[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":789},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster":3,"navigation-en-us":33,"banner-en-us":433,"footer-en-us":443,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Pedro Moreira da Silva":685,"blog-related-posts-en-us-how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster":700,"assessment-promotions-en-us":740,"next-steps-en-us":779},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":22,"isFeatured":12,"meta":23,"navigation":24,"path":25,"publishedDate":20,"seo":26,"stem":30,"tagSlugs":31,"__hash__":32},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster.yml","How Gitlab Pages Made Our Sketch Design Handoffs Easier And Faster",[7],"pedro-moreira-da-silva",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9},"How GitLab Pages made our Sketch design handoffs easier and faster","From designer to developer hands, here is our workflow for sharing Sketch design specs using GitLab Pages.",[18],"Pedro Moreira da Silva","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749684206/Blog/Hero%20Images/cover.jpg","2019-11-07","\n\nOne of the designer’s responsibilities is handing off the design to developers\nso that it gets implemented as intended. We have _design specs_ to make this process smoother, but these have their own set of challenges. How can we speed\nup and ensure an effortless transition from designer to developer, so that\npeople can focus on what they do best? Here’s how we’re doing it with a\ncombination of [Sketch Measure][sketch-measure] and [GitLab Pages][gl-pages].\n\n\u003C!-- more -->\n\nAlong the development, it’s natural that developers have questions and the\ndesigner should be there to answer them. A lot of these questions can be\nanswered by the design specs, which mainly include detailed instructions about\nvisual aspects, but can also have functional aspects. This guidance is a\ncrucial part of handing off a design for implementation. Without it, the\ndeveloper has to deal with a lot of guessing and manual work, which is not the\nideal workflow.\n\n## Our workflow at GitLab\n\n\n\nFor more than three years we have been using a specific workflow, made of open\nsource tools, to power our Sketch design handoffs. This workflow is how we\nhandoff designs to build not only our product but also the [Pajamas Design\nSystem](http://design.gitlab.com). In a nutshell, here's how that workflow\nusually happens:\n1. Use the [Sketch Measure][sketch-measure] plugin to generate specs from the\n   designs we have created in [Sketch](https://www.sketchapp.com) (our user\n   interface design software of choice).\n1. Commit design spec files to our [GitLab Design][gl-design] project on\n   GitLab.com, using Git.\n1. Once the files arrive on GitLab.com, GitLab's [continuous integration\n   (CI)][gl-ci] engine starts and triggers the [GitLab Pages][gl-pages]\n   feature.\n1. GitLab Pages then publishes an online [index page](https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-design) with all of the design specs.\n1. Designers can now easily share a URL with the design specs, that is always\n   up-to-date and that anyone can access.\n\nUsing this design handoff workflow we’ve been able to improve efficiency and\ncommunication between designers and developers. Having these tools in place and\ncontinously going with this workflow is one of our first steps towards\npracticing\n[DesignOps](https://medium.com/vmwaredesign/understanding-the-value-of-designops-e2477330a923):\n“principles and processes to assist designers in becoming more productive and\ncollaborative.” Arguably more about tooling and automation, this workflow also\nblends three other important pillars that make high-performance design teams:\nprocess, standardization, and collaboration.\n\n## Creating design specs\n\nThe first step in our design handoff workflow is getting our design specs,\nusing [Sketch Measure][sketch-measure]. Sketch Measure is a free, open source\nplugin for Sketch that automatically generates specs from your Sketch designs.\nWith one click, it outputs an HTML page that allows anyone to inspect all the\ndesign details, including CSS styles. This HTML page can be viewed online or\noffline, in all of the major browsers – [check out a\ndemo](https://utom.design/news/).\n\nYou can even add implementation notes to your design, so developers don’t have\nto look in different places for the information they need.\n\n![Example of an HTML page with the specs generated by Sketch Measure](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster/sketch-measure-example.png){: .shadow.center}\nExample of an HTML page with the specs generated by Sketch Measure.\n\n\nJust by using this plugin, we’re already saving money and time:\n\n- We save money on Sketch licenses because only designers need Sketch. For us\n  at GitLab, that means saving $3540 per year (we currently have around [60\n  people on the frontend team](/company/team/)).\n- We save time because developers don’t have to download Sketch, install\n  Sketch, learn Sketch, download files, open files, etc.\n- We save more time because designers and developers are now focused on doing\n  what they do best, instead of handling miscommunications or manually\n  marking/writing all of the specs.\n- And our developers can use their favorite operating system, no need to use\n  macOS or have a macOS virtual machine just to open Sketch files.