Glab Private Gitlab

Glab Private GitLab

Overview

Use glab (GitLab CLI) to connect and operate a self-hosted or private GitLab instance. Covers authentication, SSH setup, MR review with comments, CI/pipeline inspection, and inline code review via REST API.

Replace <GITLAB_HOST> throughout this guide with your actual GitLab hostname or IP (e.g. gitlab.example.com or 192.168.1.10).

Authentication

Option 1: Personal Access Token (recommended)

# Login to private GitLab (add --skip-tls-verify for self-signed certs)
glab auth login --hostname <GITLAB_HOST> --token <PAT> --skip-tls-verify

# Confirm auth status
glab auth status --hostname <GITLAB_HOST>

Get a PAT from GitLab UI: User Settings → Access Tokens → check api, read_repository, write_repository

Option 2: Environment Variables

export GITLAB_HOST=<GITLAB_HOST>
export GITLAB_TOKEN=<personal_access_token>

Config File Location

~/.config/glab-cli/config.yml

Manual edit example:

hosts:
  <GITLAB_HOST>:
    token: <PAT>
    api_protocol: https    # use http if your instance is HTTP-only
    git_protocol: ssh
    skip_tls_verify: true  # only needed for self-signed certificates

SSH Key Setup

# 1. Generate SSH key (if you don't have one)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

# 2. Configure ~/.ssh/config

Host <GITLAB_HOST>
  HostName <GITLAB_HOST>
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  StrictHostKeyChecking no
  # Port 2222   # uncomment if your GitLab uses a non-standard SSH port

# 3. Upload public key to GitLab
glab ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --title "my-machine" --hostname <GITLAB_HOST>

# 4. Verify SSH connection
ssh -T git@<GITLAB_HOST>
# Success: Welcome to GitLab, @username!

Review MR and Leave Comments

# View MR details (with diff)
glab mr view <MR_ID> --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

# List all comments on an MR
glab mr note list <MR_ID> --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

# Add a general comment
glab mr note <MR_ID> --message "LGTM! Please also fix XXX" \
  --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

# Approve MR
glab mr approve <MR_ID> --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

# Revoke approval
glab mr revoke <MR_ID> --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

# Merge MR (requires Maintainer role)
glab mr merge <MR_ID> --repo <GITLAB_HOST>/<group>/<repo>

Note: glab does not support inline (per-line) code review natively. Use the GitLab REST API directly for that.

Inline Comment (per-line) — via REST API

GitLab uses the Discussions API to create positioned inline comments. You need commit SHAs and the file line number.

Step 1: Get the MR diff refs (base/head SHA)

GITLAB="https://<GITLAB_HOST>"
TOKEN="<PAT>"
PROJECT_ID="<group>%2F<repo>"   # URL-encode the slash as %2F
MR_IID=<MR_ID>

curl -sk --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $TOKEN" \
  "$GITLAB/api/v4/projects/$PROJECT_ID/merge_requests/$MR_IID" \
  | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin)['diff_refs']; print(d)"
# Returns base_sha, start_sha, head_sha

Step 2: Create inline comment

curl -sk --request POST \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "$GITLAB/api/v4/projects/$PROJECT_ID/merge_requests/$MR_IID/discussions" \
  --data '{
    "body": "This looks wrong, please fix",
    "position": {
      "base_sha":  "<base_sha>",
      "start_sha": "<start_sha>",
      "head_sha":  "<head_sha>",
      "position_type": "text",
      "new_path": "path/to/file.go",
      "new_line": 42
    }
  }'

Parameter reference:

The -k flag in curl -sk skips SSL verification — use only for self-signed cert environments.

Quick Reference

Troubleshooting