Manage
Members, roles, and credentials management in GitLab
The site that you are currently viewing is a static version of the Software Factory
documentation delivered with the
version v7.2.
For up-to-date documentation, see the
latest version.
GitLab
3 minute read
This guide provides a concise overview of GitLab’s core features and commonly used functionalities. It aims to familiarize you with the product and equip you with best practices to optimize your development workflow.
For detailed information and advanced features, refer to the official GitLab documentation
Info
This page describes the tool independently of any platform-specific details. For the service URL and other platform-specific configuration, please refer to your platform’s dedicated page .
Key Features
GitLab is a powerful DevSecOps platform that integrates various tools and functionalities.
The Software Factory offers GitLab Ultimate, the highest tier available. It delivers a comprehensive suite of tools and features designed for DevOps, IT Ops, Security, and more.
Here are some key features and capabilities:
- [Source Code Management]
- GitLab’s SCM capabilities include repository hosting, branch management, code review and merging, and version control. GitLab leverages uses Git.
- [Project Management]
- Integrated issue tracking and planning, with boards and roadmaps. It helps teams to manage tasks, track progress, and collaborate efficiently.
- [CI/CD Pipeline]
- Continuous integration and deployment automation powered by pipelines to build, test, run security scans and deploy.
- [Security Compliance]
- Capabilities like Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), secret detection and Software Composition Analysis (SCA). They ensure code quality and security throughout the development lifecyle.
- [Registry]
- Host and manage container images and artifacts with GitLab’s integrated registry.
- [Documentation]
- Host and manage documentation easily with GitLab Pages for static sites (or GitLab’s built-in wiki).
- [Mirroring]
- Keep repositories synchronized across different platforms with differents data domain level.
GitLab User Authenfication
GitLab provides multiple authentication methods to secure how users can interact with repositories.
Below are the various types of security tokens available, along with their descriptions and best use cases:
| Token Type | Description | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Access Tokens | These tokens act as an alternative to using passwords for authentication. | For accessing GitLab API or repositories programmatically. |
| Project Access Tokens | These tokens provide project-level access to interact with APIs within a specific project. | For project-specific automation tasks, such as CI/CD pipelines. |
| Group Access Tokens | These tokens offer group-level API access.(similar to personal and project tokens.) | For automating tasks across an entire group of projects. |
| Deploy Tokens | Provide read-only access to repositories, primarily for deployment purposes. | For read-only access to repositories, primarily for deployment purposes. |
| CICD Tokens | Enable CI/CD jobs to authenticate and interact with limited GitLab API endpoints. | For authenticating within CI/CD pipelines to access GitLab APIs. |
You can find more information about GitLab’s security tokens in the official documentation.
Platform availability
➡️ To see if GitLab is available on your platform, refer to Service per platform
Plan
Organize and track project work with GitLab epics, issues, boards, milestones, and agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban
Code
Manage source code, collaborate on merge requests, document projects, and mirror repositories with GitLab
Build
Build and test your applications with GitLab CI/CD pipelines and runners
Secure
GitLab security scanners for SAST, DAST, SCA, and secret detection
Deploy
Deploy applications and manage container images with GitLab deployment tools and registries
Analytics
Measure DevOps adoption and track feature usage across teams with GitLab analytics and insights dashboards