\n\nOther tools also generate design specs from Sketch files, but we settled on\nSketch Measure because it’s free, open source, and allows us to save and\nversion control the design specs in GitLab. If you’re interested in\nalternatives to Sketch Measure, see\n[Marketch](https://github.com/tudou527/marketch) (a plugin similar to Sketch\nMeasure), [Abstract](https://www.abstract.com/),\n[Avocode](https://avocode.com/), [InVision\nInspect](https://www.invisionapp.com/feature/inspect),\n[Markly](https://marklyapp.com/), [Marvel](https://marvelapp.com/sketch/), or\n[Zeplin](https://zeplin.io/). In June 2019, [Sketch\nannounced](https://blog.sketchapp.com/sketch-for-teams-smart-layout-and-more-announcements-from-layers-eed45e3fa0fd)\nthat they’re “bringing an Inspector to Cloud, so you can grab code, view specs\nand download production ready assets, without having to open the Mac app,” so a\nSketch-native solution may be coming soon.\n\n## Sharing design specs with GitLab Pages\n\nNow that we have the design specs, the second step is getting the specs into\nthe developer’s hands. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just access a URL\nthat’s always up-to-date?\n\nEnter [GitLab Pages][gl-pages]. It’s a feature that creates static websites for\nyour GitLab projects, groups, or user account. You can use it for free on\nGitLab.com or [your own GitLab\ninstance](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/pages/). It supports any\nstatic website generator, but in our case, we just need it to host our simple\nHTML file with the design specs.\n\nIn our UX department, we use the Git repository of the [GitLab\nDesign][gl-design] project to store and host not only the design specs but also\neditable Sketch files. Every time someone adds or changes design specs in the\nGitLab design repository, the GitLab Pages feature updates the project’s\nwebsite automatically.\n\nThe automatic updates is possible thanks to a simple YML file in the repository\nthat gives instructions to our [continuous integration (CI)][gl-ci] feature,\nthe engine that powers GitLab Pages. In essence, that file tells CI to run\nGitLab Pages each time something is pushed into our default branch. If you’re\ninterested in how it works, we’ve added comments to the file that try to\nexplain it as simply as possible:\n[`.gitlab-ci.yml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml)\n\nThe final result is an [index page](https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-design)\nwith links to the different design specs that are generated, as seen in the\nimage below (feel free to explore). Since making this work for design specs,\nwe’ve also added support for [Framer prototypes](https://framer.com/) and plain\nHTML pages.\n\n![Screenshot of the GitLab Design index page](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster/gitlab-design-index.png){: .shadow.center.medium}\n\nBy setting up GitLab Pages with GitLab CI, just push your specs to GitLab and\nthe rest is magic. The specs are available to anyone through a URL and are easy\nto share anywhere.\n\nFor us, this means more savings!\n- We save time on manually uploading design specs as these are automatically\n  taken care of by GitLab Pages each time our designers commit to the\n  repository.\n- We save time if something goes wrong with the design files or design specs\n  because we can go back in time and revert to a better past version.\n- And naturally, we save even more time as we all use GitLab for the whole\n  software development lifecycle. Instead of a bunch of ad-hoc tools from\n  different vendors, GitLab provides you everything you need in an integrated\n  product.\n\nHere are other cool things you can do with GitLab to make design handoffs even\nbetter:\n\n### Mention issues in commit messages for transparency\n\nBy mentioning the GitLab issue in the commit message, a note is created in the\nissue to let everyone know that the specs are available or have been updated\n([live example](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/13490#note_220761012)).\nThis also makes it easy for people looking at the issue to contribute and fork\nthe design (especially important if someone on the team is out-of-office), by\nfollowing the link to the commit. This [crosslinking\nfeature](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/issues/crosslinking_issues.html#from-commit-messages)\nnot only supports issues but also epics and merge requests.\n\n![Example of an issue note linking to the referencing commit](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/how-gitlab-pages-made-our-sketch-design-handoffs-easier-and-faster/commit-system-note.png){: .shadow.center}\n\nTo automatically mention issues in commit messages, we’ve created a\n[`prepare-commit-msg`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/blob/master/hooks/prepare-commit-msg)\nGit hook. Once the Git hook is installed in your local repository, every time\nyou commit, the hook will add the issues, epics, and merge requests IDs found\non the staged files (and their folders) to the commit message body. For\nexample, if a file or folder you’re committing contains `gitlab#1337-…` in its\nname, the commit message body will be appended with `gitlab#1337`, which\nreferences the project handle for\n[GitLab](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab) and its issue #1337.