Get started with Orbit Local
- Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
- Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated
- Status: Experiment
Orbit Local is experimental. Until packaged binaries ship, you must build from source.
Orbit Local runs on your machine. Pick the access method that matches how you work, then run your first query.
Pick an access method
| Method | Best for | Setup |
|---|---|---|
The Orbit CLI (orbit) | Direct CLI use, scripting, indexing tasks | Build the binary from source |
The GitLab CLI (glab) | Anyone already using glab; one-command AI agent setup | glab orbit local (planned) - today, use orbit directly |
| MCP | Claude Code, Codex, and other AI agents | Manual MCP config; glab orbit setup planned |
The query language is identical across all three. Whatever you learn in one transfers directly to the others, and to Orbit Remote.
60-second quickstart
glab orbit local is the planned packaging path. Until it ships, use the
orbit binary directly - see Use the orbit CLI directly.
The shapes shown below match what glab orbit local will support.
Index a repository and inspect what Orbit found:
glab orbit local index /path/to/your/repo
glab orbit local schemaThat builds a local DuckDB graph at ~/.orbit/graph.duckdb and prints the
node types: Definition, File, Directory, ImportedSymbol.
Next:
- Run a real query: Use Orbit Local with glab.
- Wire it into your AI agent: see Connect via MCP for the
manual config. (
glab orbit setupis planned to automate this.) - Learn the query DSL: Query language reference.
Billing
Orbit Local does not consume GitLab Credits. All processing is local.
What to try next
- What Orbit Local indexes - language and coverage scope.
- Schema reference - the four node types in the local graph.
- Cookbook - copy-paste queries (code-only ones apply to Local).
- Get started with Orbit Remote - query your full GitLab instance.