[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":822},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/cicd-tunnel-impersonation":3,"navigation-en-us":41,"banner-en-us":451,"footer-en-us":461,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Cesar Saavedra":703,"blog-related-posts-en-us-cicd-tunnel-impersonation":717,"blog-promotions-en-us":759,"next-steps-en-us":812},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":27,"isFeatured":12,"meta":28,"navigation":29,"path":30,"publishedDate":20,"seo":31,"stem":36,"tagSlugs":37,"__hash__":40},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/cicd-tunnel-impersonation.yml","Cicd Tunnel Impersonation",[7],"cesar-saavedra",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"cicd-tunnel-impersonation",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to use fine-grained permissions via generic impersonation in CI/CD Tunnel","Learn how to use use fine-grained permissions via generic impersonation in CI/CD Tunnel",[18],"Cesar Saavedra","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749667435/Blog/Hero%20Images/tunnel.jpg","2022-02-01","\nThe [CI/CD Tunnel](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/ci_cd_workflow.html), which leverages the [GitLab Agent for Kubernetes](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/), enables users to access Kubernetes clusters from GitLab CI/CD jobs. In this blog post, we review how you can securely access your clusters from your CI/CD pipelines by using generic impersonation. In addition, we will briefly cover the activity list of the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes, a capability recently introduced by GitLab, that can help you detect and troubleshoot faulty events.\n\n## Using impersonation with your CI/CD tunnel\n\nThe CI/CD Tunnel leverages the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes, which permits the secure connectivity between GitLab and your Kubernetes cluster without the need to expose your cluster to the internet and outside your firewall. The CI/CD Tunnel allows you to connect to your Kubernetes cluster from your CI/CD jobs/pipelines.\n\nBy default, the CI/CD Tunnel inherits all the permissions from the service account used to install the Agent in the cluster. However, fine-grained permissions can be used in conjunction with the CI/CD Tunnel to restrict and manage access to your cluster resources.\n\nFine-grained permissions control with the CI/CD tunnel via impersonation:\n\n- Allows you to leverage your K8s authorization capabilities to limit the permissions of what can be done with the CI/CD tunnel on your running cluster\n\n- Lowers the risk of providing unlimited access to your K8s cluster with the CI/CD tunnel\n\n- Segments fine-grained permissions with the CI/CD tunnel at the project or group level\n\n- Controls permissions with the CI/CD tunnel at the username or service account\n\nTo restrict access to your cluster, you can use impersonation. To specify impersonations, use the access_as attribute in your Agent's configuration file and use Kubernetes RBAC rules to manage impersonated account permissions.\n\nYou can impersonate:\n- The Agent itself (default)\n= The CI job that accesses the cluster\n- A specific user or system account defined within the cluster\n\n## Steps to exercise impersonation with the CI/CD Tunnel\n\nLet's go through the steps on how you can exercise impersonation with the CI/CD Tunnel.\n\n### Creating your Kubernetes cluster\n\nIn order to exercise the capabilities described above, we need a Kubernetes cluster. Although, you can use any Kubernetes distribution, for this example, we create a GKE Standard Kubernetes cluster and name it \"csaavedra-ga4k-cluster\". We select the zone and version 1.21 of Kubernetes and ensure that our cluster will have three nodes. We leave the security and metadata screens with their defaulted values and click on the create button:\n\n![Creating a GKE cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/0-gke-creation.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nCreating a GKE cluster\n\n\n### Sample projects to be used\n\nLet's proceed now to this [top-level group](https://gitlab.com/tech-marketing/sandbox/gl-14-5-cs-demos), which contains three projects, which we will use to show impersonation with the CI/CD tunnel. You can do this at the project or group level. In this example, we will show setting impersonation at the project level:\n\n![Project structure in GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/1-project-struct.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nProject structure in GitLab\n\n\nProject \"ga4k\" will configure the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes and also set impersonations with the CI/CD tunnel. Project \"sample-application\" will use the CI/CD tunnel, managed by the agent, to connect to the Kubernetes cluster and execute a pipeline using different impersonations. Project \"cluster-management\" will also use the CI/CD tunnel to connect to the cluster and install the Ingress application on it.\n\nNot only does the CI/CD tunnel streamline the deployment, management, and monitoring of Kubernetes-native applications, but it also does it securely and safely by using impersonations that leverage your Kubernetes cluster's RBAC rules.\n\nProject \"ga4k\" contains and manages the configuration for the GitLab Agent for K8s called \"csaavedra-agentk\". Looking at its \"config.yaml\" file, we see that the agent points to itself for manifest projects, but most importantly, it provides CI/CD tunnel access to two projects: \"sample-application\" and \"cluster-management\". This means that these two projects' CI/CD pipelines will have access to the K8s cluster that the agent is securely connected to:\n\n![The GitLab Agent for K8s configuration](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/2-agent-config.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nThe GitLab Agent for K8s configuration\n\n\nProject \"sample-application\" has a pipeline, which we will later execute under different impersonations. And project \"cluster-management\" has a pipeline that will install only the Ingress application on the Kubernetes cluster, as configured in its helmfile.yaml file:\n\n![Deployable applications in cluster-management project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/3-cluster-mgmt-helmfile.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nDeployable applications in cluster-management project\n\n\n### Connecting the Agent to your Kubernetes cluster\n\nLet's head back to project \"ga4k\" and connect to the Kubernetes cluster via the agent. We select agent \"csaavedra-agentk\" to register with GitLab:\n\n![List of defined agents](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/4-agents-popdown.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nList of defined agents\n\n\nThis step generates a token that we can use to install the agent on the cluster. We copy the Docker command to our local desktop for later use. Notice that the command includes the generated token, which you can also copy:\n\n![Docker command to deploy agent to your K8s cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/5-docker-cmd.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nDocker command to deploy agent to your K8s cluster\n\n\nFrom a local command window, we ensure that our connectivity parameters to GCP are correct:\n\n![Checking your GCP connectivity parameters](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/6-gcp-connectivity.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nChecking your GCP connectivity parameters\n\n\nWe then add the credentials to our kubeconfig file to connect to our newly created Kubernetes cluster \"csaavedra-ga4k-cluster\" and verify that our context is set to it:\n\n![Adding your cluster credentials to your kubeconfig](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/7-adding-creds.