GitLab is a Git-based version control system with cloud and self-hosted options. By integrating GitLab with Cortex, you can import entities, view commits alongside other events, and monitor development maturity with Scorecards.
We recommend that you create the token at the parent group level, as GitLab does not support using a scoped token to read members from a parent group. If you do not create the token at the parent level, then you will need to manually configure groups in your GitLab settings in order for identity mapping and teams to work as expected.
If you're using the Scaffolder for entities in a given GitLab instance, make sure that configuration has the full api scope.
Self-hosted prerequisites
If you're using a self-hosted instance of GitLab, you'll need to verify that your Cortex instance is able to reach the GitLab instance.
We route our requests through a static IP address. Reach out to support at help@cortex.io to receive details about our static IP. If you're unable to directly allowlist our static IP, you can route requests through a secondary proxy in your network that has this IP allowlisted and have that proxy route traffic to your GitLab instance.
In Cortex, click your avatar in the lower left corner, then click Settings.
Under "Integrations", click GitLab.
Click Add configuration.
Configure the GitLab integration form:
Account alias: Enter the alias you will use to tie entity registrations to different configuration accounts.
Token: Enter your personal or group access token.
Host: Enter your host. If using a custom GitLab instance, enter the URL without the API path (e.g. https://gitlab.getcortexapp.com)
Hide personal projects: Toggle this setting on if you do not want your personal projects pulled in to Cortex. Toggle this setting off to allow Cortex to pull your personal projects.
Click Save.
Once you save your configuration, you'll see it listed on the integration's settings page in Cortex. If you’ve set everything up correctly, you’ll see the option to Remove Integration in Settings.
You can also use the Test all configurations button to confirm that the configuration was successful. If your configuration is valid, you’ll see a banner that says “Configuration is valid. If you see issues, please see documentation or reach out to Cortex support.”
Configure the integration for multiple GitLab accounts
The GitLab integration has multi-account support. You can add a configuration for each additional by repeating the process above.
Each configuration requires an alias, which Cortex uses to correlate the designated with registrations for various entities. Registrations can also use a default configuration without a listed alias. You can edit aliases and default configurations from the GitLab page in your Cortex settings. Select the edit icon next to a given configuration and toggle Set as default on. If you only have one configuration, it will automatically be set as the default.
Cortex supports mapping multiple identities for a single user if you have multiple configurations of GitLab. See the Identity mapping documentation for more information.
Enable GitOps for your GitLab integration
Cortex supports a GitOps approach, which allows you to manage entities in Cortex through your version control system. If you would prefer this workflow over the UI for the GitLab integration, you must create a webhook. Please see the Cortex GitOps documentation for instructions.
How to connect Cortex entities to GitLab
Import entities
Cortex will discover entities for import from your GitLab configuration(s). These will appear in the import entities workflow.
By specifying the x-cortex-git field in your Cortex entity descriptor, you'll be able to see Git information in the entity page, including the top language, recent commits, and top contributors.
If users are not loading in the identity mapping page, make sure that you have created your GitLab personal access token from the parent level as described in the Prerequisites.
Expected results
Entity pages
Cortex uses the GitLab integration for a significant amount of data that appears on entities' detail pages.
The GitLab integration will populate the Repo and Language detail blocks on an entity's details page.
In the Recent activity preview, you'll find the recent commits and releases. These will also appear in the event timeline.
These data will appear for entities imported from a Git source or those that have a Git repo defined in their YAMLs.
Events
On an entity's Events page, you can find all of the commits and releases associated with that entity. Each is hyperlinked to the commit or release page in GitLab and includes a timestamp.
Repository
You can access more detailed information pulled from GitLab in the Repository page in the entity's sidebar. At the top of the page, you'll find the repo associated with that entity and the most-used language in files for that entity. In the Top contributors block, you'll find the three users who have contributed the most code and the number of their contributions.
