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| Stage | Verify |
| Maturity | Competitive |
| Content Last Reviewed | 2024-12-26 |
Thanks for visiting this category direction page on Variables in GitLab. This page belongs to the Pipeline Authoring group of the Verify stage and is maintained by Dov Hershkovitch (E-Mail).
This direction page is a work in progress, and everyone can contribute:
GitLab Variables are a foundational experience for how people build, control, and manage GitLab pipelines. Variables are data values that are can be inflenced by user interactions with a product.
As we work towards making Variables a "Complete" capability, our maturity plan includes the following key milestones:
Variables in CI/CD pipelines are designed to make pipelines dynamic, configurable, and reusable. They allow developers to parameterize and control the behavior of pipelines without hardcoding values, thereby improving flexibility and maintainability. Over time, customers have increasingly used variables to inject parameters into CI templates. While this was not their intended purpose, many customers have adapted to this approach. However, this misuse has led to several problems and challenges, such as reduced clarity, security issues, and difficulty managing pipeline configurations. To address these issues, we aim to introduce pipeline inputs as a more robust and purpose-built mechanism for injecting parameters into CI pipelines. Pipeline inputs will allow for a clearer separation of concerns, better security, and improved usability. Additionally, variables can still be used within inputs where appropriate, ensuring compatibility and flexibility.
Our top vision items are:
In 17.7 onwards, we plan to deliver variables improvements for pipeline creation performance.
In the past three milestones we have released the following Variables improvements:
/BIC (Best In Class) is an indicator of forecasted near-term market performance based on a combination of factors, including analyst views, market news, and feedback from the sales and product teams. It is critical that we understand where GitLab appears in the BIC landscape.
Check out our documentation on Environment Variables.
This category is currently at the "Competitive" maturity level, and our next maturity target is "Complete" (see our definitions of maturity levels.
As a foundational CI requirement to major competitive experiences for variables include:
Check out our CI Section Direction "Who's is it for?" for an in depth look at the our target personas across Continuous Integration. For Variables, our "What's Next & Why" are targeting the following personas, as ranked by priority for support:
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Variables are a critical area for our internal users and external customers alike. Internal customers have shared the need for the following issues: