Skip to content
ClickRuntime

Automate GitLab

Follow merge requests, pipelines and reviews in GitLab without refreshing the project page. Failed pipelines on main, review requests and merged MRs reach you directly, merge requests can be checked against your own rules, and config backups are committed to a repo every night. Write down what you need in a chat with your AI assistant, look over what it plans to do, and it carries on unattended.

Add to ChatGPTAdd to Claude
Works inChatGPTClaudeClaude CodeCursorCodexVS CodeGemini CLIZedopencodeAny MCP client

Try asking

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every night at 3am, export my configurations from this API, commit any files that changed to the backups repo in GitLab, and email me a short summary.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Ideas

What you can automate in GitLab

Broken pipelines caught right away, review requests that don't sit unseen, and repositories that keep a nightly copy of your important files. These are ready-made starting points. Anything else you can describe works too.
DailyAI

Commit nightly config backups to GitLab

Exports from your tools are saved to a repo each night, with a commit only when something changed.

See how it works
The moment it happens

Block merge requests that break a rule

When a merge request changes, it is checked against your rule and gets a failing commit status if it breaks it.

See how it works
Every 5 minutes

Get an email for each review request

Whenever you are added as reviewer on a merge request, you get its title and link by email.

See how it works
The moment it happens

Announce opened and merged MRs in Slack

Your channel hears when a merge request in your project is opened or merged.

See how it works
The moment it happens

Know right away when main fails

A failed pipeline on main reaches you with the jobs that broke and a link to it.

See how it works Your own logic

Any other automation you can describe in words

Your own rules, schedule and AI steps with GitLab, plus any other app. Describe it and your assistant builds it.

See how to build your own

Build your own

Build any GitLab automation you can describe

The ideas above are ready-made starting points, not a fixed list. Describe what GitLab should do in your own words, with your conditions, other apps or an AI step, and your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

For example, ask your assistant

Every morning, find GitLab merge requests open for more than 3 days with no reviewer comments and send the list to their authors.

When a GitLab pipeline fails on the main branch, post the project, commit author and failed job to Slack.

When a GitLab issue gets the bug label, create a Jira ticket, post it in our #bugs Slack channel, and add a row to our bug tracking Google Sheet.

Beyond chat

Have GitLab work when you're not in the chat

Connecting GitLab to ChatGPT or Claude lets you ask about it while you chat. ClickRuntime handles the part that should happen on its own: checks on a schedule and actions on each new event, set up from the same chat and running after you close it.

Setup

Connect GitLab

GitLab connects with a personal access token you generate in your profile. It works on GitLab.com and on self-managed instances.

GitLab

Developer / Source control & CI

  1. In GitLab, open your avatar menu, go to Edit profile, then Access and Personal access tokens.
  2. Name the token, set an expiry date, and choose read_api for alerts or api if the automation needs to commit files or set commit statuses.
  3. Generate the token and copy it straight away, since GitLab only shows it once.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, save it as a secret under Connections & secrets. For a self-managed instance, also give your host's address.

Good to know

GitLab limits that affect automations

  • Personal access tokens last at most 365 days and stop working at midnight UTC on their expiry date. An expired token can't be revived, so create a new one and update the secret.
  • GitLab emails you ahead of a token's expiry, which is the cue to replace it before automations start failing.
  • Instant merge request and pipeline alerts need a project webhook, which only a Maintainer can add. Without that role, polling every few minutes does the same job.
  • Project and group access tokens are narrower than a personal one, but on GitLab.com they can require a paid tier.

FAQ

Questions about automating GitLab

What does ClickRuntime get access to in GitLab?
The projects your token's user can reach, limited by the scopes you chose. With `read_api` it can only read merge requests, pipelines and jobs. With `api` it can also commit files and post commit statuses.
Does it work with self-managed GitLab?
Yes. Personal access tokens work the same way there, and the automation calls your instance's `/api/v4` address instead of gitlab.com.
Are pipeline and merge request alerts real time?
With a project webhook, events arrive as GitLab sends them. Without one, the automation polls the API, typically every five minutes.
What happens when my token expires?
Calls start failing from the expiry date. Generate a new token in GitLab and replace the saved secret in the ClickRuntime dashboard.
Is AI involved?
Alerts, checks and backups don't use it. Writing a README for each backed-up file does, using the AI included with every ClickRuntime plan, with no key of your own.
Is this a GitLab connector for ChatGPT or Claude?
Not for chatting with GitLab data. A chat connector lets your assistant read and change GitLab while you're in the conversation. ClickRuntime is for the work that should happen without you: you set up an automation from the chat once, and it keeps running on a schedule or on each GitLab event.

Related pages

Keep exploring

Tell your assistant what GitLab should do

Free plan. No credit card.

Add to ChatGPTAdd to Claude