Alliance Partner Onboarding

Welcome to the GitLab Alliance Partner Program Guide.

Here at GitLab we value the contributions from our community and believe our partners play an instrumental role in building powerful technology solutions. Our Alliance Partner program is focused on the development of technology integrations that can be used by those around the world who trust GitLab as their DevSecOps platform.

Our Alliance partner program offers you with helpful resources to get started on your journey as you explore ways to build your integration and share with the GitLab community. As partners, we have an opportunity to collaborate together to deliver the best curated cloud-native solutions so thank you for partnering with us!

Onboarding Process

📌 Step 1: Partner Registration

Register to become a GitLab Alliance Partner.

  • Submit a new Partner Application on the Partner Portal
    • Select Alliance Partner Application as the Partner Company Category
  • Complete the form with all required information
    • Select Cloud Partner, Platform Partner, or Technology (ISV) Partner as the Partner Type
  • Review the Technology Partner Agreement
    • Submit the application

📌 Step 2: Solution Development

We ask that each of our partners contribute a technology integration! Be sure to visit the GitLab Developer Portal for helpful resources like APIs, webhooks and more, that will help you write code in the GitLab codebase and design experiences in the GitLab UI. For Secure and/or Govern stage Integrations, please check out the Secure Partner Integration - Onboarding Process for more information.

A great way to showcase your solution is by building a component in the GitLab CI/CD Catalog. There’s no cap on components and the approval process is entirely automated, so no need for manual approval from GitLab, which streamlines the contribution workflow. Also, Partner’s who register their component in the partner portal will receive a badge signifying that the component is created by a trusted GitLab partner and will be prioritized within the catalog. This will help promote your component with countless developers who love GitLab!

What if I need help with building my integration?

  • Log into the Technology Partner Portal to request a Not-for-Sale license for validating/testing the integration.
  • Check out the wonderful GitLab Community where you can find helpful documentation and collaborate through the GitLab Community Forum.

How do I register my GitLab CI/CD component to receive the partner badge?

  • Log into the Technology Partner Portal and update your partner account profile to include the namespace URL that is associated with your component.

Who is responsible for maintaining the CI/CD Catalog component or other integrations?

  • Partners take on the role of maintainers for integration or the components they publish in the CI/CD Catalog. This responsibility includes regular upgrades, maintenance, and fixing of any issues that may arise.

What else can I do while I am building my integration?

📌 Step 3: Solution Documentation and Demonstration

  1. Create technical documentation on the integrated solution and make it publicly available on your website.
  2. Create solution value messaging (solution benefits, and business and/or technical use cases)

📌 Step 4: Partnership and Solution Promotion

Once all the hard work of building and documenting the integration is completed, let’s get to work promoting the solution! Below are a few areas where we can partner together.

  • Add the GitLab logo on your company's website. Please make sure to follow GitLab's branding guidelines.
  • Technology Partner Listing: GitLab Partners who have built a verfied integration can request being listed on the GitLab Technology Partner website by submitting this issue using the partner_listing template.
  • GitLab CI/CD Catalog Listing Partners are strongly encouraged to create a CI/CD Catalog component where the Catalog Component is eligible to receive the GitLab partner badge. See more details below on the process and benefits of building a Component.
  • Additional opportunities that include Solution Briefs, blogs, webinars and more will be made available to partners who go above and beyond in demonstrating alignment with GitLab's product roadmap and where there’s growing customer demand.

Additional Resources & Program Policies

Partners Process for contributing GitLab CI/CD Components to the Catalog

Partner benefits

Partner Badge - Components published from partner namespaces receive a Partner badge on each published component in the catalog's index page. This badge signifies to GitLab users that the component is created by GitLab tech partners, instilling confidence in its reliability.

Priority Display - Components with the Partner badge are prioritized on the display list within the catalog. This increased visibility enhances the discoverability of partner-contributed components.

Automated approval - The entire process, from component creation to publication, is fully automated. There is no need for manual approval from GitLab, streamlining the contribution workflow for partners.

Unlimited Contributions - Partners can release as many components as they desire, allowing for flexibility and a continuous flow of valuable contributions to the GitLab ecosystem.

Support - GitLab may offer support to partners in their maintenance efforts depending on the severity of the issue and impact to GitLab customers, as determined solely by GitLab.

By following this streamlined process, GitLab and its partners work together to enhance the CI/CD Components Catalog, providing users with a reliable and diverse set of components for their development workflows.