\n\n### Look at previous versions of specs\n\nIf you want, [GitLab’s CI][gl-ci] can save all versions of the design specs,\nusing [job\nartifacts](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.html).\nThis means you can go back in time and see what a previous version looked like\ninside of GitLab, without having to clone, revert, or download anything.\nEverything can be saved and viewed online. For example, here’s a [previous\nversion of our design specs index\npage](https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/-/gitlab-design/-/jobs/299229231/artifacts/public/index.html),\nfrom September 2019, when Kyle updated some Sketch files and their specs ([CI\npipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/pipelines/83198578)).\n\nAlso, because Git is used for version control, you can browse the whole history\nof changes made. No change is ever lost.\n\n## Future improvements\n\nWe hope this automated way of doing design handoffs pushes our UX department to continue exploring the role of DesignOps at GitLab,\nnot only inside the company but also in the product itself.\n\nSpecifically about design specs, here are some things we are looking into:\n- [Make it easier to share links to design specs in\n  GitLab](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/32704).\n- [Improve the index page with sorting, filters, easy to copy URLs, and links\n  to issues/epics/merge requests](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/issues/638).\n\nBecause GitLab’s CI is so awesome and flexible, we are even thinking about\nusing it to automatically update our SVG icons every time we update them in our\nSketch UI Kit\n([gitlab-svgs#1](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-svgs/issues/1)).\n\nAs we mentioned earlier, we don’t use this design handoff workflow exclusively\nfor design specs. It’s the way our designers communicate _any kind of\ndeliverable_ with our developers. The deliverables can also be Framer\nprototypes or plain HTML pages. We hope that by sharing design handoff workflow\nwe can help you and your team also work better and faster!\n\nThanks to [Dimitrie Hoekstra](/company/team/#dimitrieh) for the initial setup\nthat allowed this workflow and [Alessio Caiazza](/company/team/#nolith), [Marin\nJankovski](/company/team/#marin), [Rémy Coutable](/company/team/#rymai), and\n[Juan J. Ramirez](/company/team/#jj-ramirez) for the continued technical\nsupport and keeping this [repository’s\nsuperpowers](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#superpowers-)\nawesome.\n\nIf you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to [post a comment\non the community forum](https://forum.gitlab.com/new-topic?tags=blog-feedback), [tweet at us](https://twitter.com/gitlab), or create an\nissue in the [GitLab Design][gl-design] 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statement",{"items":675},[676,679,682],{"text":677,"config":678},"Terms",{"href":503,"dataGaName":504,"dataGaLocation":451},{"text":680,"config":681},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":513,"dataGaLocation":451,"id":514,"isOneTrustButton":24},{"text":683,"config":684},"Privacy",{"href":508,"dataGaName":509,"dataGaLocation":451},[686],{"id":687,"title":688,"body":8,"config":689,"content":691,"description":8,"extension":22,"meta":695,"navigation":24,"path":696,"seo":697,"stem":698,"__hash__":699},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/pedro-moreira-da-silva.yml","Pedro Moreira Da Silva",{"template":690},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":692},{"headshot":693,"ctfId":694},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749666783/Blog/Author%20Headshots/pedroms-headshot.jpg","pedroms",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/pedro-moreira-da-silva",{},"en-us/blog/authors/pedro-moreira-da-silva","vBhyKrixulW2B8a47YTLf-zcplqiMLS807ssnWP7IPY",[701,716,729],{"content":702,"config":714},{"title":703,"description":704,"authors":705,"heroImage":707,"date":708,"body":709,"category":9,"tags":710},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[706],"Tim Rizzi","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772111172/mwhgbjawn62kymfwrhle.png","2026-03-12","If you're a platform engineer, you've probably had this conversation:\n  \n*\"Security says we need to use hardened base images.\"*\n\n*\"Great, where do I configure credentials for yet another registry?\"*\n\n*\"Also, how do we make sure everyone actually uses them?\"*\n\nOr this one:\n\n*\"Why are our builds so slow?\"*\n\n*\"We're pulling the same 500MB image from Docker Hub in every single job.\"*\n\n*\"Can't we just cache these somewhere?\"*\n\nI've been working on [Container Virtual Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/) at GitLab specifically to solve these problems. It's a pull-through cache that sits in front of your upstream registries — Docker Hub, dhi.io (Docker Hardened Images), MCR, and Quay — and gives your teams a single endpoint to pull from. Images get cached on the first pull. Subsequent pulls come from the cache. Your developers don't need to know or care which upstream a particular image came from.\n\nThis article shows you how to set up Container Virtual Registry, specifically with Docker Hardened Images in mind, since that's a combination that makes a lot of sense for teams concerned about security and not making their developers' lives harder.