GLAB CLI Command Reference

Quick-reference for the GitLab CLI (glab). Covers authentication, issues, merge requests, CI/CD pipelines, releases, repo management, labels, variables, snippets, and milestones.

Core Principles

1. Authenticate first: Verify auth status before running commands
2. Use -R for cross-repo: Target any repo with -R OWNER/REPO or GROUP/NAMESPACE/REPO
3. Output format matters: Use --output json for scripting, default for readability
4. Prefer flags over interactive: Use flags (-t, -d, -l) for reproducible, non-interactive commands
5. Current branch context: Many mr and ci commands auto-detect the current branch's MR or pipeline

Authentication

Authenticate before running any glab command.

# Interactive login (browser-based OAuth flow)
glab auth login