GitLab Orbit in GitLab Duo

  • Tier: Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

GitLab Duo Agent Platform agents use GitLab Orbit to answer questions about your GitLab data, such as cross-project dependencies, the code a change affects, pipeline inheritance, and vulnerability history. You do not install anything. Agents call the GitLab Orbit tools when the graph can answer a question, and their other tools when it cannot.

Choose which agents use GitLab Orbit

GitLab Orbit is on in GitLab Duo by default for these users:

  • On GitLab.com, each member of a top-level group where GitLab Orbit is turned on.
  • On GitLab Self-Managed and GitLab Dedicated, all users. An administrator can turn off GitLab Orbit in GitLab Duo for the instance. For more information, see administer GitLab Orbit.

Prerequisites:

To choose which agents use GitLab Orbit:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar.

  2. Select Preferences.

  3. If your preferences page has tabs, select the AI assistance tab.

  4. In the GitLab Orbit section, select or clear the checkboxes. All checkboxes are selected by default.

    CheckboxAgents that get the GitLab Orbit tools
    Agentic ChatGitLab Duo Agentic Chat.
    Orbit AgentThe standalone GitLab Orbit agent in GitLab Duo.
    Other Foundational AgentsFoundational agents outside chat, for example the Security Analyst Agent.
    Custom AgentsCustom agents users build.

  5. Select Save changes.

  6. Open GitLab Duo Chat and confirm that the status dot next to Orbit in the chat header is green.

In the chat header, select Orbit to change the same settings without leaving the chat. The Agentic chat, Foundational agents, and Custom agents toggles match the Agentic Chat, Other Foundational Agents, and Custom Agents checkboxes, and save your preferences. The Orbit Agent checkbox has no toggle in the chat header.

Agents and flows that use GitLab Orbit

Agent or flowDescription
Default GitLab Duo agentGeneral help with code, planning, security, and project management.
Planner AgentWork item owners, blockers, contributor load, and milestone progress across projects.
Security Analyst AgentOpen vulnerabilities by severity, CVE coverage in the group, and when vulnerabilities were introduced.
Data Analyst AgentSoftware development lifecycle (SDLC) analytics, such as pipeline health, merge request cycle time, contributor patterns, and deployment frequency.
CI Expert AgentJob failure causes, pipeline inheritance, slowest jobs, and projects that fail frequently.
Developer FlowA draft merge request from a work item. The graph gives the agent dependencies, owners, and the code a change affects.
Custom flowsYour own flows, when the flow configuration lists the GitLab Orbit tools.

For example, for a work item that asks to rename the deploy_user method, the Developer Flow finds every service that calls the method and drafts a merge request that updates each one.

Code Review Flow does not use GitLab Orbit. To use the graph in code review, add GitLab Orbit to a custom flow.

Use GitLab Orbit in a custom flow

To use GitLab Orbit in a custom flow, add its tools to the flow.

Prerequisites:

  • You have the Maintainer or Owner role for the project that manages the flow.
  • Each user who triggers the flow keeps Other Foundational Agents selected in their GitLab Orbit preferences. The Custom Agents option does not apply to flows.

To add the tools:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group or project.

  2. In the left sidebar, select AI > Flows.

  3. Select the flow you want to edit.

  4. In the upper-right corner, select Edit.

  5. Add the GitLab Orbit tools to the toolset of each agent component that needs them:

    yaml
    toolset:
  - orbit_list_commands
  - orbit_invoke_command

  6. In the prompt, tell the agent when to use GitLab Orbit. For example, tell it to find other projects that import the changed files.

  7. Select Save changes.

To edit the flow in VS Code, see Edit a flow.

Give a flow the local graph

When a flow has a checkout of the project, the GitLab Orbit CLI installs the GitLab Orbit skill and indexes the checkout before the agent starts. The agent can then search the code of the current branch with the local graph. The skill also covers your GitLab data when Other Foundational Agents is selected in the GitLab Orbit preferences of the user who triggers the flow.

To give a flow the local graph, in the flow configuration:

  • Do not set coding_environment: none.
  • Give each agent component that uses the skill the run_command tool, so it can run glab orbit commands.

Known issues

  • GitLab Orbit answers questions only about groups that have it turned on and that you can access.
  • A complex question might need a follow-up question to narrow the scope.
  • For large results, the answer might leave out source code. To get it, ask the agent to show the source.