Ona

With Ona (formerly Gitpod), you can describe your development environment as code to get fully set up, compiled, and tested development environments for any GitLab project. The development environments are not only automated but also prebuilt which means that Ona continuously builds your Git branches like a CI/CD server.

This means you don’t have to wait for dependencies to download and builds to start coding immediately. With Ona you can start coding instantly on any project, branch, and merge request from your browser.

To use the GitLab Ona integration, you must enable it for your GitLab instance and in your preferences. Users of:

• GitLab.com can use it immediately after it’s enabled in their user preferences.
• GitLab Self-Managed instances can use it after:
  1. It’s enabled and configured by a GitLab administrator.
  2. It’s enabled in their user settings.

For more information about Ona, see the Ona features and documentation.

Enable Ona in your user preferences

With the Ona integration enabled for your GitLab instance, to enable it for yourself:

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
2. Select Preferences.
3. Under Preferences, locate the Integrations section.
4. Select the Enable Ona integration checkbox and select Save changes.

Configure a GitLab Self-Managed instance

For GitLab Self-Managed, a GitLab administrator must:

1. Enable the Ona integration in GitLab:
   1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
   2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
   3. Expand the Ona configuration section.
   4. Select the Enable Ona integration checkbox.
   5. Enter the Ona instance URL (for example, https://app.ona.com).
   6. Select Save changes.
2. Register the instance in Ona. For more information, see the Ona documentation.

GitLab users can then enable the Ona integration for themselves.

Launch Ona in GitLab

After you enable Ona, you can launch it from GitLab in one of these ways:

• From a project repository:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the upper right, select Code > Ona.

• From a merge request:

  1. Go to your merge request.
  2. In the upper-right corner, select Code > Open in Ona.

Ona builds your development environment for your branch.