Developer Onboarding
Awesome! You’re about to become a GitLab developer! Make sure you’ve checked out our handbook beforehand, so you get a feeling of how we work at GitLab. Below you’ll find everything you need to start developing. If something is missing, add it (as goes with everything at GitLab)!
GitLab Environments
We have multiple GitLab environments.
On those instances, please enable the performance bar by pressing p then b (even on production.)
Then, read how to use and enable the production Canary on GitLab.com.
Getting started with GitLab development
To start development, follow the instructions for the GitLab Development Kit.
GitLab Repositories
GitLab consists of many subprojects. A curated list of GitLab Repositories can be found at the GitLab Engineering Projects page.
Almost all repositories are available on both GitLab.com and dev.gitlab.org. We also mirror to dev.gitlab.org for availability reasons and GitHub for historical reasons.
All issues should be filed on GitLab.com.
Infrastructure
For everything related to infrastructure, check out the Infrastructure handbook. In particular production architecture might be useful for onboarding.
If you need a VPS for any reason, it’s probably easiest to set one up at DigitalOcean. Ask another developer for access.
Basics of GitLab development
Workflow
Please see the engineering workflow document in the handbook and read the developer documentation.
Security
Read the developer security documentation prior to working on a security issue.
Quality
One of GitLab’s strengths is its high quality of software. To achieve this we’ve introduced some requirements to all source code that is contributed. All requirements are mentioned in the Contribution guide. Make sure you read and follow it.
Dependencies
GitLab can be installed through an Omnibus package or from source on different Linux distributions and macOS. In order to maintain portability, we need to avoid adding extra dependencies and use of exotic database extensions. Every time you choose between changes in the application code or adding new dependencies, you should give priority to the first because this is easier to maintain and set up. If you still need to bring new dependencies to GitLab, ask another developer or the CTO for advice.
Submit your code
In GitLab all code should go through a review process before it can be merged. Make sure you submit a merge request for any changes you’ve made. When the merge request is ready, it should be assigned to someone else on the team. This person is then responsible for reviewing your code and merging it. Optionally, you can request another developer to help or review by writing a comment. If a merge request is not assigned, it will probably be ignored and create unnecessary delays.
Don’t work on one task for multiple days before submitting a merge request. Even the biggest task can be split into smaller tasks. Try to submit a merge request for each part of the functionality. This means that we expect multiple merge requests per week from you. Smaller merge requests are more likely to receive good feedback and will get merged sooner.
Unless the change is very minor, or is fixing a bug that was introduced in the
same version, create a changelog entry using the
Changelog Git commit trailer.
Do not include your name in the entry as we only do that to give recognition to
volunteer contributors.
Working on GitLab EE (developer licenses)
GitLab EE requires a license key to be used.
Team members should file a submission via the Support Super Form by selecting “Request a team member license” from the drop down options.
Wider community members should contact the Contributor Success team.
Learn more about working with licensing and subscriptions internally.
Ruby Gems
Follow the development guidelines for Ruby gems.
Get involved with the wider community
- Become a Merge Request Coach
- Join the Community Discord
- Encourage teams to host Community Office Hours
- Reach out to the Contributor Success team on Slack in
#contributor-success - Involve the community in things you do
- Have conversations in public
- Triage team issues and label with
quick winwhere applicable, especially in advance of Hackathons - Use the Community Forks
- Consider live streaming and pairing sessions, with team members and/or the community
- Record meetings for the GitLab Unfiltered YouTube channel (handbook info here)
- Champion requests from community members and raise concerns internally
- Reach out offline to connect with community members on channels like X/Twitter or LinkedIn
Relevant links
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