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nAdding the credentials of your cluster to your kubeconfig\n\n\nOnce this is done, we can list all the pods that are up and running on the cluster by entering `kubectl get pods –all-namespaces`:\n\n![Listing the pods in your running cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/8-listing-pods.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nListing the pods in your running cluster\n\n\nFinally, we paste the docker command that will install the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes to this cluster making sure that its namespace is \"ga4k-agent\":\n\n![Deploying the agent to your K8s cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/9-pasted-docker-cmd.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nDeploying the agent to your K8s cluster\n\n\nWe list the pods one more time to check that the agent pod is up and running on the cluster:\n\n![Agent up and running on your K8s cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/10-agent-up.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nAgent up and running on your K8s cluster\n\n\nThe screen will refresh and show our Kubernetes cluster connected via the agent:\n\n![Agent connected to your K8s cluster](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/11-agent-connected.png){: .shadow.large.center.wrap-text}\nAgent connected to your K8s cluster\n\n\n### The Agent's Activity Information page\n\nClicking on the agent name takes us to the Agent's Activity Information page, which lists agent events in real time. This information can help monitor your cluster's activity and detect and troubleshoot faulty events from your cluster. Connection and token information is currently listed with more events coming in future releases:\n\n![Agent activity information page](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/12-agent-activity.png){: .shadow.small.center.wrap-text}\nAgent activity information page\n\n\n### Deploying Ingress to your Kubernetes cluster using default impersonation\n\nBy default, the CI/CD Tunnel inherits all the permissions from the service account used to install the agent in the cluster. Per the agent's configuration, the CI/CD pipelines of the \"cluster-management\" project will have access to the K8s cluster that the agent is securely connected to. Let's leverage this connectivity to deploy the Ingress application to the Kubernetes cluster from project \"cluster-management\". Let's make a small update to the project pipeline to launch it. Once the pipeline launches, we navigate to its detail view to track its completion:\n\n![Project \"cluster-management\" pipeline completed](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/13-cluster-mgmt-pipeline.png){: .shadow.small.center.wrap-text}\nProject \"cluster-management\" pipeline completed\n\n\nand check the log of its **apply** job to verify that it was able to switch to the agent's context and successfully ran all the installation steps:\n\n![Ingress deployed to your cluster via CI/CD Tunnel using default impersonation](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/14-apply-job-log.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nIngress deployed to your cluster via CI/CD Tunnel using default impersonation\n\n\nFor further verification, we list the pods in the cluster and check that the ingress pods are up and running:\n\n![Ingress pods up and running](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/15-ingress-pods-up.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nIngress pods up and running on your cluster\n\n\n### Start trailing the agent's log file to watch updates\n\nBefore we start the impersonation use cases, let's start trailing the agent's log file from a command window:\n\n![Trailing agent log from the command line](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/16-trail-agent-log.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nTrailing agent log from the command line\n\n\nAnd also let's increase its logging to debug:\n\n![Increasing the agent log level to debug](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/17-agent-logging-level.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nIncreasing the agent log level to debug\n\n\n### Running impersonation using access_as:ci_job\n\nLet's now impersonate the CI job that accesses the cluster. For this, we modify the agent's configuration and add the \"access_as\" attribute with the \"ci_job\" tag under it:\n\n![Impersonating the CI job](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/18-ci-job-impersonation.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nImpersonating the CI job\n\n\nAs we save the updated configuration, we verify in the log output that the update has taken place in the running agent:\n\n![Agent updated with CI job impersonation](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/19-agent-conf-updated.png){: .shadow.large.center.wrap-text}\nAgent updated with CI job impersonation\n\n\nNotice that the pipeline of the \"sample-application\" project has a test stage and a test job. It sets the variable KUBE_CONTEXT first, loads an image with the version of kubectl that matches the version of the K8s cluster, and executes two kubectl commands that access the remote cluster via the agent:\n\n![Project \"sample-application\" pipeline](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/20-sample-application-pipeline.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nProject \"sample-application\" pipeline\n\n\nWe manually execute the pipeline of the \"sample-application\" project and verify in the job log output that the context switch was successful and that the kubectl commands executed correctly:\n\n![Job log output with CI impersonation](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/21-ci-impersonation-job-log.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nJob log output with CI impersonation\n\n\n### Running impersonation using access_as:impersonate:username\n\nThe last use case is the impersonation of a specific user or system account defined within the cluster. I have pre-created a service account called \"jane\" on the Kubernetes cluster under the \"default\" namespace. And \"jane\" has been given the permission to do a \"get\", \"list\", and \"watch\" on the cluster pods as you can see by the output in the command window:\n\n![Jane user with permission to list pods](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/22-jane-and-perms.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nJane user with permission to list pods\n\n\nRemember that the service account \"gitlab-agent\" under namespace \"ga4k-agent\" was created earlier when we installed the agent by running the Docker command. In order for the agent to be able to impersonate another service account or user, it needs to have the permissions to do so. We do this by creating a clusterrole \"impersonate\" for impersonating users, groups, and service accounts, and then create a clusterrolebinding \"allowimpersonator\" to give these permissions for the \"default\" namespace to the agent \"gitlab-agent\" in the \"ga4k-agent\" namespace:\n\n![Giving impersonation permission to agent](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/23-clusterrole-perm-to-agent.png){: .shadow.large.center.wrap-text}\nGiving impersonation permission to agent\n\n\nWe then edit the agent's configuration and add the \"impersonate\" attribute and provide the service account for \"jane\" as the parameter for the \"username\" tag:\n\n![Impersonating a specific user](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/24-user-impersonation.