[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":789},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/ios-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane":3,"navigation-en-us":38,"banner-en-us":436,"footer-en-us":446,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Jason Yavorska":687,"blog-related-posts-en-us-ios-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane":701,"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":26,"isFeatured":12,"meta":27,"navigation":28,"path":29,"publishedDate":20,"seo":30,"stem":34,"tagSlugs":35,"__hash__":37},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/ios-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane.yml","Ios Publishing With Gitlab And Fastlane",[7],"jason-yavorska",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"ios-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to publish iOS apps to the App Store with GitLab and fastlane","See how GitLab, together with fastlane, can build, sign, and publish apps for iOS to the App Store.",[18],"Jason Yavorska","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749680470/Blog/Hero%20Images/ios-publishing-cover.jpg","2019-03-06","_Note: You may also find the blog post [Tutorial: iOS CI/CD with GitLab](/blog/ios-cicd-with-gitlab/) from June 2023 helpful._\n\nRecently we published a [blog post\ndetailing how to get up and running quickly with your Android app](/blog/android-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane/), GitLab, and\n[_fastlane_](https://fastlane.tools). In this edition, let's look at how to get\na build of an iOS app up and running, including publishing all the way to\nTestFlight. To see how cool this can be, check out this [video\nof me making a change on an iPad Pro using the GitLab Web IDE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=325FyJt7ZG8), getting that\nbuilt, and then receiving an update to the test version of my application on the\nvery same iPad Pro I was using to develop.\n\nFor the purposes of this article, we'll be using a [simple Swift iOS app](https://gitlab.com/jyavorska/flappyokr)\nthat I recorded the video with.\n\n## First, a note on Apple Store configuration\n\nWhat we're going to need in order to set all of this up is a mobile application set up\nin the App Store, distribution certificates, and a provisioning profile that ties\nit all together.\n\nMost of the complexity here actually has to do with setting up your signing\nauthority for the App Store. Hopefully in most cases this is already good to go\nfor you; if you're a new app developer, I'll try to get you started on the right\ntrack, but the intricacies of Apple certificate management is out of the scope of\nthis article, and tends to change somewhat frequently. But, this information\nshould get you going.\n\n### My apps\n\nYour application will need to be set up in App Store Connect so you have an ID\nfor your application, which will be used in your `.xcodebuild` configuration.\nYour app profile and ID are what tie together the code builds with pricing and\navailability, as well as TestFlight configuration for distributing testing\napplications to your users. Note that you don't need to set up public testing –\nyou can use personal testing with TestFlight just fine as long as your testing\ngroup is small, and the setup is simpler and requires no additional approvals\nfrom Apple.\n\n### Provisioning profile\n\nIn addition to the app setup, you need iOS distribution and development keys\ncreated in the Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles section of the Apple\nDeveloper console. Once these certificates are created, you can create a\nprovisioning profile to unify everything.\n\nAlso note that the user you will authenticate with needs to be able to create\ncertificates, so please ensure that they have that ability or you will see an\nerror during the [_cert_ and _sigh_](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-cert-and-sigh)\nsteps.\n\n### Other options\n\nThere are several more ways to set up your certificates and profiles than the\nsimple method I've described above, so if you're doing something different you may\nneed to adapt. The most important thing is that you need your `.xcodebuild`\nconfiguration to point to the appropriate files, and your keychain needs to be\navailable on the build machine for the user that the runner is running as. We're\nusing _fastlane_ for signing, so if you run into trouble here or want to learn\nmore about your options, take a look at their extensive [code signing documentation](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/).\n\nFor this sample project, I'm using the [_cert_ and _sigh_](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-cert-and-sigh)\napproach, but the [match\napproach](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-match) may be better for actual enterprise use.\n\n## How to set up GitLab and _fastlane_\n\n### How to set up your CI/CD runner\n\nWith the above information gathered or set up, we can start with configuring the\nGitLab runner on a macOS device. Unfortunately, building on macOS is the only\nrealistic way to build iOS apps. This is potentially changing in the future;\nkeep an eye on projects like [xcbuild](https://github.com/facebook/xcbuild) and\n[isign](https://github.com/saucelabs/isign), as well as our own internal issue\n[gitlab-ce#57576](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/57576) for\ndevelopments in this area.\n\nIn the meantime, setting up the runner is fairly straightforward. You can follow\nour most current [instructions for setting up GitLab Runner on macOS](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/osx.html)\nto get that up and running.\n\nNote: Be sure to set your GitLab runner to use the `shell` executor. For building iOS on\nmacOS, it's a requirement to operate directly as the user on the machine rather\nthan using containers. Note that when you're using the shell executor, the\nbuild and tests run as the identity of the runner logged in user, directly on\nthe build host. This is less secure than using container executors, so please\ntake a look at our [security implications documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/security/#usage-of-shell-executor)\nfor additional detail on what to keep in mind in this scenario.