\n\n## What problem are we actually solving?\n\nThe Platform teams I usually talk to manage container images across three to five registries:\n\n* **Docker Hub** for most base images\n* **dhi.io** for Docker Hardened Images (security-conscious workloads)\n* **MCR** for .NET and Azure tooling\n* **Quay.io** for Red Hat ecosystem stuff\n* **Internal registries** for proprietary images\n\nEach one has its own:\n\n* Authentication mechanism\n* Network latency characteristics\n* Way of organizing image paths\n\nYour CI/CD configs end up littered with registry-specific logic. Credential management becomes a project unto itself. And every pipeline job pulls the same base images over the network, even though they haven't changed in weeks.\n\nContainer Virtual Registry consolidates this. One registry URL. One authentication flow (GitLab's). Cached images are served from GitLab's infrastructure rather than traversing the internet each time.\n\n## How it works\n\nThe model is straightforward:\n\n```text\nYour pipeline pulls:\n  gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/1000016/python:3.13\n\nVirtual registry checks:\n  1. Do I have this cached? → Return it\n  2. No? → Fetch from upstream, cache it, return it\n\n```\n\nYou configure upstreams in priority order. When a pull request comes in, the virtual registry checks each upstream until it finds the image. The result gets cached for a configurable period (default 24 hours).\n\n```text\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│                    CI/CD Pipeline                       │\n│                          │                              │\n│                          ▼                              │\n│   gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/\u003Cid>/image   │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n                           │\n                           ▼\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│            Container Virtual Registry                   │\n│                                                         │\n│  Upstream 1: Docker Hub ────────────────┐               │\n│  Upstream 2: dhi.io (Hardened) ────────┐│               │\n│  Upstream 3: MCR ─────────────────────┐││               │\n│  Upstream 4: Quay.io ────────────────┐│││               │\n│                                      ││││               │\n│                    ┌─────────────────┴┴┴┴──┐            │\n│                    │        Cache          │            │\n│                    │  (manifests + layers) │            │\n│                    └───────────────────────┘            │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n```\n\n## Why this matters for Docker Hardened Images\n\n[Docker Hardened Images](https://docs.docker.com/dhi/) are great because of the minimal attack surface, near-zero CVEs, proper software bills of materials (SBOMs), and SLSA provenance. If you're evaluating base images for security-sensitive workloads, they should be on your list.\n\nBut adopting them creates the same operational friction as any new registry:\n\n* **Credential distribution**: You need to get Docker credentials to every system that pulls images from dhi.io.\n* **CI/CD changes**: Every pipeline needs to be updated to authenticate with dhi.io.\n* **Developer friction**: People need to remember to use the hardened variants.\n* **Visibility gap**: It's difficulat to tell if teams are actually using hardened images vs. regular ones.\n\nVirtual registry addresses each of these:\n\n**Single credential**: Teams authenticate to GitLab. The virtual registry handles upstream authentication. You configure Docker credentials once, at the registry level, and they apply to all pulls.\n\n**No CI/CD changes per-team**: Point pipelines at your virtual registry. Done. The upstream configuration is centralized.\n\n**Gradual adoption**: Since images get cached with their full path, you can see in the cache what's being pulled. If someone's pulling `library/python:3.11` instead of the hardened variant, you'll know.\n\n**Audit trail**: The cache shows you exactly which images are in active use. Useful for compliance, useful for understanding what your fleet actually depends on.\n\n## Setting it up\n\nHere's a real setup using the Python client from this demo project.\n\n### Create the virtual registry\n\n```python\nfrom virtual_registry_client import VirtualRegistryClient\n\nclient = VirtualRegistryClient()\n\nregistry = client.create_virtual_registry(\n    group_id=\"785414\",  # Your top-level group ID\n    name=\"platform-images\",\n    description=\"Cached container images for platform teams\"\n)\n\nprint(f\"Registry ID: {registry['id']}\")\n# You'll need this ID for the pull URL\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hub as an upstream\n\nFor official images like Alpine, Python, etc.:\n\n```python\ndocker_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://registry-1.docker.