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nImpersonating a specific user called jane\n\n\nAs we commit the changes, we check the log output to verify that the update has taken place in the running agent:\n\n![Agent updated with user impersonation](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/25-agent-conf-updated.png){: .shadow.large.center.wrap-text}\nAgent updated with user impersonation\n\n\nSince we know that \"jane\" has the permission to list the running pods in the cluster, let's head to the project \"sample-application\" pipeline and add the command \"kubectl get pods –all-namespaces\" to it:\n\n![Adding get pods command that jane is allowed to run](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/26-adding-get-pods-cmd.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nAdding get pods command that jane is allowed to run\n\n\nWe commit the update and head over to the running pipeline and drill into the \"test\" job log output to see that the context switch was successful and that the kubectl commands executed correctly, including the listing of the running pods in the cluster:\n\n![Job output for pipeline impersonation jane](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cicd-tunnel-impersonate/27-user-impersonation-job-log.png){: .shadow.medium.center.wrap-text}\nJob output for pipeline impersonation jane\n\n\n## Conclusion\n\nIn this blog post, we reviewed how you can securely access your Kubernetes clusters from your CI/CD pipelines by using generic impersonation.  In addition, we showed the activity list of the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes, which can help you detect and troubleshoot faulty events from your cluster.\n\nTo see these capabilities in action, check out the following video:\n\n\u003C!-- blank line -->\n\u003Cfigure class=\"video_container\">\n  \u003Ciframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/j8SJuHd7Zsw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"> \u003C/iframe>\n\u003C/figure>\n\u003C!-- blank line -->\n\nCover image by Jakob Søby on [Unsplash](https://www.unsplash.com)\n",[23,24,25,26],"releases","CI","CD","kubernetes","yml",{},true,"/en-us/blog/cicd-tunnel-impersonation",{"title":32,"description":16,"ogTitle":32,"ogDescription":16,"noIndex":12,"ogImage":19,"ogUrl":33,"ogSiteName":34,"ogType":35,"canonicalUrls":33},"Fine-grained permissions with impersonation in CI/CD 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CI/CD tools can run a build and ship a deployment. Where they diverge is what happens when your delivery needs get real: a monorepo with a dozen services, microservices spread across multiple repositories, deployments to dozens of environments, or a platform team trying to enforce standards without becoming a bottleneck.\n  \nGitLab's pipeline execution model was designed for that complexity. Parent-child pipelines, DAG execution, dynamic pipeline generation, multi-project triggers, merge request pipelines with merged results, and CI/CD Components each solve a distinct class of problems. Because they compose, understanding the full model unlocks something more than a faster pipeline. In this article, you'll learn about the five patterns where that model stands out, each mapped to a real engineering scenario with the configuration to match.\n  \nThe configs below are illustrative. The scripts use echo commands to keep the signal-to-noise ratio low. Swap them out for your actual build, test, and deploy steps and they are ready to use.\n\n\n## 1. Monorepos: Parent-child pipelines + DAG execution\n\n\nThe problem: Your monorepo has a frontend, a backend, and a docs site. Every commit triggers a full rebuild of everything, even when only a README changed.\n\n\nGitLab solves this with two complementary features: [parent-child pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/downstream_pipelines/#parent-child-pipelines) (which let a top-level pipeline spawn isolated sub-pipelines) and [DAG execution via `needs`](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#needs) (which breaks rigid stage-by-stage ordering and lets jobs start the moment their dependencies finish).\n\n\nA parent pipeline detects what changed and triggers only the relevant child pipelines:\n\n```yaml\n# .gitlab-ci.yml\nstages:\n  - trigger\n\ntrigger-services:\n  stage: trigger\n  trigger:\n    include:\n      - local: '.gitlab/ci/api-service.yml'\n      - local: '.gitlab/ci/web-service.yml'\n      - local: '.gitlab/ci/worker-service.yml'\n    strategy: depend\n```\n\n\nEach child pipeline is a fully independent pipeline with its own stages, jobs, and artifacts. The parent waits for all of them via [strategy: depend](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/downstream_pipelines/#wait-for-downstream-pipeline-to-complete) so you get a single green/red signal at the top level, with full drill-down into each service's pipeline. This organizational separation is the bigger win for large teams: each service owns its pipeline config, changes in one cannot break another, and the complexity stays manageable as the repo grows.\n\n\nOne thing worth knowing: when you pass [multiple files to a single `trigger: include:`](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/downstream_pipelines/#combine-multiple-child-pipeline-configuration-files), GitLab merges them into a single child pipeline configuration. This means jobs defined across those files share the same pipeline context and can reference each other with `needs:`, which is what makes the DAG optimization possible. If you split them into separate trigger jobs instead, each would be its own isolated pipeline and cross-file `needs:` references would not work.\n\n\nCombine this with `needs:` inside each child pipeline and you get DAG execution. Your integration tests can start the moment the build finishes, without waiting for other jobs in the same stage.\n\n```yaml\n# .gitlab/ci/api-service.yml\nstages:\n  - build\n  - test\n\nbuild-api:\n  stage: build\n  script:\n    - echo \"Building API service\"\n\ntest-api:\n  stage: test\n  needs: [build-api]\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running API tests\"\n```\n\n\nWhy it matters: Teams with large monorepos typically report significant reductions in pipeline runtime after switching to DAG execution, since jobs no longer wait on unrelated work in the same stage. Parent-child pipelines add the organizational layer that keeps the configuration maintainable as the repo and team grow.\n\n![Local downstream pipelines](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738759/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image3_vwj3rz.png \"Local downstream pipelines\")\n\n## 2. Microservices: Cross-repo, multi-project pipelines\n\n\nThe problem: Your frontend lives in one repo, your backend in another. When the frontend team ships a change, they have no visibility into whether it broke the backend integration and vice versa.\n\n\nGitLab's [multi-project pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/downstream_pipelines/#multi-project-pipelines) let one project trigger a pipeline in a completely separate project and wait for the result. The triggering project gets a linked downstream pipeline right in its own pipeline view.\n\n\nThe frontend pipeline builds an API contract artifact and publishes it, then triggers the backend pipeline. The backend fetches that artifact directly using the [Jobs API](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/jobs.html#download-a-single-artifact-file-from-specific-tag-or-branch) and validates it before allowing anything to proceed. If a breaking change is detected, the backend pipeline fails and the frontend pipeline fails with it.\n\n```yaml\n# frontend repo: .gitlab-ci.yml\nstages:\n  - build\n  - test\n  - trigger-backend\n\nbuild-frontend:\n  stage: build\n  script:\n    - echo \"Building frontend and generating API contract...