glab

name	glab
description	Automate GitLab issue, merge request, epic, and work-item workflows with glab. Use for viewing or updating GitLab metadata, creating or editing issues and MRs, handling epic comments through GraphQL, and other CLI or API-driven GitLab operations in the GitLab repo workflow.
license	MIT
compatibility	opencode
metadata	{"audience":"developers","author":"pedropombeiro","keywords":"gitlab, glab, merge-requests, issues, epics, work-items","workflow":"gitlab"}

GitLab Workflow Skill

GitLab workflow management using glab CLI for merge requests, issues, and Git best practices.

For standard GitLab.com MR creation, prefer gpsup from the mr-workflow skill — it applies project defaults like milestone and labels automatically. Run it via run-in-tmux-pane.

Creating Merge Requests

# Preferred (GitLab.com remotes):
run-in-tmux-pane gpsup

# Simple MR
glab mr create --title "feat: add feature" --description "Brief description"

# Complex MR - write description to file first
glab mr create --title "feat: add feature" --description "$(cat /tmp/mr-description.md)"

Templates: Check .gitlab/merge_request_templates/ for project-specific templates.

Use glab mr create only when gpsup is unavailable or the remote is not GitLab.com.

Updating Merge Requests

glab mr update <number> --description "$(cat /tmp/description.md)"
glab mr view <number> -R <owner>/<repo>

Issue Management

# View / comment
glab issue view <number>
glab issue view <number> --comments -R <owner>/<repo>
glab issue note <number> -m "comment" -R <owner>/<repo>
glab issue note <number> -m "$(cat /tmp/comment.md)" -R <owner>/<repo>

# List (open by default — no --state flag)
glab issue list --label "priority::P1,status::doing" -R <owner>/<repo>
glab issue list --closed -R <owner>/<repo>
glab issue list --all   -R <owner>/<repo>

# Create
glab issue create --title "Bug: title" --description "$(cat /tmp/issue-description.md)"

# Labels — use --label / --unlabel, NEVER +label or -label syntax
glab issue update 123 --label "new-label"
glab issue update 123 --unlabel "old-label"
# Scoped labels auto-replace within their scope — no --unlabel needed:
glab issue update 123 --label "status::doing"   # removes any existing status:: label

Issue State Transitions and Notes

# Close / reopen
glab api --method PUT "projects/<project_id>/issues/<iid>" -f state_event=close
glab api --method PUT "projects/<project_id>/issues/<iid>" -f state_event=reopen

# Post a comment (note: the body field on PUT is silently ignored — always use POST)
glab api --method POST "projects/<project_id>/issues/<iid>/notes" -f "body=Your comment"
glab api --method POST "projects/<project_id>/issues/<iid>/notes" \
  -f "body=$(cat /tmp/comment.md)"

Work Items

GitLab is migrating issues to work items. The URL shows /work_items/<iid> but the REST API is the same.

# ✅ Use the issues API — same IID, same endpoints
glab api "projects/org%2Fproject/issues/<iid>"
glab api "projects/<project_id>/issues/<iid>/notes"

# ❌ /work_items/ REST endpoint does not exist
glab api "projects/org%2Fproject/work_items/<iid>"   # → 404

URL parsing: https://gitlab.com/org/project/-/work_items/539076 → glab api "projects/org%2Fproject/issues/539076"

Full details, GraphQL alternative, and group-level work items: references/work-items.md

Issue Links and Epics

• Issue links (blocked_by, relates_to): references/issue-links.md
• Epics CRUD (create, list, update, close): references/epics.md
• Epic comments (GraphQL read/write, pagination): references/epic-comments.md
• Nested groups (%2F encoding): references/nested-groups.md

Epics — Critical Notes

⚠️ Epic comments require GraphQL — the REST /notes endpoint returns 404.

Quickest path — use the wrapper scripts:

• From the repo root, use .opencode/skills/glab/scripts/....
• From this skill's base directory, scripts/... is equivalent.
• Do not assume bundled scripts are on PATH.

# Read all comments (handles pagination)
.opencode/skills/glab/scripts/epic-notes.sh <group-path> <epic-iid>
.opencode/skills/glab/scripts/epic-notes.sh gitlab-org 16428

# Post a comment
.opencode/skills/glab/scripts/create-epic-note.sh <group-id> <epic-iid> "body"
.opencode/skills/glab/scripts/create-epic-note.sh 9970 16428 "My comment"

Scripts are in scripts/; GraphQL templates in assets/graphql/.

