Create:Repository Services Team

The permanent Source Code team for the repository side of GitLab, building an access layer on the Gitaly team’s primitives.

What we do

Repository Services is the backend team for the repository side of Source Code. One part of the mission is settled: build an access layer on the Gitaly team’s primitives that the product and agents can use. The full mission statement is still being defined and will be published here. The team starts with a keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) and support focus.

Current initiatives:

SSH certificates
Rate limiting
Branch Rules (parked, still owned by this team)

What we expect to own

The split of the Source Code surface between the four teams is still being agreed with the Agentic Preview, Change Record and Hardening and Modernization teams. The features below are the ones expected to move to Repository Services; the list will be updated once the backlog move is done.

Repository mirroring (push, pull and bidirectional)
Git LFS
Protected branches and Branch Rules (Branch Rules is parked, but stays with this team)
Push rules
Code Owners (shared with Create:Code Review)
Commit and tag signing: GPG, SSH and X.509 or S/MIME signatures, web-based commit signing, and rejecting unsigned commits

What we do not own

The rest of Source Code. The Agentic Preview and Change Record teams own the Source Code features outside the list above, until the split is agreed.
Systemic security and frontend modernization. The temporary Source Code Hardening and Modernization team owns this work and hands the results over to the feature teams.
Gitaly itself. The Gitaly team owns Gitaly. We build on its primitives.

Team members

Name	Role
Armin Pašalić	Manager, Engineering, Plan:Planner Intelligence and Create:Repository Services
Fred Reinink	Backend Engineer, Create:Repository Services
Jerry Seto	Senior Backend Engineer, Create:Repository Services
Joe Woodward	Senior Backend Engineer, Create:Repository Services

One EMEA Backend Engineer position is open.

Stable counterparts

Name	Role
Alyssa Trinh	Senior Product Designer, Create:Source Code
Marie-Christine Babin	Senior Product Manager, Create:Source Code
John Hope	Director of Engineering, Plan

Technical writer: Brendan Lynch (shared with the other Source Code teams).

How we work

Planning. A planning issue is generated monthly in gitlab-org/create-stage with the title Repository Services <MILESTONE> Planning, starting with 19.6. We plan on the boards listed below.
Retrospectives. async-retrospectives generates our retrospectives into gl-retrospectives/create-stage/source-code, shared with the other Source Code teams. A dedicated project may follow.
Gitaly sync. A recurring sync with the Gitaly team, because we build on Gitaly’s primitives. How requirements are carried back to Gitaly is still being agreed and will be documented here.
Feature category and error budget. Not assigned yet. Source Code’s single feature category, source_code_management, stays with the teams that own the rest of Source Code until it is split. The split, and the error budget that comes with it, are tracked in the setup issue.

Boards

All boards filter on the group::repository services label.