In the Commits section, you'll find the 10 most recent commits and metadata about each. Below Commits is the Recent releases section, which includes the 5 most recent releases.
Team pages
When a GitLab team is registered in a team entity descriptor, Cortex will pull GitLab users in to the Members tab. When available, Cortex will pull in the profile picture and email address for each user.
If team members are not appearing as expected, make sure that you have created your GitLab personal access token from the parent level as described in the Prerequisites.
Dev homepage
The GitLab integration enables Cortex to pull information about merge requests into the Dev homepage. You can find your open merge requests under the My open PRs tab and any merge requests assigned to you for review under the Assigned reviews tab.
Merge requests from GitLab are refreshed every 2 minutes.
Eng Intelligence
The Eng Intelligence tool also uses merge request data from GitLab to generate metrics:
Average MR open to close time
Avg time to first review
Avg time to approval
MRs opened
Weekly MRs merged
Avg MRs reviewed/week
Avg commits per MR
Avg lines of code changed per MR
You can read more about how Eng Intelligence tracks metrics for teams and users in the Eng Intelligence walkthrough.
To add deployments for your GitLab related entity, you can send a deployment event to the Cortex API.
Scorecards and CQL
With the GitLab integration, you can create Scorecard rules and write CQL queries based on GitLab data.
Number of approvals required to merge a pull/merge request into a repository. Defaults to 0 if no approvals are defined.
Definition: git.numOfRequiredApprovals()
Examples
For a security or development maturity Scorecard, you can write a rule to make sure at least one approval is required to merge a pull/merge request:
git.numOfRequiredApprovals() > 0
By having a rigorous PR process in place for a repo, you can make sure changes aren't made that create vulnerabilities. This kind of rule could also be used in a best practices or project standards Scorecard.
You can also use a similar expression in the Query Builder to find entities lacking approval:
git.numOfRequiredApprovals() < 1
Git repository set
Check if an entity has a registered Git repository.
Definition:git (==/!=) null: Boolean
Example
In a Scorecard, you can write a rule that detects whether an entity has a Git repository set:
git != null
Pipeline build success rate
The percentage of build pipelines that complete successfully. This is calculated against builds on the default branch, for commits in the last 30 days. The calculation is # successful builds / (# successful + # failed).
Definition:git.percentBuildSuccess(): Number
Example
In a Scorecard, you can write a rule that requires at least 90% of build runs to be successful:
git.percentBuildSuccess() > 0.9
Branches
List all live branches with some basic metadata.
Head
Is protected
Name
Definition: git.branches()
Example
For a best practices Scorecard, you can make sure that branches associated with an entity match a standard naming convention:
Find details for specified branch, or default branch if none is specified.
Branch name
Code owner reviews required
Dismiss stale reviews
Required status checks
Restrictions apply to admin
Review required
Definition:git.branchProtection()
Examples
For a security Scorecard, you can write a rule to make sure the default branch is protected:
git.branchProtection() != null
Because vulnerabilities in the default branch are critical, this rule should be in one of the first couple levels.
You can also use the Query Builder to find entities with unprotected default branches:
git.branchProtection() = null
Commits
Get the latest commits (to a maximum of 100) for a defined lookback period (defaulting to 7 days).
Date
Message
SHA
URL
Username
These results can be filtered based on branch name, using the default branch if no other branch is provided.
Definition:git.commits()
Example
You can use the git.commits() expression in a security Scorecard to make sure entities have fewer than three commits to a "security-fixes" branch in the last week:
Entities passing this rule will include those that haven't needed three or more security fixes. This can indicate that there aren't vulnerabilities in a given entity's code, but could also suggest that fixes aren't being implemented. Using this rule in conjunction with one focused on vulnerabilities could provide the extra context needed to gain a better understanding of what's happening.
Default branch
Default branch for the repository, or main when null.
Definition:git.defaultBranch()
Example
If default branches should always be named "main," you can write a rule to make sure entities follow this practice:
git.defaultBranch().matches("main")
File contents
Load the contents of a file from the entity's associated repository.