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hub\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io)\n\nDocker Hardened Images are hosted on `dhi.io`, a separate registry that requires authentication:\n\n```python\ndhi_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-docker-username\",\n    password=\"your-docker-access-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add other upstreams\n\n```python\n# MCR for .NET teams\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://mcr.microsoft.com\",\n    name=\"Microsoft Container Registry\",\n    cache_validity_hours=48\n)\n\n# Quay for Red Hat stuff\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://quay.io\",\n    name=\"Quay.io\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Update your CI/CD\n\nHere's a `.gitlab-ci.yml` that pulls through the virtual registry:\n\n```yaml\nvariables:\n  VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID: \u003Cyour_virtual_registry_ID>\n\n  \nbuild:\n  image: docker:24\n  services:\n    - docker:24-dind\n  before_script:\n    # Authenticate to GitLab (which handles upstream auth for you)\n    - echo \"${CI_JOB_TOKEN}\" | docker login -u gitlab-ci-token --password-stdin gitlab.com\n  script:\n    # All of these go through your single virtual registry\n    \n    # Official Docker Hub images (use library/ prefix)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/library/alpine:latest\n    \n    # Docker Hardened Images from dhi.io (no prefix needed)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/python:3.13\n    \n    # .NET from MCR\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/dotnet/sdk:8.0\n```\n\n### Image path formats\n\nDifferent registries use different path conventions:\n\n| Registry | Pull URL Example |\n|----------|------------------|\n| Docker Hub (official) | `.../library/python:3.11-slim` |\n| Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io) | `.../python:3.13` |\n| MCR | `.../dotnet/sdk:8.0` |\n| Quay.io | `.../prometheus/prometheus:latest` |\n\n### Verify it's working\n\nAfter some pulls, check your cache:\n\n```python\nupstreams = client.list_registry_upstreams(registry['id'])\nfor upstream in upstreams:\n    entries = client.list_cache_entries(upstream['id'])\n    print(f\"{upstream['name']}: {len(entries)} cached entries\")\n\n```\n\n## What the numbers look like\n\nI ran tests pulling images through the virtual registry:\n\n| Metric | Without Cache | With Warm Cache |\n|--------|---------------|-----------------|\n| Pull time (Alpine) | 10.3s | 4.2s |\n| Pull time (Python 3.13 DHI) | 11.6s | ~4s |\n| Network roundtrips to upstream | Every pull | Cache misses only |\n\n\n\n\nThe first pull is the same speed (it has to fetch from upstream). Every pull after that, for the cache validity period, comes straight from GitLab's storage. No network hop to Docker Hub, dhi.io, MCR, or wherever the image lives.\n\nFor a team running hundreds of pipeline jobs per day, that's hours of cumulative build time saved.\n\n## Practical considerations\nHere are some considerations to keep in mind:\n\n### Cache validity\n\n24 hours is the default. For security-sensitive images where you want patches quickly, consider 12 hours or less:\n\n```python\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-username\",\n    password=\"your-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=12\n)\n```\n\nFor stable, infrequently-updated images (like specific version tags), longer validity is fine.\n\n### Upstream priority\n\nUpstreams are checked in order. If you have images with the same name on different registries, the first matching upstream wins.\n\n### Limits\n\n* Maximum of 20 virtual registries per group\n* Maximum of 20 upstreams per virtual registry\n\n## Configuration via UI\n\nYou can also configure virtual registries and upstreams directly from the GitLab UI—no API calls required. Navigate to your group's **Settings > Packages and registries > Virtual Registry** to:\n\n* Create and manage virtual registries\n* Add, edit, and reorder upstream registries\n* View and manage the cache\n* Monitor which images are being pulled\n\n## What's next\n\nWe're actively developing:\n\n* **Allow/deny lists**: Use regex to control which images can be pulled from specific upstreams.\n\nThis is beta software. It works, people are using it in production, but we're still iterating based on feedback.\n\n## Share your feedback\n\nIf you're a platform engineer dealing with container registry sprawl, I'd like to understand your setup:\n\n* How many upstream registries are you managing?\n* What's your biggest pain point with the current state?\n* Would something like this help, and if not, what's missing?\n\nPlease share your experiences in the [Container Virtual Registry feedback issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/589630).\n## Related resources\n- [New GitLab metrics and registry features help reduce CI/CD bottlenecks](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/new-gitlab-metrics-and-registry-features-help-reduce-ci-cd-bottlenecks/#container-virtual-registry)\n- [Container Virtual Registry documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/)\n- [Container Virtual Registry API](https://docs.gitlab.com/api/container_virtual_registries/)",[711,712,713],"tutorial","product","features",{"featured":12,"template":13,"slug":715},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":717,"config":727},{"title":718,"description":719,"authors":720,"heroImage":722,"date":723,"category":9,"tags":724,"body":726},"How IIT Bombay students are coding the future with GitLab","At GitLab, we often talk about how software accelerates innovation. But sometimes, you have to step away from the Zoom calls and stand in a crowded university hall to remember why we do this.",[721],"Nick Veenhof","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099013/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2814%29_6VTUA8mUhOZNDaRVNPeKwl_1750099012960.png","2026-01-08",[255,607,725],"open source","The GitLab team recently had the privilege of judging the **iHack Hackathon** at **IIT Bombay's E-Summit**. The energy was electric, the coffee was flowing, and the talent was undeniable. But what struck us most wasn't just the code — it was the sheer determination of students to solve real-world problems, often overcoming significant logistical and financial hurdles to simply be in the room.