GitLab Release CLI tool (deprecated)

This feature was deprecated in GitLab 18.0 and is planned for removal in 20.0. Use the GitLab CLI instead.

This change is a breaking change.

Migrate from release-cli to glab CLI

To migrate from release-cli to glab CLI, update one of the following based on your job’s configuration:

  1. If your job uses the release keyword, update to use the cli:latest image:

    release_job:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
  script:
    - echo "Running the release job."
  release:
    tag_name: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
    name: 'Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG'
    description: 'Release created using the CLI.'

    For more information, see release.

  2. If your job uses release-cli commands in script blocks, update to use glab release create and configure authentication for the Releases API.

Authenticate with the CI/CD job token

To authenticate with CI_JOB_TOKEN, set GLAB_ENABLE_CI_AUTOLOGIN to true. The glab CLI sends CI_JOB_TOKEN in the JOB-TOKEN header, which the Releases API accepts.

release_job:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
  variables:
    GLAB_ENABLE_CI_AUTOLOGIN: "true"
  script:
    - |
      glab release create "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" \
      --name "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG" \
      --notes "Release created with glab."

Authenticate with an access token

To authenticate with a personal, project, or group access token, set GITLAB_TOKEN to your access token. The token must have the api scope.

release_job:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
  variables:
    GITLAB_TOKEN: $RELEASE_ACCESS_TOKEN
  script:
    - |
      glab release create "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" \
      --name "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG" \
      --notes "Release created with glab."

Do not set GITLAB_TOKEN to $CI_JOB_TOKEN. The glab CLI sends GITLAB_TOKEN in the PRIVATE-TOKEN header, but the Releases API only accepts a job token in the JOB-TOKEN header. This combination returns 404 Not Found. To authenticate with the CI/CD job token, set GLAB_ENABLE_CI_AUTOLOGIN to true instead.

For a full list of options, see the glab release create command reference.

Fall back to release-cli

CI/CD jobs that use the release keyword use a script that falls back to using release-cli if the required glab version is not available on the runner. The fallback logic is a safe-guard to ensure that projects that have not yet migrated to use glab CLI can continue working.

This fallback is scheduled to be removed in GitLab 20.0 with the removal of release-cli.