalog resource:

  1. On the left sidebar, at the top, select Search GitLab () to find your project.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Visibility, project features, permissions.
  4. Scroll down to CI/CD Catalog resource and select the toggle to mark the project as a catalog resource.
note
This action is not reversible.

Convert a CI template to component

Any existing CI template, that you share with other projects via include: syntax, can be converted to a CI component.

  1. Decide whether you want the component to be part of an existing components repository, if you want to logically group components together. Create and setup a components repository otherwise.
  2. Create a YAML file in the components repository according to the expected directory structure.
  3. Copy the content of the template YAML file into the new component YAML file.
  4. Refactor the component YAML to follow the best practices for components.
  5. Leverage the .gitlab-ci.yml in the components repository to test changes to the component.
  6. Tag and release the component.