You are viewing documentation for an older version.

Click here to view the latest documentation.

Automate Project Management with Rudder CLI and GitLab CI/CD Alpha

This guide shows how to run the same validate and apply workflow you use locally inside a GitLab pipeline. The pattern mirrors GitHub Actions for Rudder CLI: check out your repository, install or invoke Rudder CLI, pass a workspace token, then run rudder-cli validate and rudder-cli apply (often with --dry-run on merge requests).

Prerequisites

• A GitLab project with your Rudder CLI YAML project checked in
• A workspace-level Service Access Token with permissions for the resources you manage (see Import Workspace Resources for a full permission matrix)
• Store the token as a masked CI/CD variable (for example RUDDERSTACK_ACCESS_TOKEN)

Example pipeline

The following .gitlab-ci.yml sketches a two-stage flow: validate on every branch, apply only on the default branch after validation succeeds. Adjust image, paths, and branch rules to match your environment.

stages:
  - validate
  - apply

variables:
  RUDDER_PROJECT_PATH: "$CI_PROJECT_DIR/my-rudder-project"

validate:
  stage: validate
  image: rudderlabs/rudder-cli
  script:
    - rudder-cli validate -l "$RUDDER_PROJECT_PATH"
  rules:
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH

apply:
  stage: apply
  image: rudderlabs/rudder-cli
  script:
    - rudder-cli apply -l "$RUDDER_PROJECT_PATH" --dry-run
    - rudder-cli apply -l "$RUDDER_PROJECT_PATH"
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
  needs: ["validate"]

Use the official CLI image only if it matches the version you run locally. Alternatively install the binary in the job (for example from GitHub releases) so versions stay aligned with Install Rudder CLI.

See more

• GitHub Actions for Rudder CLI for the maintained GitHub Action and workflow patterns
• Commands for core rudder-cli subcommands