Manual GraphQL (when you need more control):

# iid must be a quoted string: "16428" not 16428 (integer → type error)
glab api graphql -f query='
{
  group(fullPath: "gitlab-org") {
    workItem(iid: "16428") {
      widgets {
        type
        ... on WorkItemWidgetNotes {
          discussions(first: 100) {
            pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }
            nodes {
              notes {
                nodes { id body author { username } createdAt }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}'
# If hasNextPage: true → re-run with discussions(first: 100, after: "<endCursor>")

Epic close/reopen — REST works fine, no GraphQL needed:

glab api --method PUT "groups/<group_id>/epics/<iid>" -f state_event=close
glab api --method PUT "groups/<group_id>/epics/<iid>" -f state_event=reopen

Nested groups — REST requires %2F; GraphQL uses plain /:

glab api "groups/gitlab-org%2Ffoundations/epics"                    # ✅ REST
glab api "groups/gitlab-org/foundations/epics"                      # ❌ 404
glab api graphql -f query='{ group(fullPath: "gitlab-org/foundations") { ... } }'  # ✅

MR Listing and Filtering

glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo>                   # open (default)
glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo> --assignee <user>
glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo> --all             # all states
glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo> --merged
glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo> --closed
glab mr list -R <owner>/<repo> --author <user>

Note: glab mr list has no --state or --status flag. Use --all, --merged, --closed.

Pipeline Monitoring

# Check current branch pipeline status
glab ci status

# View pipeline interactively (requires TTY)
glab ci view

# List recent pipelines
glab ci list

# View a specific pipeline's jobs
glab ci get <pipeline-id>

# View job logs
glab ci trace <job-id>

In non-interactive environments (e.g. AI agents): Use the gitlab_get_pipeline MCP tool to poll pipeline status, since glab ci view requires a TTY.

GLQL Queries

To query issues, MRs, or epics across projects/groups, load the glab-glql skill.

Git Best Practices

git checkout -b feat/description    # branch naming
git checkout -b fix/description

# Commit format: type: description (conventional commits)
# Reference issues with full URLs: Closes https://gitlab.com/org/project/-/issues/123
# Use single quotes for special characters: git commit -m 'fix: from MR !123'

Agent Guidelines

1. Read context first — glab issue view / glab mr view before implementing
2. Use project templates — check .gitlab/issue_templates/ and .gitlab/merge_request_templates/
3. Write descriptions to files — use $(cat /tmp/description.md) not inline strings
4. Reference with full URLs — Closes https://gitlab.com/org/project/-/issues/123
5. Descriptive commits — focus on the "why"
6. Single quotes for special chars — git commit -m 'fix: from MR !123'
7. Label syntax — --label to add, --unlabel to remove; never +label/-label
8. Scoped labels — --label "status::doing" auto-removes old status::*; no --unlabel needed
9. No --jq flag — glab has no --jq; use | jq '...' pipe
10. No --state/--status on mr list — use --all, --merged, --closed
11. Work items use the issues API — /work_items/<iid> URLs → projects/.../issues/<iid>
12. Epic comments need GraphQL — REST /notes → 404; use epic-notes.sh or manual GraphQL with first: 100 + pagination
13. No -R for group-level API — -R expects OWNER/REPO; group endpoints use glab api "groups/..." directly
14. Nested groups REST: %2F — groups/org%2Fsubgroup/epics; unencoded slashes → 404
15. GraphQL iid is a String — workItem(iid: "16428") not workItem(iid: 16428)
16. groups/<id>/work_items is 404 — use groups/<id>/epics (REST) or GraphQL
17. project.workItems not project.workItem — singular doesn't exist; use workItems(first: 1, iid: "IID"); no filter: argument
18. Epic close/reopen via REST — state_event=close/reopen on PUT groups/<id>/epics/<iid> works; no GraphQL needed
19. Prefer gpsup for MR creation — see scm.md for details; applies milestone/labels automatically
20. Fill in the MR description after creation — open the new MR and update it using the default template in .gitlab/merge_request_templates/
21. Prefer structured output for agents — use glab api or JSON-capable commands when you need fields, not human-oriented terminal presentation