\"\n    - mkdir -p dist\n    - |\n      echo '{\n        \"api_version\": \"v2\",\n        \"breaking_changes\": false\n      }' > dist/api-contract.json\n    - cat dist/api-contract.json\n  artifacts:\n    paths:\n      - dist/api-contract.json\n    expire_in: 1 hour\n\ntest-frontend:\n  stage: test\n  script:\n    - echo \"All frontend tests passed!\"\n\ntrigger-backend-pipeline:\n  stage: trigger-backend\n  trigger:\n    project: my-org/backend-service\n    branch: main\n    strategy: depend\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n```\n\n```yaml\n# backend repo: .gitlab-ci.yml\nstages:\n  - build\n  - test\n\nbuild-backend:\n  stage: build\n  script:\n    - echo \"All backend tests passed!\"\n\nintegration-test:\n  stage: test\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"pipeline\"\n  script:\n    - echo \"Fetching API contract from frontend...\"\n    - |\n      curl --silent --fail \\\n        --header \"JOB-TOKEN: $CI_JOB_TOKEN\" \\\n        --output api-contract.json \\\n        \"${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${FRONTEND_PROJECT_ID}/jobs/artifacts/main/raw/dist/api-contract.json?job=build-frontend\"\n    - cat api-contract.json\n    - |\n      if grep -q '\"breaking_changes\": true' api-contract.json; then\n        echo \"FAIL: Breaking API changes detected - backend integration blocked!\"\n        exit 1\n      fi\n      echo \"PASS: API contract is compatible!\"\n```\n\n\nA few things worth noting in this config. The `integration-test` job uses `$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"pipeline\"` to ensure it only runs when triggered by an upstream pipeline, not on a standalone push to the backend repo. The frontend project ID is referenced via `$FRONTEND_PROJECT_ID`, which should be set as a [CI/CD variable](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/) in the backend project settings to avoid hardcoding it.\n\n\nWhy it matters: Cross-service breakage that previously surfaced in production gets caught in the pipeline instead. The dependency between services stops being invisible and becomes something teams can see, track, and act on.\n\n\n![Cross-project pipelines](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738762/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image4_h6mfsb.png \"Cross-project pipelines\")\n\n\n## 3. Multi-tenant / matrix deployments: Dynamic child pipelines\n\n\nThe problem: You deploy the same application to 15 customer environments, or three cloud regions, or dev/staging/prod. Updating a deploy stage across all of them one by one is the kind of work that leads to configuration drift. Writing a separate pipeline for each environment is unmaintainable from day one.\n\n\nGitLab's [dynamic child pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/downstream_pipelines/#dynamic-child-pipelines) let you generate a pipeline at runtime. A job runs a script that produces a YAML file, and that YAML becomes the pipeline for the next stage. The pipeline structure itself becomes data.\n\n\n```yaml\n# .gitlab-ci.yml\nstages:\n  - generate\n  - trigger-environments\n\ngenerate-config:\n  stage: generate\n  script:\n    - |\n      # ENVIRONMENTS can be passed as a CI variable or read from a config file.\n      # Default to dev, staging, prod if not set.\n      ENVIRONMENTS=${ENVIRONMENTS:-\"dev staging prod\"}\n      for ENV in $ENVIRONMENTS; do\n        cat > ${ENV}-pipeline.yml \u003C\u003C EOF\n      stages:\n        - deploy\n        - verify\n      deploy-${ENV}:\n        stage: deploy\n        script:\n          - echo \"Deploying to ${ENV} environment\"\n      verify-${ENV}:\n        stage: verify\n        script:\n          - echo \"Running smoke tests on ${ENV}\"\n      EOF\n      done\n  artifacts:\n    paths:\n      - \"*.yml\"\n    exclude:\n      - \".gitlab-ci.yml\"\n\n.trigger-template:\n  stage: trigger-environments\n  trigger:\n    strategy: depend\n\ntrigger-dev:\n  extends: .trigger-template\n  trigger:\n    include:\n      - artifact: dev-pipeline.yml\n        job: generate-config\n\ntrigger-staging:\n  extends: .trigger-template\n  needs: [trigger-dev]\n  trigger:\n    include:\n      - artifact: staging-pipeline.yml\n        job: generate-config\n\ntrigger-prod:\n  extends: .trigger-template\n  needs: [trigger-staging]\n  trigger:\n    include:\n      - artifact: prod-pipeline.yml\n        job: generate-config\n  when: manual\n```\n\n\nThe generation script loops over an `ENVIRONMENTS` variable rather than hardcoding each environment separately. Pass in a different list via a CI variable or read it from a config file and the pipeline adapts without touching the YAML. The trigger jobs use [extends:](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#extends) to inherit shared configuration from `.trigger-template`, so `strategy: depend` is defined once rather than repeated on every trigger job. Add a new environment by updating the variable, not by duplicating pipeline config. Add [when: manual](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#when) to the production trigger and you get a promotion gate baked right into the pipeline graph.\n\n\nWhy it matters: SaaS companies and platform teams use this pattern to manage dozens of environments without duplicating pipeline logic. The pipeline structure itself stays lean as the deployment matrix grows.\n\n\n![Dynamic pipeline](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738765/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image7_wr0kx2.png \"Dynamic pipeline\")\n\n\n## 4. MR-first delivery: Merge request pipelines, merged results, and workflow routing\n\n\nThe problem: Your pipeline runs on every push to every branch. Expensive tests run on feature branches that will never merge. Meanwhile, you have no guarantee that what you tested is actually what will land on `main` after a merge.\n\n\nGitLab has three interlocking features that solve this together:\n\n\n*   [Merge request pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/merge_request_pipelines/) run only when a merge request exists, not on every branch push. This alone eliminates a significant amount of wasted compute.\n\n*   [Merged results pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/merged_results_pipelines/) go further. GitLab creates a temporary merge commit (your branch plus the current target branch) and runs the pipeline against that. You are testing what will actually exist after the merge, not just your branch in isolation.\n\n*   [Workflow rules](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/workflow/) let you define exactly which pipeline type runs under which conditions and suppress everything else. The `$CI_OPEN_MERGE_REQUESTS` guard below prevents duplicate pipelines firing for both a branch and its open MR simultaneously.