\n\n\nThrough our [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we aim to empower the next generation of developers with tools and opportunity. Here is a look at what the students built, and how they used GitLab to bridge the gap between idea and reality.\n\n## The challenge: Build faster, build securely\n\nThe premise for the GitLab track of the hackathon was simple: Don't just show us a product; show us how you built it. We wanted to see how students utilized GitLab's platform — from Issue Boards to CI/CD pipelines — to accelerate the development lifecycle.\n\nThe results were inspiring.\n\n## The winners\n\n### 1st place: Team Decode — Democratizing Scientific Research\n\n**Project:** FIRE (Fast Integrated Research Environment)\n\nTeam Decode took home the top prize with a solution that warms a developer's heart: a local-first, blazing-fast data processing tool built with [Rust](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/secure-rust-development-with-gitlab/) and Tauri. They identified a massive pain point for data science students: existing tools are fragmented, slow, and expensive.\n\nTheir solution, FIRE, allows researchers to visualize complex formats (like NetCDF) instantly. What impressed the judges most was their \"hacker\" ethos. They didn't just build a tool; they built it to be open and accessible.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** Since the team lived far apart, asynchronous communication was key. They utilized **GitLab Issue Boards** and **Milestones** to track progress and integrated their repo with Telegram to get real-time push notifications. As one team member noted, \"Coordinating all these technologies was really difficult, and what helped us was GitLab... the Issue Board really helped us track who was doing what.\"\n\n![Team Decode](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/epqazj1jc5c7zkgqun9h.jpg)\n\n### 2nd place: Team BichdeHueDost — Reuniting to Solve Payments\n\n**Project:** SemiPay (RFID Cashless Payment for Schools)\n\nThe team name, BichdeHueDost, translates to \"Friends who have been set apart.\" It's a fitting name for a group of friends who went to different colleges but reunited to build this project. They tackled a unique problem: handling cash in schools for young children. Their solution used RFID cards backed by a blockchain ledger to ensure secure, cashless transactions for students.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** They utilized [GitLab CI/CD](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/ci-cd/) to automate the build process for their Flutter application (APK), ensuring that every commit resulted in a testable artifact. This allowed them to iterate quickly despite the \"flaky\" nature of cross-platform mobile development.\n\n![Team BichdeHueDost](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/pkukrjgx2miukb6nrj5g.jpg)\n\n### 3rd place: Team ZenYukti — Agentic Repository Intelligence\n\n**Project:** RepoInsight AI (AI-powered, GitLab-native intelligence platform)\n\nTeam ZenYukti impressed us with a solution that tackles a universal developer pain point: understanding unfamiliar codebases. What stood out to the judges was the tool's practical approach to onboarding and code comprehension: RepoInsight-AI automatically generates documentation, visualizes repository structure, and even helps identify bugs, all while maintaining context about the entire codebase.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** The team built a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline that showcased GitLab's security and DevOps capabilities. They integrated [GitLab's Security Templates](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Security) (SAST, Dependency Scanning, and Secret Detection), and utilized [GitLab Container Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/container_registry/) to manage their Docker images for backend and frontend components. They created an AI auto-review bot that runs on merge requests, demonstrating an \"agentic workflow\" where AI assists in the development process itself.\n\n![Team ZenYukti](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/ymlzqoruv5al1secatba.jpg)\n\n## Beyond the code: A lesson in inclusion\n\nWhile the code was impressive, the most powerful moment of the event happened away from the keyboard.\n\nDuring the feedback session, we learned about the journey Team ZenYukti took to get to Mumbai. They traveled over 24 hours, covering nearly 1,800 kilometers. Because flights were too expensive and trains were booked, they traveled in the \"General Coach,\" a non-reserved, severely overcrowded carriage.\n\nAs one student described it:\n\n*\"You cannot even imagine something like this... there are no seats... people sit on the top of the train. This is what we have endured.