glab Quick Reference Guide

A condensed reference for the most commonly used GitLab CLI commands.

Authentication

glab auth login                    # Interactive login
glab auth status                   # Check auth status
echo "token" | glab auth login --stdin  # Login with token

Merge Requests

# Listing
glab mr list                       # All open MRs
glab mr list --assignee=@me        # MRs assigned to me
glab mr list --reviewer=@me        # MRs for me to review

# Creating
glab mr create                     # Interactive creation
glab mr create --title "Fix" --description "Desc"
glab mr create --draft             # Create draft MR
glab mr create --reviewer=alice,bob

# Viewing & Managing
glab mr view 123                   # View MR #123
glab mr checkout 123               # Checkout MR branch
glab mr approve 123                # Approve MR
glab mr merge 123                  # Merge MR
glab mr note 123 -m "Comment"      # Add comment

Issues

# Listing
glab issue list                    # All issues
glab issue list --assignee=@me     # Assigned to me
glab issue list --label=bug        # With label

# Creating & Managing
glab issue create                  # Interactive
glab issue create --title "Bug" --label=bug
glab issue view 456                # View issue
glab issue close 456               # Close issue

CI/CD

# Pipelines
glab pipeline ci view              # Watch pipeline
glab ci list                       # List pipelines
glab ci status                     # Pipeline status
glab ci trace                      # View logs

# Running & Managing
glab ci run                        # Trigger pipeline
glab ci lint                       # Lint .gitlab-ci.yml
glab ci retry                      # Retry pipeline
glab ci cancel                     # Cancel pipeline

Repository

glab repo clone org/project        # Clone repository
glab repo view                     # View repo details
glab repo fork                     # Fork repository

API

glab api projects/:id/merge_requests           # GET request
glab api --method POST projects/:id/issues \\
  --field title="Bug"              # POST with data

Common Flags

--help, -h                         # Show help
--repo, -R owner/repo              # Specify repository
--web, -w                          # Open in browser
--output, -o json                  # JSON output
--verbose                          # Verbose output

Environment Variables

GITLAB_TOKEN=xxx                   # API token
GITLAB_HOST=gitlab.example.org     # Self-hosted GitLab

Configuration

glab config get                    # View configuration
glab config set key value          # Set config value

Complete Command List

• glab alias - Create command shortcuts
• glab api - Make API calls
• glab auth - Authentication management
• glab changelog - Generate changelogs
• glab check-update - Check for updates
• glab ci - CI/CD operations
• glab cluster - Kubernetes cluster management
• glab completion - Shell completion
• glab config - Configuration management
• glab deploy-key - Deploy key management
• glab duo - GitLab Duo AI features
• glab incident - Incident management
• glab issue - Issue tracking
• glab iteration - Iteration management
• glab job - CI job operations
• glab label - Label management
• glab mr - Merge request operations
• glab opentofu - OpenTofu integration
• glab release - Release management
• glab repo - Repository operations
• glab schedule - Pipeline schedule management
• glab securefile - Secure file management
• glab snippet - Snippet operations
• glab ssh-key - SSH key management
• glab stack - Stack management
• glab token - Access token management
• glab user - User operations
• glab variable - CI/CD variable management
• glab version - Show version

Tips

1. Use glab <command> --help for detailed help
2. Commands auto-detect repository context from git remote
3. Use -R owner/repo when outside a repository
4. Most commands have --web flag to open in browser
5. Use --output=json for scripting
6. Enable completion: glab completion --shell bash