Tutorial: Set up CI/CD steps

This tutorial shows you how to create and use steps in your pipelines.

Steps are reusable and composable pieces of a job. Each step defines structured inputs and outputs that can be consumed by other steps. You can configure steps in local files, GitLab.com repositories, or any other Git source.

In this tutorial, use the GitLab CLI (glab) to:

  1. Create a step that outputs “hello world”.
  2. Configure a pipeline to use the step.
  3. Add multiple steps to a job.
  4. Use a remote step to echo all the outputs.

Before you begin

  • You must install and sign in to the GitLab CLI (glab).

Create a step

First, create a step with:

  • An exec type.
  • A command that’s started by the executive API of the system.

  1. Create a GitLab project named zero-to-steps in your namespace:

    glab project create zero-to-steps

  2. Go to the root of the project repository:

    cd zero-to-steps

  3. Create a step.yml file.

    touch step.yml

  4. Use a text editor to add a specification to the step.yml:

    spec:
  inputs:
    who:
      type: string
      default: world
    • spec has one input called who.
    • The input who is optional because there is a default value.

  5. To add an implementation to the step.yml, add a second YAML document after spec, with the exec key:

    spec:
  inputs:
    who:
      type: string
      default: world
---
exec:
  command:
    - bash
    - -c
    - echo 'hello ${{inputs.who}}'

The triple em dash (---) separates the file into two YAML documents:

  • The first document is the specification, like a function signature.
  • The second document is the implementation, like a function body.

The bash and -c arguments start a Bash shell and take the script input from the command line arguments. In addition to shell scripts, you can use command to execute programs like docker or terraform.

The echo 'hello ${{input.name}}' argument includes an expression inside ${{ and }}. Expressions are evaluated at the last possible moment and have access to the current execution context. This expression accesses inputs and reads the value of who:

  • If who is provided by the caller, that value is substituted for the expression.
  • If who is omitted, then the default world is substituted for the expression instead.

Configure a pipeline to use the step

  1. In the root of the repository, create a .gitlab-ci.yml file:

    touch .gitlab-ci.yml

  2. In the .gitlab-ci.yml, add the following job:

    hello-world:
  run:
    - name: hello_world
      step: .
    • The run keyword has a list of step invocations.
      • Each invocation is given a name so you can reference the outputs in later steps.
      • Each invocation specifies a step to run. A local reference (.) points to the root of the repository.

    For an example of how this code should look in your repository, see the Steps tutorial, part 1.

  3. Commit both files and push the project repository. This triggers a pipeline that runs the job:

    git add .
git commit -m 'Part 1 complete'
git push --set-upstream origin main
glab ci status

  4. Follow the job under “View Logs” until the pipeline completes. Here’s an example of a successful job:

    Step Runner version: a7c7c8fd
See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/step-runner/-/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md for changes.
...
hello world
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables
Job succeeded

You’ve now created and used your first step!

Add multiple steps to a job

You can have more than one step in a job.

  1. In the .gitlab-ci.yml file, add another step called hello_steps to your job:

    hello-world:
  run:
    - name: hello_world
      step: .
    - name: hello_steps
      step: .
      inputs:
        who: gitlab steps

    This hello_steps step provides a non-default input who of gitlab steps.

    For an example of how this code should look in your repository, see the Steps tutorial, part 2a.

  2. Commit and push the changes:

    git commit -a -m 'Added another step'
git push
glab ci status

  3. In the terminal, select View Logs and follow the pipeline until it completes. Here’s an example of a successful output:

    Step Runner version: a7c7c8fd
See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/step-runner/-/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md for changes.
...
hello world
hello gitlab steps
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables
Job succeeded

Refactor your step

To refactor your steps, move them from the .gitlab-ci.yml to a dedicated file:

  1. Move the first step you created to a directory called hello:

    mkdir hello
mv step.yml hello/

  2. Create a new step at the root of the repository.

    touch step.yml

  3. Add the following configuration to the new step.yml:

    spec:
---
run:
  - name: hello_world
    step: ./hello
  - name: hello_steps
    step: ./hello
    inputs:
      who: gitlab steps

    This new step has no inputs, so the spec is empty. It is a steps type, which has the same syntax as steps in .gitlab-ci.yml. However, the local reference now points to your step in the hello directory.

  4. To use the new step, modify .gitlab-ci.yml:

    hello-world:
  run:
    - name: hello_everybody
      step: .

    Now your job invokes only the new step with no inputs. You’ve refactored the details of the job into a separate file.

    For an example of how this code should look in your repository, see the Steps tutorial, part 2b.

  5. Commit and push the changes:

    git add .
git commit -m 'Refactored step config'
git push
glab ci status

  6. In the terminal, select View Logs.

  7. To verify that the refactored step performs the same function as the step you first created, view the log output. The log output should match the output of the step you created previously. Here’s an example:

    $ /step-runner ci
hello world
hello gitlab steps
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables
Job succeeded

Add an output to the step

Add an output to your hello step.

  1. In hello/step.yml, add an outputs structure to the spec:

    spec:
  inputs:
    who:
      type: string
      default: world
  outputs:
    greeting:
      type: string
---
exec:
  command:
    - bash
    - -c
    - echo '{"name":"greeting","value":"hello ${{inputs.who}}"}' | tee ${{output_file}}
    • In this spec, you’ve defined a single output greeting without a default. Because there is no default, the output greeting is required.
    • Outputs are written to the ${{output_file}} file provided at run time in JSON Line format. Each line written to the output file must be a JSON object with two keys, name and value.
    • This step runs echo '{"name":"greeting","value":"hello ${{inputs.who}}"}' and sends the output to the job log and the output file (tee ${{output_file}}).

  2. In step.yml, add an output to the step:

    spec:
  outputs:
    all_greetings:
      type: string
---
run:
  - name: hello_world
    step: ./hello
  - name: hello_steps
    step: ./hello
    inputs:
      who: gitlab steps
outputs:
  all_greetings: "${{steps.hello_world.outputs.greeting}} and ${{steps.hello_steps.outputs.greeting}}"

    You’ve now added an output to this step called all_greetings.

    This output shows the expression syntax: ${{steps.hello_world.outputs.greeting}}. all_greetings reads the outputs of the two sub-steps, hello_world and hello_steps. Both sub-step outputs are concatenated into a single string output.

Use a remote step

Before you commit and run your code, add another step to your job to see the final all_greetings output of your main step.yml.

This step invocation references a remote step named echo-step. The echo step takes a single input echo, prints it to the logs, and outputs it as echo.

  1. Edit the .gitlab-ci.yml:

    hello-world:
  run:
    - name: hello_everybody
      step: .
    - name: all_my_greetings
      step: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/runner-tools/echo-step@main
      inputs:
        echo: "all my greetings say ${{steps.hello_everybody.outputs.all_greetings}}"

    For an example of how this code should look in your repository, see the Steps tutorial, part 2c.

  2. Commit and push the changes:

    git commit -a -m 'Added outputs'
git push
glab ci status

  3. Follow the job under “View Logs” until the pipeline completes. Here’s an example of a successful output:

    Step Runner version: a7c7c8fd
See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/step-runner/-/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md for changes.
...
{"name":"greeting","value":"hello world"}
{"name":"greeting","value":"hello gitlab steps"}
all my greetings say hello world and hello gitlab steps
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables
Job succeeded

That’s it! You’ve just created and implemented steps in your pipeline. For more information about the syntax for steps, see CI/CD Steps.