\"*\n\nThis hit home. [Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/inclusion/) are core values at GitLab. We realized that for these students, the barrier to entry wasn't intellect or skill, it was access.\n\nIn that moment, we decided to break that barrier. We committed to reimbursing the travel expenses for the participants who struggled to get there. It's a small step, but it underlines a massive truth: **talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.**\n\n![hackathon class together](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380252/o5aqmboquz8ehusxvgom.jpg)\n\n### The future is bright (and automated)\n\nWe also saw incredible potential in teams like Prometheus, who attempted to build an autonomous patch remediation tool (DevGuardian), and Team Arrakis, who built a voice-first job portal for blue-collar workers using [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo/) to troubleshoot their pipelines.\n\nTo all the students who participated: You are the future. Through [GitLab for Education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we are committed to providing you with the top-tier tools (like GitLab Ultimate) you need to learn, collaborate, and change the world — whether you are coding from a dorm room, a lab, or a train carriage. **Keep shipping.**\n\n> :bulb: Learn more about the [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/).\n",{"slug":728,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":730,"config":738},{"title":731,"description":732,"authors":733,"heroImage":734,"date":735,"category":9,"tags":736,"body":737},"Artois University elevates research and curriculum with GitLab Ultimate for Education","Artois University's CRIL leveraged the GitLab for Education program to gain free access to Ultimate, transforming advanced research and computer science curricula.",[721],"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099203/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2820%29_2bJGC5ZP3WheoqzlLT05C5_1750099203484.png","2025-12-10",[607,255,712],"Leading academic institutions face a critical challenge: how to provide thousands of students and researchers with industry-standard, **full-featured DevSecOps tools** without compromising institutional control. Many start with basic version control, but the modern curriculum demands integrated capabilities for planning, security, and advanced CI/CD.\n\nThe **GitLab for Education program** is designed to solve this by providing access to **GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying institutions, allowing them to scale their operations and elevate their academic offerings. \n\nThis article showcases a powerful success story from the **Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Lens (CRIL)**, a joint laboratory of **Artois University** and CNRS in France. After years of relying solely on GitLab Community Edition (CE), the university's move to GitLab Ultimate through the GitLab for Education program immediately unlocked advanced capabilities, transforming their teaching, research, and contribution workflows virtually overnight. This story demonstrates why GitLab Ultimate is essential for institutions seeking to deliver advanced computer science and research curricula.\n\n## GitLab Ultimate unlocked: Managing scale and driving academic value\n\n**Artois University's** self-managed GitLab instance is a large-scale operation, supporting nearly **3,000 users** across approximately **19,000 projects**, primarily serving computer science students and researchers. While GitLab Community Edition was robust, the upgrade to GitLab Ultimate provided the sophisticated tooling necessary for managing this scale and facilitating advanced university-level work.\n\n***\"We can see the difference,\" says Daniel Le Berre, head of research at CRIL and the instance maintainer. \"It's a completely different product. Each week reveals new features that directly enhance our productivity and teaching.\"***\n\nThe institution joined the GitLab for Education program specifically because it covers both **instructional and non-commercial research use cases** and offers full access to Ultimate's features, removing significant cost barriers.\n\n### Key GitLab Ultimate benefits for students and researchers\n\n* **Advanced project management at scale:** Master's students now benefit from **GitLab Ultimate's project planning features**. This enables them to structure, track, and manage complex, long-term research projects using professional methodologies like portfolio management and advanced issue tracking that seamlessly roll up across their thousands of projects.\n\n* **Enhanced visibility:** Features like improved dashboards and code previews directly in Markdown files dramatically streamline tracking and documentation review, reducing administrative friction for both instructors and students managing large project loads.\n\n## Comprehensive curriculum: From concepts to continuous delivery\n\nGitLab Ultimate is deeply integrated into the computer science curriculum, moving students beyond simple `git` commands to practical **DevSecOps implementation**.\n\n* **Git fundamentals:** Students begin by visualizing concepts using open-source tools to master Git concepts.