\n\n\nWith those three working together, here is what a tiered pipeline looks like:\n\n```yaml\n# .gitlab-ci.yml\nworkflow:\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"merge_request_event\"\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH && $CI_OPEN_MERGE_REQUESTS\n      when: never\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"schedule\"\n\nstages:\n  - fast-checks\n  - expensive-tests\n  - deploy\n\nlint-code:\n  stage: fast-checks\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running linter\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"push\"\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"merge_request_event\"\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n\nunit-tests:\n  stage: fast-checks\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running unit tests\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"push\"\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"merge_request_event\"\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n\nintegration-tests:\n  stage: expensive-tests\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running integration tests (15 min)\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"merge_request_event\"\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n\ne2e-tests:\n  stage: expensive-tests\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running E2E tests (30 min)\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"merge_request_event\"\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n\nnightly-comprehensive-scan:\n  stage: expensive-tests\n  script:\n    - echo \"Running full nightly suite (2 hours)\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == \"schedule\"\n\ndeploy-production:\n  stage: deploy\n  script:\n    - echo \"Deploying to production\"\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\"\n      when: manual\n```\n\nWith this setup, the pipeline behaves differently depending on context. A push to a feature branch with no open MR runs lint and unit tests only. Once an MR is opened, the workflow rules switch from a branch pipeline to an MR pipeline, and the full integration and E2E suite runs against the merged result. Merging to `main` queues a manual production deployment. A nightly schedule runs the comprehensive scan once, not on every commit.\n\n\nWhy it matters: Teams routinely cut CI costs significantly with this pattern, not by running fewer tests, but by running the right tests at the right time. Merged results pipelines catch the class of bugs that only appear after a merge, before they ever reach `main`.\n\n\n![Conditional pipelines (within a branch with no MR)](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738768/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image6_dnfcny.png \"Conditional pipelines (within a branch with no MR)\")\n\n\n\n![Conditional pipelines (within an MR)](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738772/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image1_wyiafu.png \"Conditional pipelines (within an MR)\")\n\n\n\n![Conditional pipelines (on the main branch)](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738774/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image5_r6lkfd.png \"Conditional pipelines (on the main branch)\")\n\n## 5. Governed pipelines: CI/CD Components\n\n\nThe problem: Your platform team has defined the right way to build, test, and deploy. But every team has their own `.gitlab-ci.yml` with subtle variations. Security scanning gets skipped. Deployment standards drift. Audits are painful.\n\n\nGitLab [CI/CD Components](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/components/) let platform teams publish versioned, reusable pipeline building blocks. Application teams consume them with a single `include:` line and optional inputs — no copy-paste, no drift. Components are discoverable through the [CI/CD Catalog](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/components/#cicd-catalog), which means teams can find and adopt approved building blocks without needing to go through the platform team directly.\n\n\nHere is a component definition from a shared library:\n\n```yaml\n# templates/deploy.yml\nspec:\n  inputs:\n    stage:\n      default: deploy\n    environment:\n      default: production\n---\ndeploy-job:\n  stage: $[[ inputs.stage ]]\n  script:\n    - echo \"Deploying $APP_NAME to $[[ inputs.environment ]]\"\n    - echo \"Deploy URL: $DEPLOY_URL\"\n  environment:\n    name: $[[ inputs.environment ]]\n```\nAnd here is how an application team consumes it:\n\n```yaml\n# Application repo: .gitlab-ci.yml\nvariables:\n  APP_NAME: \"my-awesome-app\"\n  DEPLOY_URL: \"https://api.example.com\"\n\ninclude:\n  - component: gitlab.com/my-org/component-library/build@v1.0.6\n  - component: gitlab.com/my-org/component-library/test@v1.0.6\n  - component: gitlab.com/my-org/component-library/deploy@v1.0.6\n    inputs:\n      environment: staging\n\nstages:\n  - build\n  - test\n  - deploy\n```\n\nThree lines of `include:` replace hundreds of lines of duplicated YAML. The platform team can push a security fix to `v1.0.7` and teams opt in on their own schedule — or the platform team can pin everyone to a minimum version. Either way, one change propagates everywhere instead of needing to be applied repo by repo.\n\n\nPair this with [resource groups](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/resource_groups/) to prevent concurrent deployments to the same environment, and [protected environments](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/environments/protected_environments/) to enforce approval gates - and you have a governed delivery platform where compliance is the default, not the exception.\n\n\nWhy it matters: This is the pattern that makes GitLab CI/CD scale across hundreds of teams. Platform engineering teams enforce compliance without becoming a bottleneck. Application teams get a fast path to a working pipeline without reinventing the wheel.\n\n\n![Component pipeline (imported jobs)](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1775738776/Blog/Imported/hackathon-fake-blog-post-s/image2_pizuxd.png \"Component pipeline (imported jobs)\")\n\n## Putting it all together\n\nNone of these features exist in isolation. The reason GitLab's pipeline model is worth understanding deeply is that these primitives compose:\n\n*   A monorepo uses parent-child pipelines, and each child uses DAG execution\n\n*   A microservices platform uses multi-project pipelines, and each project uses MR pipelines with merged results\n\n*   A governed platform uses CI/CD components to standardize the patterns above across every team\n\n\nMost teams discover one of these features when they hit a specific pain point. The ones who invest in understanding the full model end up with a delivery system that actually reflects how their engineering organization works, not a pipeline that fights it.\n\n## Other patterns worth exploring\n\n\nThe five patterns above cover the most common structural pain points, but GitLab's pipeline model goes further. A few others worth looking into as your needs grow:\n\n\n*   [Review apps with dynamic environments](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/environments/) let you spin up a live preview for every feature branch and tear it down automatically when the MR closes. Useful for teams doing frontend work or API changes that need stakeholder sign-off before merging.\n\n*   [Caching and artifact strategies](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/caching/) are often the fastest way to cut pipeline runtime after the structural work is done. Structuring `cache:` keys around dependency lockfiles and being deliberate about what gets passed between jobs with [artifacts:](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#artifacts) can make a significant difference without changing your pipeline shape at all.\n\n*   [Scheduled and API-triggered pipelines](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/pipelines/schedules/) are worth knowing about because not everything should run on a code push. Nightly security scans, compliance reports, and release automation are better modeled as scheduled or [API-triggered](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/triggers/) pipelines with `$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE` routing the right jobs for each context.\n\n## How to get started\n\nModern software delivery is complex. Teams are managing monorepos with dozens of services, coordinating across multiple repositories, deploying to many environments at once, and trying to keep standards consistent as organizations grow. GitLab's pipeline model was built with all of that in mind.\n\nWhat makes it worth investing time in is how well the pieces fit together. Parent-child pipelines bring structure to large codebases. Multi-project pipelines make cross-team dependencies visible and testable. Dynamic pipelines turn environment management into something that scales gracefully. MR-first delivery with merged results ensures confidence at every step of the review process. And CI/CD Components give platform teams a way to share best practices across an entire organization without becoming a bottleneck.