# Glab Config > Manage glab CLI configuration settings including defaults, preferences, and per-host settings. Use when configuring glab behavior, setting defaults, or viewing current configuration. Triggers on config, configuration, settings, glab settings, set default. - Skill: `vince-winkintel/glab-config` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vince-winkintel/glab-config` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vince-winkintel/glab-config/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: vince-winkintel (https://skillmd.com/u/vince-winkintel) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vince-winkintel/glab-config --- # glab config ## Overview ``` Manage key/value strings. Current respected settings: - Global behavior: branch_prefix, browser, check_update, debug, display_hyperlinks, duo_cli_auto_download, duo_cli_auto_run, editor, git_protocol, glab_pager, glamour_style, host, no_prompt, notify_skill_updates, orbit_local_auto_download, orbit_local_auto_run, remote_alias, show_whats_new, and telemetry. - Per-host behavior: api_host, api_protocol, artifact_registry_domains, ca_cert, client_cert, client_id, client_key, container_registry_domains, custom_headers, job_token, proxy, skip_tls_verify, ssh_host, subfolder, token, and use_keyring. - Accepted aliases include visual/glab_editor for editor, gitlab_host/gitlab_uri/gl_host for host, prompt_disabled for no_prompt, and the full alias list in references/commands.md. USAGE glab config [command] [--flags] COMMANDS edit [--flags] Opens the glab configuration file. get [--flags] Prints the value of a given configuration key. path [--flags] Print the location of the global configuration file. set [--flags] Updates configuration with the value of a given key. FLAGS -g --global Use global config file. -h --help Show help for this command. ``` ## Quick start ```bash glab config --help ``` ## Per-host proxy configuration Configure `proxy` for each GitLab host that requires a fixed proxy. This is useful when different GitLab instances (for example gitlab.com versus a self-hosted instance) require different proxy settings. ```bash # Set the proxy for a specific host glab config set proxy "http://proxy.example.com:8080" --host gitlab.mycompany.com # Verify glab config get proxy --host gitlab.mycompany.com ``` **Precedence:** A configured per-host `proxy` replaces environment-based proxy selection for that host. When it is unset, glab falls back to Go's standard `HTTP_PROXY`, `HTTPS_PROXY`, and `NO_PROXY` handling. `proxy` is host-scoped; use `--host` rather than writing a top-level value with `--global`. ## Dynamic custom headers for authenticating proxies For an authenticating proxy or access gateway, add a `custom_headers` list under the exact host entry in the global config. Each item must contain `name` and exactly one source: literal `value`, `valueFromEnv`, or `valueFromCommand`. Prefer `valueFromEnv` or a credential helper command so secrets are not stored directly in YAML. ```yaml hosts: gitlab.example.com: custom_headers: - name: X-Proxy-Client-ID value: public-client-id - name: X-Proxy-Client-Secret valueFromEnv: PROXY_CLIENT_SECRET - name: Proxy-Authorization valueFromCommand: proxy-token-helper ``` Use `glab config edit --global` to edit the structured list; do not force it through a scalar `config set` call. A command source is split into an executable and arguments without an implicit shell, runs once per `glab` process with a 30-second timeout, and must print one non-empty line without NUL bytes. Its trimmed result is reused for all requests in that process, including OAuth refresh. If shell expansion is unavoidable, invoke a reviewed shell explicitly; otherwise prefer `valueFromEnv`. Treat custom header values as credentials. Keep literal secrets out of config, logs, command arguments, and repositories. Verify the host before enabling a header because `glab` attaches configured headers to requests for that host. ## Configuration file search order glab uses this global config selection: 1. `$GLAB_CONFIG_DIR/config.yml` when `GLAB_CONFIG_DIR` is set. This is an explicit override; glab uses this directory even when no config file exists there yet. 2. Otherwise, the first existing normal candidate wins: - `~/.config/glab-cli/config.yml`, retained as the legacy location. - `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/glab-cli/config.yml` (on macOS this defaults to `~/Library/Application Support/glab-cli/config.yml`). - `$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/glab-cli/config.yml` for system-wide defaults. The usual Linux default is `/etc/xdg/glab-cli/config.yml`; on macOS, set `XDG_CONFIG_DIRS` explicitly when relying on system-wide config. Files are not merged. If both the legacy and platform-specific XDG files exist, glab uses the legacy file and warns. Repository-local settings live in `.git/glab-cli/config.yml`, while per-host settings are stored in the selected global file. Prefer `glab config get`, `set`, and `edit` over directly modifying files, and do not copy stored tokens into logs or version control. ## Locate the active global config Use `glab config path` instead of hard-coding the global config file location. It prints the path even when the file does not exist yet; `--dir` prints the parent directory. ```bash glab config path glab config path --dir $EDITOR "$(glab config path)" ``` When a sandboxed tool needs permission to let `glab` refresh or rewrite credentials, grant write access to the directory from `glab config path --dir`, not just the `config.yml` file. `glab` writes a temporary file in that directory and then replaces the config file. ## Env-first agent pattern For agentic setups, prefer per-agent env files over one shared shell profile. Example: ```bash # ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-reviewer.env GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-... GITLAB_HOST=gitlab.com ``` Keep these env files outside version control, restrict their permissions (for example `chmod 600`), be mindful of backup exposure, and use least-privilege bot/service-account tokens. Load plain `KEY=value` env files like this so the variables are exported to `glab`: ```bash set -a source ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-.env set +a ``` A plain `source ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-.env` updates the current shell but may leave the values unexported. In that case `glab` can miss the env overrides and silently reuse stored auth from the active global config file. Use distinct GitLab bot/service accounts when agents need distinct visible identities. Multiple PATs on one GitLab user still act as that same user. ## Non-interactive prompts and config validation Use `GLAB_NO_PROMPT=1` for non-interactive automation that must fail instead of prompting. Upstream docs now prefer the `GLAB_`-prefixed name; older `NO_PROMPT` is deprecated and should not be used in new scripts. ```bash GLAB_NO_PROMPT=1 glab repo prune --dry-run ``` `glab config set` validates keys against the canonical config schema. If a set operation fails, check the spelling and whether the setting is host-scoped (`--host`) or global (`--global`) rather than forcing an unknown key into the config file. Registered aliases are accepted case-insensitively and persist under their canonical key. For example, `glab config set visual nano --global` updates `editor`; both `glab config get visual --global` and `glab config get editor --global` then resolve the same value. Prefer canonical names in new automation even though aliases remain supported. `glab_pager` and `debug` are valid global settings. `GLAB_PAGER` takes precedence over `glab_pager`, which takes precedence over `PAGER`; `GLAB_DEBUG` can override the persisted debug setting. ## Common Settings ```bash # View current config glab config get --global # Set default editor glab config set editor vim --global # Set pager glab config set glab_pager "less -R" --global # Enable detailed glab/Git/DNS diagnostics glab config set debug true --global # Disable update checks glab config set check_update false --global # Select the Git remote glab should prefer glab config set remote_alias origin --global # Allow Duo CLI to download and run without wrapper prompts glab config set duo_cli_auto_download true --global glab config set duo_cli_auto_run true --global # Set default host glab config set host https://gitlab.mycompany.com --global ``` ## Subcommands See [references/commands.md](references/commands.md) for full `--help` output.