\n\n* **Full CI/CD implementation:** Students use GitLab CI for rigorous **Test-Driven Development (TDD)** in their software projects. They learn to build, test, and perform quality assurance using unit and integration testing pipelines—core competency made seamless by the integrated platform.\n\n* **DevSecOps for research and documentation:** The university teaches students that DevSecOps principles are vital for all collaborative work. Inspired by earlier work in Delft, students manage and produce critical research documentation (PDFs from Markdown files) using GitLab, incorporating quality checks like linters and spell checks directly in the CI pipeline. This ensures high-quality, reproducible research output.\n\n* **Future-proofing security skills:** The GitLab Ultimate platform immediately positions the institution to incorporate advanced DevSecOps features like SAST and DAST scanning as their research and development code projects grow, ensuring students are prepared for industry security standards.\n\n## Accelerating open source contributions with GitLab Duo\n\nAccess to the full GitLab platform, including our AI capabilities, has empowered students to make impactful contributions to the wider open source community faster than ever before.\n\nTwo Master's students recently completed direct contributions to the GitLab product, adding the **ORCID identifier** into user profiles. Working on GitLab.com, they leveraged **GitLab Duo's AI chat and code suggestions** to navigate the codebase efficiently.\n\n***\"This would not have been possible without GitLab Duo,\" Daniel Le Berre notes. \"The AI features helped students, who might have lacked deep codebase knowledge, deliver meaningful contributions in just two weeks.\"***\n\nThis demonstrates how providing students with cutting-edge tools **accelerates their learning and impact**, allowing them to translate classroom knowledge into real-world contributions immediately.\n\n## Empowering open research and institutional control\n\nThe stability of the self-managed instance at Artois University is key to its success. This model guarantees **institutional control and stability** — a critical factor for long-term research preservation.\n\nThe institution's expertise in this area was recently highlighted in a major 2024 study led by CRIL, titled: \"[Higher Education and Research Forges in France - Definition, uses, limitations encountered and needs analysis](https://hal.science/hal-04208924v4)\" ([Project on GitLab](https://gitlab.in2p3.fr/coso-college-codes-sources-et-logiciels/forges-esr-en)). The research found that the vast majority of public forges in French Higher Education and Research relied on **GitLab**. This finding underscores the consensus among academic leaders that self-hosted solutions are essential for **data control and longevity**, especially when compared to relying on external, commercial forges.\n\n## Unlock GitLab Ultimate for your institution today\n\nThe success story of **Artois University's CRIL** proves the transformative power of the GitLab for Education program. By providing **free access to GitLab Ultimate**, we enable large-scale institutions to:\n\n1.  **Deliver a modern, integrated DevSecOps curriculum.**\n\n2.  **Support advanced, collaborative research projects with Ultimate planning features.**\n\n3.  **Empower students to make AI-assisted open source contributions.**\n\n4.  **Maintain institutional control and data longevity.**\n\nIf your academic institution is ready to equip its students and researchers with the complete DevSecOps platform and its most advanced features, we invite you to join the program.\n\nThe program provides **free access to GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying instructional and non-commercial research use cases.\n\n**Apply now [online](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/).**\n",{"slug":739,"featured":24,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"promotions":741},[742,756,767],{"id":743,"categories":744,"header":746,"text":747,"button":748,"image":753},"ai-modernization",[745],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":749,"config":750},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":751,"dataGaName":752,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":754},{"src":755},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":757,"categories":758,"header":759,"text":747,"button":760,"image":764},"devops-modernization",[712,553],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":761,"config":762},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":763,"dataGaName":752,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":765},{"src":766},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":768,"categories":769,"header":771,"text":747,"button":772,"image":776},"security-modernization",[770],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":773,"config":774},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":775,"dataGaName":752,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":777},{"src":778},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":780,"blurb":781,"button":782,"secondaryButton":787},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":783,"config":784},"Get your free trial",{"href":785,"dataGaName":44,"dataGaLocation":786},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":489,"config":788},{"href":48,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":786},1773350825532]