gitlab

GitLab with orbit CLI

Manage GitLab projects, merge requests, pipelines, pipeline schedules, issues, branches, tags, commits, members, and users through the orbit CLI. Works with both GitLab Cloud and self-hosted instances via REST API v4, with multi-profile support and 1Password secret resolution.

Prerequisites

1. orbit CLI installed — if which orbit fails, install with:
   • macOS/Linux (Homebrew): brew install jorgemuza/tap/orbit
   • macOS/Linux (script): curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgemuza/orbit/main/install.sh | sh
   • Windows (Scoop): scoop bucket add jorgemuza https://github.com/jorgemuza/scoop-bucket && scoop install orbit
2. A profile with a gitlab service configured in ~/.config/orbit/config.yaml
3. Valid credentials (Personal Access Token or Bearer token) - can be stored as 1Password (op://) or Infisical (infisical://) references

Quick Reference

All commands follow the pattern: orbit -p <profile> gitlab <command> [flags]

Alias: orbit -p <profile> gl <command> [flags]

All commands support -o json for JSON output. For full command details and all flags, see references/commands.md.

For self-hosted instances with self-signed certificates, add tls_skip_verify: true to the service config. For proxy access, add proxy: socks5://host:port (also supports http:// and https://).

Project Identification

Projects can be referenced by numeric ID or full path:

• orbit -p myprofile gl project 595
• orbit -p myprofile gl project schools/frontend/my-app

Groups also accept ID or full path: schools/frontend

Core Workflows

Exploring Projects and Groups

# View project details
orbit -p myprofile gl project schools/frontend/my-app

# List your projects (membership-based)
orbit -p myprofile gl project list --search frontend

# Edit project settings (default branch, visibility, description)
orbit -p myprofile gl project edit 595 --default-branch main
orbit -p myprofile gl project edit 595 --visibility private
orbit -p myprofile gl project edit 595 --archived

# List all projects in a group (includes subgroups)
orbit -p myprofile gl project list --group schools/frontend

# Projects with activity today (shows branches)
orbit -p myprofile gl project activity

# Activity in the last 7 days, filtered by branch
orbit -p myprofile gl project activity --days 7 --branch development,master

# View group info
orbit -p myprofile gl group view schools/frontend

# List subgroups
orbit -p myprofile gl group subgroups schools

Working with Merge Requests

GitLab calls them "merge requests" (MR), equivalent to GitHub's "pull requests" (PR).

# List open MRs
orbit -p myprofile gl mr list 595

# List merged MRs
orbit -p myprofile gl mr list 595 --state merged

# View MR details (shows source/target branch, conflicts, review status)
orbit -p myprofile gl mr view 595 42

# Create an MR
orbit -p myprofile gl mr create 595 \
  --source feature/login --target main --title "Add login page"

# Merge an MR (with optional squash)
orbit -p myprofile gl mr merge 595 42 --squash

# Approve / unapprove
orbit -p myprofile gl mr approve 595 42
orbit -p myprofile gl mr unapprove 595 42

# Check approval status
orbit -p myprofile gl mr approvals 595 42

# Rebase onto target branch
orbit -p myprofile gl mr rebase 595 42

# Close / reopen
orbit -p myprofile gl mr close 595 42
orbit -p myprofile gl mr reopen 595 42

# Edit MR (title, description, assignee, labels, draft)
orbit -p myprofile gl mr edit 595 42 --title "Updated title"
orbit -p myprofile gl mr edit 595 42 --assignee 15 --labels "bug,urgent"

# Add a comment
orbit -p myprofile gl mr comment 595 42 --body "LGTM!"

# List discussion comments (excludes system notes)
orbit -p myprofile gl mr notes 595 42

CI/CD Pipelines

# List recent pipelines
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline list 595

# Filter by branch and status
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline list 595 --ref main --status failed

# View pipeline details
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline view 595 12345

# List jobs in a pipeline (shows stage, status, duration)
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline jobs 595 12345

# Retry a failed pipeline
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline retry 595 12345

# Cancel a running pipeline
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline cancel 595 12345

Pipeline aliases: pipeline, pipe, ci — so orbit gl ci list 595 works too.