The contents can be validated by using string comparison operations or parsed by the built-in jq function. The jq function will automatically coerce file contents of JSON or YAML formats.
Definition:git.fileContents()
Example
For a Scorecard focused on development maturity, you could use the git.fileContents() rule to enforce that a CI pipeline exists, and that there is a testing step defined in the pipeline.
Check if a repository has a valid cortex.yaml file checked in at the root directory (when GitOps is enabled).
Definition:git.hasCortexYaml()
Example
If you're using a Scorecard to track a migration from Cortex UI to GitOps, you can use this rule to make sure entities are set up for GitOps management of entity descriptors:
git.hasCortexYaml() == true
Last commit details
Provides last commit details.
Date
Message
SHA
URL
Username
Definition:git.lastCommit()
Examples
One of the first rules you might write for a Scorecard focused on development maturity or security is one validating that the last commit was within the last month:
git.lastCommit().freshness < duration("P1M")
As counterintuitive as it may seem, services that are committed too infrequently are actually at more risk. People who are familiar with the service may leave a team, institutional knowledge accumulates, and from a technical standpoint, the service may be running outdated versions of your platform tooling.
Depending on best practices at your organization, you may want to confirm entities are updated within a week:
git.lastCommit().freshness < duration("P7D")
Confirming whether a service was updated within the last week can help team members catch outdated code sooner. Plus, if there is a security issue, you can quickly determine which services have or have not been updated to patch the vulnerability.
Pull requests
Lists pull requests opened during a defined lookback period.
Approval date
Author
Date closed
Date opened
First review date
Last updated
Number of commits
Number of lines added
Number of lines deleted
Organization
Repository
Source
Status
URL
Definition:git.pullRequests()
Example
You can use the git.pullRequests() query to find entities that have a small number of pull requests opened in the last two weeks:
This can highlight entities that haven't been updated recently, which may be especially useful when entities have to be updated to address a vulnerability.
Reviews
List reviews left during a defined lookback period.
Organization
Repository
Review date
Reviewer
Definition:git.reviews()
Examples
A development maturity Scorecard might use the git.reviews() expression to make sure that there is a rigorous review process in place before changes are implemented:
git.reviews(lookback=duration("P7D")).length > 25
This rule makes sure that there are more than 25 reviews left in the last week.
Workflow runs
Get workflow runs meeting given filter criteria, including conclusions, statuses, and a lookback period.
Conclusion
Name
Run started at
Run time
Run updated at
Status
Conclusions: FAILURE, SUCCESS, TIMED_OUT
Statuses: QUEUED, IN_PROGRESS, COMPLETED
The lookback period specifies a duration for which returned runs should be created within, defaulting to a period of 3 days.
The runTime of the WorkflowRun object represents the difference between runStartedAt and runUpdatedAt times in seconds.
Definition:git.workflowRuns()
Example
To make sure an entity has had a successful workflow run within the last two weeks, you can write a rule like:
The Scorecard might include a rule to ensure that an entity owners all have a description and are not archived:
ownership.teams().all(team => team.description != null and team.isArchived == false)
Background sync
Cortex conducts a background sync of GitLab identities every day at 10 a.m. UTC. Merge requests are refreshed every 2 minutes.
FAQ and Troubleshooting
Why is my CQL query git.branchProtection() returning no results or a 403 error?
This can happen if you do not have the read_api scope set for your access token, or if the GitLab user who generated the token does not have at minimum the Maintainer role.
The following options are available to get assistance from the Cortex Customer Engineering team:
Email: help@cortex.io, or open a support ticket in the in app Resource Center
Chat: Available in the Resource Center
Slack: Users with a connected Slack channel will have a workflow added to their account. From here, you can either @CortexTechnicalSupport or add a :ticket: reaction to a question in Slack, and the team will respond directly.
Don’t have a Slack channel? Talk with your Customer Success Manager.