\n\nEach of these features is powerful on its own, and even more so when combined. GitLab gives you the building blocks to design a delivery system that fits how your team actually works, and grows with you as your needs evolve.\n\n> [Start a free trial of GitLab Ultimate](https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/) to use pipeline logic today.\n\n## Read more\n\n*   [Variable and artifact sharing in GitLab parent-child pipelines](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/variable-and-artifact-sharing-in-gitlab-parent-child-pipelines/)\n*   [CI/CD inputs: Secure and preferred method to pass parameters to a pipeline](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/ci-cd-inputs-secure-and-preferred-method-to-pass-parameters-to-a-pipeline/)\n*   [Tutorial: How to set up your first GitLab CI/CD component](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/tutorial-how-to-set-up-your-first-gitlab-ci-cd-component/)\n*   [How to include file references in your CI/CD components](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/how-to-include-file-references-in-your-ci-cd-components/)\n*   [FAQ: GitLab CI/CD Catalog](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/faq-gitlab-ci-cd-catalog/)\n*   [Building a GitLab CI/CD pipeline for a monorepo the easy way](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/building-a-gitlab-ci-cd-pipeline-for-a-monorepo-the-easy-way/)\n*   [A CI/CD component builder's journey](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/a-ci-component-builders-journey/)\n*   [CI/CD Catalog goes GA: No more building pipelines from scratch](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/ci-cd-catalog-goes-ga-no-more-building-pipelines-from-scratch/)","5 ways GitLab pipeline logic solves real engineering problems","Learn how to scale CI/CD with composable patterns for monorepos, microservices, environments, and governance.",[724],"Omid Khan","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772721753/frfsm1qfscwrmsyzj1qn.png","2026-04-09",[110,728,729,730],"DevOps platform","tutorial","features",{"featured":29,"template":13,"slug":732},"5-ways-gitlab-pipeline-logic-solves-real-engineering-problems",{"content":734,"config":744},{"title":735,"description":736,"authors":737,"heroImage":739,"date":740,"body":741,"category":9,"tags":742},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[738],"Tim Rizzi","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772111172/mwhgbjawn62kymfwrhle.png","2026-03-12","If you're a platform engineer, you've probably had this conversation:\n  \n*\"Security says we need to use hardened base images.\"*\n\n*\"Great, where do I configure credentials for yet another registry?\"*\n\n*\"Also, how do we make sure everyone actually uses them?\"*\n\nOr this one:\n\n*\"Why are our builds so slow?\"*\n\n*\"We're pulling the same 500MB image from Docker Hub in every single job.\"*\n\n*\"Can't we just cache these somewhere?\"*\n\nI've been working on [Container Virtual Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/) at GitLab specifically to solve these problems. It's a pull-through cache that sits in front of your upstream registries — Docker Hub, dhi.io (Docker Hardened Images), MCR, and Quay — and gives your teams a single endpoint to pull from. Images get cached on the first pull. Subsequent pulls come from the cache. Your developers don't need to know or care which upstream a particular image came from.\n\nThis article shows you how to set up Container Virtual Registry, specifically with Docker Hardened Images in mind, since that's a combination that makes a lot of sense for teams concerned about security and not making their developers' lives harder.\n\n## What problem are we actually solving?\n\nThe Platform teams I usually talk to manage container images across three to five registries:\n\n* **Docker Hub** for most base images\n* **dhi.io** for Docker Hardened Images (security-conscious workloads)\n* **MCR** for .NET and Azure tooling\n* **Quay.io** for Red Hat ecosystem stuff\n* **Internal registries** for proprietary images\n\nEach one has its own:\n\n* Authentication mechanism\n* Network latency characteristics\n* Way of organizing image paths\n\nYour CI/CD configs end up littered with registry-specific logic. Credential management becomes a project unto itself. And every pipeline job pulls the same base images over the network, even though they haven't changed in weeks.\n\nContainer Virtual Registry consolidates this. One registry URL. One authentication flow (GitLab's). Cached images are served from GitLab's infrastructure rather than traversing the internet each time.\n\n## How it works\n\nThe model is straightforward:\n\n```text\nYour pipeline pulls:\n  gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/1000016/python:3.13\n\nVirtual registry checks:\n  1. Do I have this cached? → Return it\n  2. No? → Fetch from upstream, cache it, return it\n\n```\n\nYou configure upstreams in priority order. When a pull request comes in, the virtual registry checks each upstream until it finds the image. The result gets cached for a configurable period (default 24 hours).\n\n```text\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│                    CI/CD Pipeline                       │\n│                          │                              │\n│                          ▼                              │\n│   gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/\u003Cid>/image   │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n                           │\n                           ▼\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│            Container Virtual Registry                   │\n│                                                         │\n│  Upstream 1: Docker Hub ────────────────┐               │\n│  Upstream 2: dhi.io (Hardened) ────────┐│               │\n│  Upstream 3: MCR ─────────────────────┐││               │\n│  Upstream 4: Quay.io ────────────────┐│││               │\n│                                      ││││               │\n│                    ┌─────────────────┴┴┴┴──┐            │\n│                    │        Cache          │            │\n│                    │  (manifests + layers) │            │\n│                    └───────────────────────┘            │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n```\n\n## Why this matters for Docker Hardened Images\n\n[Docker Hardened Images](https://docs.docker.com/dhi/) are great because of the minimal attack surface, near-zero CVEs, proper software bills of materials (SBOMs), and SLSA provenance. If you're evaluating base images for security-sensitive workloads, they should be on your list.\n\nBut adopting them creates the same operational friction as any new registry:\n\n* **Credential distribution**: You need to get Docker credentials to every system that pulls images from dhi.io.\n* **CI/CD changes**: Every pipeline needs to be updated to authenticate with dhi.io.\n* **Developer friction**: People need to remember to use the hardened variants.\n* **Visibility gap**: It's difficult to tell if teams are actually using hardened images vs. regular ones.\n\nVirtual registry addresses each of these:\n\n**Single credential**: Teams authenticate to GitLab. The virtual registry handles upstream authentication. You configure Docker credentials once, at the registry level, and they apply to all pulls.\n\n**No CI/CD changes per-team**: Point pipelines at your virtual registry. Done. The upstream configuration is centralized.