Foundational agents

  • Tier: Premium, Ultimate
  • Add-on: GitLab Duo Core, Pro, or Enterprise
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

Foundational agents are specialized AI assistants that extend the capabilities of GitLab Duo Chat with domain-specific expertise and context awareness.

Unlike the general-purpose GitLab Duo agent, foundational agents understand the unique workflows, frameworks, and best practices of their specialized domains. Each agent combines deep knowledge of GitLab features with role-specific reasoning to provide targeted help that aligns with how practitioners actually work.

Foundational agents are built and maintained by GitLab and display a GitLab-maintained badge ( tanuki-verified ).

Available foundational agents

The following foundational agents are available:

  • Planner, for product management and planning workflows.
  • Security Analyst, for security analysis and vulnerability management.

Duplicate an agent

To make changes to a foundational agent, create a copy of it.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Maintainer role for the project.

To duplicate an agent:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to > Explore. If you’ve turned on the new navigation, this field is on the top bar.
  2. Select AI Catalog, then select the Agents tab.
  3. Select the agent you want to duplicate.
  4. In the upper-right corner, select Actions ( ellipsis_v ) > Duplicate.
  5. Under Visibility & access:
    1. From the Managed by dropdown list, select a project for the agent.
    2. For Visibility, select Private or Public.
  6. Optional. Edit any fields you want to change.
  7. Select Create agent.

A custom agent is created. To use it, you must enable it.

Turn foundational agents on or off

By default, foundational agents are turned on. You can turn them on or off for a top-level group (namespace) or for an instance.

If you turn foundational agents off, you can still use the default GitLab Duo agent.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for the group.
  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group. If you’ve turned on the new navigation, this field is on the top bar.
  2. Select Settings > GitLab Duo.
  3. Select Change configuration.
  4. Under Foundational agents, select either:
    • On by default
    • Off by default
  5. Select Save changes.

These settings apply to:

  • Users who have the top-level group as the default GitLab Duo namespace.
  • Users without a default namespace, and who visit a namespace that belongs to the top-level group.

If you turn off foundational agents for a top-level group, users with that group as their default GitLab Duo namespace can’t access foundational agents in any namespace.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be an administrator.
  1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin. If you’ve turned on the new navigation, in the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. Select GitLab Duo.
  3. Select Change configuration.
  4. Under Foundational agents, select either:
    • On by default
    • Off by default
  5. Select Save changes.