List pipeline schedules

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule list 595

Create a nightly schedule

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule create 595 --desc "Nightly build" --ref main --cron "0 2 * * *"

Trigger a schedule immediately

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule run 595 42

Update schedule cron or disable it

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule update 595 42 --cron "0 3 * * *" orbit -p myprofile gl schedule update 595 42 --active=false

Add/remove schedule variables

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule var 595 42 DEPLOY_ENV production orbit -p myprofile gl schedule var-delete 595 42 DEPLOY_ENV

Delete a schedule

orbit -p myprofile gl schedule delete 595 42

Schedule aliases: schedule, sched.

Branches and Tags

# List branches
orbit -p myprofile gl branch list 595 --search feature

# View branch details (includes latest commit)
orbit -p myprofile gl branch view 595 main

# Create a branch from a ref
orbit -p myprofile gl branch create 595 feature/new-thing main

# Delete a branch
orbit -p myprofile gl branch delete 595 feature/old-thing

# Protect a branch (only maintainers can merge, no direct push)
orbit -p myprofile gl branch protect 650 main --push no-access --merge maintainer

# List protected branches
orbit -p myprofile gl branch protections 650

# Remove protection
orbit -p myprofile gl branch unprotect 650 main

# List tags
orbit -p myprofile gl tag list 595

# Create an annotated tag
orbit -p myprofile gl tag create 595 v1.0.0 main -m "Release v1.0.0"

Commits

# List recent commits (default branch)
orbit -p myprofile gl commit list 595

# List commits on a specific branch
orbit -p myprofile gl commit list 595 --ref feature/login

# View commit details
orbit -p myprofile gl commit view 595 abc1234

Issues

# List open issues
orbit -p myprofile gl issue list 595 --state opened

# Filter by labels
orbit -p myprofile gl issue list 595 --labels bug,urgent

# View issue details
orbit -p myprofile gl issue view 595 1

# Create an issue
orbit -p myprofile gl issue create 595 --title "Fix login bug" --labels bug,urgent

# Close an issue
orbit -p myprofile gl issue close 595 1

Members and Users

# List project members (shows access level: Guest/Reporter/Developer/Maintainer/Owner)
orbit -p myprofile gl member list 595

# Show current authenticated user
orbit -p myprofile gl user me

# Search users
orbit -p myprofile gl user list --search john

Common Patterns

Get JSON for scripting: Any command supports -o json for machine-readable output:

orbit -p myprofile gl mr list 595 -o json | jq '.[].title'

Check CI status for a branch:

orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline list 595 --ref main --limit 1

Find who's working on a project:

orbit -p myprofile gl member list 595

Review an MR end-to-end:

# View MR details
orbit -p myprofile gl mr view 595 42
# Check its pipeline
orbit -p myprofile gl pipeline list 595 --ref feature/login --limit 1
# Read discussion
orbit -p myprofile gl mr notes 595 42
# Approve with comment
orbit -p myprofile gl mr comment 595 42 --body "Approved, looks good"

Important Notes

• Profile required — Always pass -p <profile> to select the GitLab connection. The profile must have a service of type gitlab configured.
• Service flag — If a profile has multiple GitLab services, use --service <name> to disambiguate.
• Cloud vs Self-hosted — Works with both. The base URL in your profile config determines the GitLab instance.
• Secret references - Credentials in config can use 1Password (op://vault/item/field) or Infisical (infisical://<env>/<path>/<KEY>) references, resolved at runtime. Run orbit auth once to resolve and cache all secrets (a single biometric prompt for 1Password). Use orbit auth clear to wipe the cache. See Secrets.
• MR = PR — If a user says "pull request" or "PR" in a GitLab context, they mean merge request.
• Pagination — Most list commands default to 20-50 results. Use --limit N to adjust.