CI/CD Catalog Program and Policy

  1. Namespace Setup - Partners create a dedicated (or use existing) namespace where they plan to publish their CI/CD components. This namespace represents their identity in the GitLab ecosystem.
  2. Partners should add the namespace URL in the new IMpartner field where a partner can register a namespace to be associated with your partner profile.
  3. CI Configuration Creation - Partners develop the CI configuration (CI component) within their designated namespace. This configuration defines the behavior of the CI/CD component.
  4. Component Testing - Partners ensure that the CI configuration passes all necessary pipelines, tests, and checks. This step ensures the reliability and functionality of the component in alignment with GitLab standards.
  5. Component Publication - Partners publish the validated CI/CD component to the GitLab CI/CD Catalog. This action makes the component accessible to the broader GitLab community in the CI/CD Catalog.
  6. Maintenance Responsibilities - Partners take on the role of maintainer for the components they publish in the CI/CD Catalog. This responsibility includes regular upgrades, maintenance, and fixing any issues that may arise. For more details see Maintenance Responsibilities below.
  7. CI/CD components published by a partner are independently created and maintained by the publishing partner. End User’s use of such content and any liability related thereto shall be between the publishing partner and the End User. GitLab shall have no indemnification obligations nor any liability of any type with respect to End User’s use of this content.

CI/CD Catalog Program Terms and Conditions:

As a Partner, GitLab will host your components in the CI/CD Catalog and users may experience bugs or vulnerabilities with these components. Customers and users will submit Issues via the GitLab Issue tracker and these Issues will be shared with the Partner. If the issue is not able to be resolved by the Partner with documentation or initial troubleshooting, GitLab may (as determined by GitLab in its sole discretion) work with the partner for further resolution of the issue.

In submitting a component to the GitLab CI/CD Catalog the Partner shall make a commercially reasonable effort to comply with the following:

Partner responsible for integration is contacted via email with links to Issues which can be done with a notification subscription. Partner must respond to the customer/user with an update in a timely manner.

Expected resolution of bugs related to components based on severity is the following:

  • Severity 1: 7 days
  • Severity 2: 30 days
  • Severity 3: 45 days
  • Severity 4: 60 days

Not-for-Sale License Program and Policy

GitLab offers qualified GitLab Technology Partners access to our solutions at no cost through a Not-for-Resale (NFR) license for GitLab SaaS and GitLab Self-Managed versions. This provides an opportunity to develop and test your integration on the GitLab platform. For more information on how to request or renew an existing NFR license, log into the Technology Partner Portal.

  • To be eligible for consideration to receive a NFR license, partners must be registered as a GitLab Technology Partner.
  • Partners can choose licenses to support integrations with GitLab SaaS and/or GitLab Self-Managed.
  • Licenses will be issued for 12 months, and for up to 10 users upon request.
  • GitLab provides no support for NFR software issued to Technology Partners.

NFR Program Terms and Conditions:

  1. NFR software and services may be used solely and exclusively by the partner for the following purposes:
    • Internal employee training
    • Integration testing with related devops products and platforms
    • Partner led product demonstrations to prospective customers
  2. Partner in-house production use for customer engagements or internal development efforts requires purchased GitLab licenses which are available to partners at a discount. Use of the NFR licenses in a customer environment, including for managed services is strictly prohibited.
  3. Alliance Partners may request a license for up to 10 users without additional approval.
  4. All software obtained under the NFR Program are subject to the terms and conditions of the GitLab Subscription Agreement at /terms/
  5. GitLab reserves the right to audit the use of NFR licenses to ensure they are in compliance with the NFR program, and reduce the number of licenses to a partner if they are not in compliance with the program.
  6. GitLab reserves the right to reject a partner request for an NFR or otherwise change or cancel the NFR Program at any time and for any or no reason.

Contact Us

Don’t forget, we are here to help. If you have any questions or feedback, you can reach us at [email protected]. If it’s technical assistance you’re looking for, please see below for troubleshooting.

Community Engagement

We also encourage our partners to participate in the GitLab community, for example: contributing to GitLab FOSS, hosting a GitLab Virtual Meetup, participating in GitLab Heroes, or engaging the community in other ways. Partners are welcome to bring questions or ideas around growing our communities directly to our Developer Relations team via [email protected].

Are you an individual contributor to GitLab wanting to share your work with the open source community?

Join our community of 3,000+ contributors. To get started, visit our GitLab Community page and learn more about resources, programs, and events.