\n\n**Gradual adoption**: Since images get cached with their full path, you can see in the cache what's being pulled. If someone's pulling `library/python:3.11` instead of the hardened variant, you'll know.\n\n**Audit trail**: The cache shows you exactly which images are in active use. Useful for compliance, useful for understanding what your fleet actually depends on.\n\n## Setting it up\n\nHere's a real setup using the Python client from this demo project.\n\n### Create the virtual registry\n\n```python\nfrom virtual_registry_client import VirtualRegistryClient\n\nclient = VirtualRegistryClient()\n\nregistry = client.create_virtual_registry(\n    group_id=\"785414\",  # Your top-level group ID\n    name=\"platform-images\",\n    description=\"Cached container images for platform teams\"\n)\n\nprint(f\"Registry ID: {registry['id']}\")\n# You'll need this ID for the pull URL\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hub as an upstream\n\nFor official images like Alpine, Python, etc.:\n\n```python\ndocker_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://registry-1.docker.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hub\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io)\n\nDocker Hardened Images are hosted on `dhi.io`, a separate registry that requires authentication:\n\n```python\ndhi_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-docker-username\",\n    password=\"your-docker-access-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add other upstreams\n\n```python\n# MCR for .NET teams\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://mcr.microsoft.com\",\n    name=\"Microsoft Container Registry\",\n    cache_validity_hours=48\n)\n\n# Quay for Red Hat stuff\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://quay.io\",\n    name=\"Quay.io\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Update your CI/CD\n\nHere's a `.gitlab-ci.yml` that pulls through the virtual registry:\n\n```yaml\nvariables:\n  VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID: \u003Cyour_virtual_registry_ID>\n\n  \nbuild:\n  image: docker:24\n  services:\n    - docker:24-dind\n  before_script:\n    # Authenticate to GitLab (which handles upstream auth for you)\n    - echo \"${CI_JOB_TOKEN}\" | docker login -u gitlab-ci-token --password-stdin gitlab.com\n  script:\n    # All of these go through your single virtual registry\n    \n    # Official Docker Hub images (use library/ prefix)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/library/alpine:latest\n    \n    # Docker Hardened Images from dhi.io (no prefix needed)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/python:3.13\n    \n    # .NET from MCR\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/dotnet/sdk:8.0\n```\n\n### Image path formats\n\nDifferent registries use different path conventions:\n\n| Registry | Pull URL Example |\n|----------|------------------|\n| Docker Hub (official) | `.../library/python:3.11-slim` |\n| Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io) | `.../python:3.13` |\n| MCR | `.../dotnet/sdk:8.0` |\n| Quay.io | `.../prometheus/prometheus:latest` |\n\n### Verify it's working\n\nAfter some pulls, check your cache:\n\n```python\nupstreams = client.list_registry_upstreams(registry['id'])\nfor upstream in upstreams:\n    entries = client.list_cache_entries(upstream['id'])\n    print(f\"{upstream['name']}: {len(entries)} cached entries\")\n\n```\n\n## What the numbers look like\n\nI ran tests pulling images through the virtual registry:\n\n| Metric | Without Cache | With Warm Cache |\n|--------|---------------|-----------------|\n| Pull time (Alpine) | 10.3s | 4.2s |\n| Pull time (Python 3.13 DHI) | 11.6s | ~4s |\n| Network roundtrips to upstream | Every pull | Cache misses only |\n\n\n\n\nThe first pull is the same speed (it has to fetch from upstream). Every pull after that, for the cache validity period, comes straight from GitLab's storage. No network hop to Docker Hub, dhi.io, MCR, or wherever the image lives.\n\nFor a team running hundreds of pipeline jobs per day, that's hours of cumulative build time saved.\n\n## Practical considerations\nHere are some considerations to keep in mind:\n\n### Cache validity\n\n24 hours is the default. For security-sensitive images where you want patches quickly, consider 12 hours or less:\n\n```python\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-username\",\n    password=\"your-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=12\n)\n```\n\nFor stable, infrequently-updated images (like specific version tags), longer validity is fine.\n\n### Upstream priority\n\nUpstreams are checked in order. If you have images with the same name on different registries, the first matching upstream wins.\n\n### Limits\n\n* Maximum of 20 virtual registries per group\n* Maximum of 20 upstreams per virtual registry\n\n## Configuration via UI\n\nYou can also configure virtual registries and upstreams directly from the GitLab UI—no API calls required. Navigate to your group's **Settings > Packages and registries > Virtual Registry** to:\n\n* Create and manage virtual registries\n* Add, edit, and reorder upstream registries\n* View and manage the cache\n* Monitor which images are being pulled\n\n## What's next\n\nWe're actively developing:\n\n* **Allow/deny lists**: Use regex to control which images can be pulled from specific upstreams.\n\nThis is beta software. It works, people are using it in production, but we're still iterating based on feedback.\n\n## Share your feedback\n\nIf you're a platform engineer dealing with container registry sprawl, I'd like to understand your setup:\n\n* How many upstream registries are you managing?\n* What's your biggest pain point with the current state?\n* Would something like this help, and if not, what's missing?\n\nPlease share your experiences in the [Container Virtual Registry feedback issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/589630).\n## Related resources\n- [New GitLab metrics and registry features help reduce CI/CD bottlenecks](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/new-gitlab-metrics-and-registry-features-help-reduce-ci-cd-bottlenecks/#container-virtual-registry)\n- [Container Virtual Registry documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/)\n- [Container Virtual Registry API](https://docs.gitlab.com/api/container_virtual_registries/)",[729,743,730],"product",{"featured":12,"template":13,"slug":745},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":747,"config":757},{"title":748,"description":749,"authors":750,"heroImage":752,"date":753,"category":9,"tags":754,"body":756},"How IIT Bombay students are coding the future with GitLab","At GitLab, we often talk about how software accelerates innovation. But sometimes, you have to step away from the Zoom calls and stand in a crowded university hall to remember why we do this.",[751],"Nick Veenhof","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099013/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2814%29_6VTUA8mUhOZNDaRVNPeKwl_1750099012960.png","2026-01-08",[263,625,755],"open source","The GitLab team recently had the privilege of judging the **iHack Hackathon** at **IIT Bombay's E-Summit**. The energy was electric, the coffee was flowing, and the talent was undeniable. But what struck us most wasn't just the code — it was the sheer determination of students to solve real-world problems, often overcoming significant logistical and financial hurdles to simply be in the room.\n\n\nThrough our [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we aim to empower the next generation of developers with tools and opportunity. Here is a look at what the students built, and how they used GitLab to bridge the gap between idea and reality.\n\n## The challenge: Build faster, build securely\n\nThe premise for the GitLab track of the hackathon was simple: Don't just show us a product; show us how you built it. We wanted to see how students utilized GitLab's platform — from Issue Boards to CI/CD pipelines — to accelerate the development lifecycle.\n\nThe results were inspiring.\n\n## The winners\n\n### 1st place: Team Decode — Democratizing Scientific Research\n\n**Project:** FIRE (Fast Integrated Research Environment)\n\nTeam Decode took home the top prize with a solution that warms a developer's heart: a local-first, blazing-fast data processing tool built with [Rust](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/secure-rust-development-with-gitlab/) and Tauri. They identified a massive pain point for data science students: existing tools are fragmented, slow, and expensive.\n\nTheir solution, FIRE, allows researchers to visualize complex formats (like NetCDF) instantly. What impressed the judges most was their \"hacker\" ethos. They didn't just build a tool; they built it to be open and accessible.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** Since the team lived far apart, asynchronous communication was key. They utilized **GitLab Issue Boards** and **Milestones** to track progress and integrated their repo with Telegram to get real-time push notifications. As one team member noted, \"Coordinating all these technologies was really difficult, and what helped us was GitLab... the Issue Board really helped us track who was doing what.\"\n\n![Team Decode](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/epqazj1jc5c7zkgqun9h.jpg)\n\n### 2nd place: Team BichdeHueDost — Reuniting to Solve Payments\n\n**Project:** SemiPay (RFID Cashless Payment for Schools)\n\nThe team name, BichdeHueDost, translates to \"Friends who have been set apart.\" It's a fitting name for a group of friends who went to different colleges but reunited to build this project. They tackled a unique problem: handling cash in schools for young children. Their solution used RFID cards backed by a blockchain ledger to ensure secure, cashless transactions for students.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** They utilized [GitLab CI/CD](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/ci-cd/) to automate the build process for their Flutter application (APK), ensuring that every commit resulted in a testable artifact. This allowed them to iterate quickly despite the \"flaky\" nature of cross-platform mobile development.\n\n![Team BichdeHueDost](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/pkukrjgx2miukb6nrj5g.jpg)\n\n### 3rd place: Team ZenYukti — Agentic Repository Intelligence\n\n**Project:** RepoInsight AI (AI-powered, GitLab-native intelligence platform)\n\nTeam ZenYukti impressed us with a solution that tackles a universal developer pain point: understanding unfamiliar codebases. What stood out to the judges was the tool's practical approach to onboarding and code comprehension: RepoInsight-AI automatically generates documentation, visualizes repository structure, and even helps identify bugs, all while maintaining context about the entire codebase.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** The team built a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline that showcased GitLab's security and DevOps capabilities. They integrated [GitLab's Security Templates](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Security) (SAST, Dependency Scanning, and Secret Detection), and utilized [GitLab Container Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/container_registry/) to manage their Docker images for backend and frontend components. They created an AI auto-review bot that runs on merge requests, demonstrating an \"agentic workflow\" where AI assists in the development process itself.\n\n![Team ZenYukti](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/ymlzqoruv5al1secatba.jpg)\n\n## Beyond the code: A lesson in inclusion\n\nWhile the code was impressive, the most powerful moment of the event happened away from the keyboard.\n\nDuring the feedback session, we learned about the journey Team ZenYukti took to get to Mumbai. They traveled over 24 hours, covering nearly 1,800 kilometers. Because flights were too expensive and trains were booked, they traveled in the \"General Coach,\" a non-reserved, severely overcrowded carriage.\n\nAs one student described it:\n\n*\"You cannot even imagine something like this... there are no seats... people sit on the top of the train. This is what we have endured.\"*\n\nThis hit home. [Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/inclusion/) are core values at GitLab. We realized that for these students, the barrier to entry wasn't intellect or skill, it was access.\n\nIn that moment, we decided to break that barrier. We committed to reimbursing the travel expenses for the participants who struggled to get there. It's a small step, but it underlines a massive truth: **talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.**\n\n![hackathon class together](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380252/o5aqmboquz8ehusxvgom.jpg)\n\n### The future is bright (and automated)\n\nWe also saw incredible potential in teams like Prometheus, who attempted to build an autonomous patch remediation tool (DevGuardian), and Team Arrakis, who built a voice-first job portal for blue-collar workers using [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo-agent-platform/) to troubleshoot their pipelines.\n\nTo all the students who participated: You are the future. Through [GitLab for Education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we are committed to providing you with the top-tier tools (like GitLab Ultimate) you need to learn, collaborate, and change the world — whether you are coding from a dorm room, a lab, or a train carriage. **Keep shipping.**\n\n> :bulb: Learn more about the [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/).\n",{"slug":758,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"promotions":760},[761,775,786,798],{"id":762,"categories":763,"header":765,"text":766,"button":767,"image":772},"ai-modernization",[764],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":768,"config":769},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":770,"dataGaName":771,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":773},{"src":774},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":776,"categories":777,"header":778,"text":766,"button":779,"image":783},"devops-modernization",[743,571],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":780,"config":781},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":782,"dataGaName":771,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":784},{"src":785},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":787,"categories":788,"header":790,"text":766,"button":791,"image":795},"security-modernization",[789],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":792,"config":793},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":794,"dataGaName":771,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":796},{"src":797},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"id":799,"paths":800,"header":803,"text":804,"button":805,"image":810},"github-azure-migration",[801,802],"migration-from-azure-devops-to-gitlab","integrating-azure-devops-scm-and-gitlab","Is your team ready for GitHub's Azure move?","GitHub is already rebuilding around Azure. Find out what it means for you.",{"text":806,"config":807},"See how GitLab compares to GitHub",{"href":808,"dataGaName":809,"dataGaLocation":245},"/compare/gitlab-vs-github/github-azure-migration/","github azure migration",{"config":811},{"src":785},{"header":813,"blurb":814,"button":815,"secondaryButton":820},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":816,"config":817},"Get your free trial",{"href":818,"dataGaName":52,"dataGaLocation":819},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":507,"config":821},{"href":56,"dataGaName":57,"dataGaLocation":819},1776449935096]