\n\n```shell\nsudo curl --output /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-darwin-amd64\nsudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner\ncd ~\ngitlab-runner install\ngitlab-runner start\n```\n\nWhat you need to be careful about here is ensuring your Apple keychain is set up\non this host and has access to the keys that Xcode needs in order\nto build. The easiest way to test this is to log in as the user that will be\nrunning the build and try to build manually. You may receive system prompts for\nkeychain access which you need to \"always allow\" for CI/CD to work. You will probably\nalso want to log in and watch your first pipeline or two to make sure that\nno prompts come up for additional keychain access. Unfortunately Apple does not\nmake this super easy to use in unattended mode, but once you have it working it\ntends to stay that way.\n\n### _fastlane_ init\n\nIn order to start using _fastane_ with your project, you'll need to run\n`fastlane init`. Simply follow the [instructions\nto install and run _fastlane_](https://docs.fastlane.tools/getting-started/ios/setup/), being sure to use the instructions in the\n[Use a Gemfile](https://docs.fastlane.tools/getting-started/ios/setup/#use-a-gemfile)\nsection, since we do want this to run quickly and predictably via unattended CI.\n\nFrom your project directory, you can run the following commands:\n\n```text\nxcode-select --install\nsudo gem install fastlane -NV\n# Alternatively using Homebrew\n# brew cask install fastlane\nfastlane init\n```\n\n_fastlane_ will ask you for some basic configuration and then create a project folder\ncalled `fastlane` in your project which will contain three files:\n\n#### 1. `fastlane/Appfile`\n\nThis file is straightforward, so you just want to check to make sure that the Apple\nID and app ID that you set up earlier are correct.\n\n```text\napp_identifier(\"com.vontrance.flappybird\") # The bundle identifier of your app\napple_id(\"your-email@your-domain.com\") # Your Apple email address\n```\n\n#### 2. `fastlane/Fastfile`\n\nThe `Fastfile` defines the build steps. Since we're using a lot of the built-in\ncapability of _fastlane_ this is really straightforward. We create a single\nlane which gets certificates, builds, and uploads the new build to TestFlight.\nOf course, you may want to split these out into different jobs depending on your\nuse case. Each of these steps, `get_certificates`, `get_provisioning_profile`,\n`gym`, and `upload_to_testflight` are pre-bundled actions already included with\n_fastlane_.\n\n`get_certificates` and `get_provisioning_profile` are actions associated with\nthe [_cert_ and _sigh_](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-cert-and-sigh)\napproach to code signing; if you're using _fastlane_ [match](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-match)\nor some other approach you may need to update these.\n\n```yaml\ndefault_platform(:ios)\n\nplatform :ios do\n  desc \"Build the application\"\n  lane :flappybuild do\n    get_certificates\n    get_provisioning_profile\n    gym\n    upload_to_testflight\n  end\nend\n```\n\n#### 3. `fastlane/Gymfile`\n\nThis `gym` file is optional, but I created it manually in order to override the default\noutput directory and place the output in the current folder. This makes things a\nbit easier for CI. You can read more about `gym` and its options in the\n[gym documentation](https://docs.fastlane.tools/actions/gym/).\n\n```yaml\noutput_directory(\"./\")\n```\n\n### Our `.gitlab-ci.yml` configuration file\n\nNow, we have a CI/CD runner associated with our project so we're ready to try a\npipeline. Let's see what's in our `.gitlab-ci.yml` file:\n\n```yaml\nstages:\n  - build\n\nvariables:\n  LC_ALL: \"en_US.UTF-8\"\n  LANG: \"en_US.UTF-8\"\n  GIT_STRATEGY: clone\n\nbuild:\n  stage: build\n  script:\n    - bundle install\n    - bundle exec fastlane flappybuild\n  artifacts:\n    paths:\n    - ./FlappyBird.ipa\n\n```\n\nYes, that's really it! [We set UTF-8 locale for _fastlane_ per their\nrequirements](https://docs.fastlane.tools/getting-started/ios/setup/#set-up-environment-variables),\nuse a `clone` strategy with the `shell` executor to ensure we have a clean\nworkspace each build, and then simply call our `flappybuild` _fastlane_ target,\nwhich we discussed above. This will build, sign, and deploy the latest build to\nTestFlight.\n\nWe also gather the artifact and save it with the build – note that the `.ipa`\nformat output is a signed ARM executable, so not something you can run in the\nsimulator. If you wanted a simulator output to be saved with the build, you\nwould simply add a build target that produces it and then add it to the artifact\npath.\n\n### Other environment variables\n\nThere are some special environment variables behind the scenes here that are\nmaking this work.\n\n#### `FASTLANE_APPLE_APPLICATION_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD` and `FASTLANE_SESSION`\n\nIn order to authenticate against the App Store for the TestFlight upload,\n_fastlane_ must be able to authenticate. In order to do this, you need to\ncreate an app-specific password to be used by CI. You can read more about this\nprocess in [this documentation](https://docs.fastlane.tools/best-practices/continuous-integration/#use-of-application-specific-passwords-and-spaceauth).\n\nIf you're using two-factor authentication, you'll also need to generate the\n`FASTLANE_SESSION` variable – instructions are in the same place.\n\n#### `FASTLANE_USER` and `FASTLANE_PASSWORD`\n\nIn order for [_cert_ and _sigh_](https://docs.fastlane.tools/codesigning/getting-started/#using-cert-and-sigh)\nto be able to fetch the provisioning profile and certificates on demand, the\n`FASTLANE_USER` and `FASTLANE_PASSWORD` variables must be set. You can read more\nabout this [here](https://docs.fastlane.tools/best-practices/continuous-integration/#environment-variables-to-set).\nYou may not need these if you are using some other approach to signing.\n\n## In closing...\n\nRemember, you can see a working project with all of this set up by heading over\nto my [simple demo app](https://gitlab.com/jyavorska/flappyokr).\n\nHopefully this has been helpful and has inspired you to get iOS builds and\npublishing working within your GitLab project. There is some good additional\n[CI/CD best-practice](https://docs.fastlane.tools/best-practices/continuous-integration/)\ndocumentation for _fastlane_ if you get stuck anywhere,\nand you could also consider using the `CI_BUILD_ID` (which increments each build)\nto [automatically increment a version](https://docs.fastlane.tools/best-practices/continuous-integration/gitlab/#auto-incremented-build-number).\n\nAnother great capability of _fastlane_ to try is the ability to\n[automatically generate screenshots](https://docs.fastlane.tools/getting-started/ios/screenshots/)\nfor the App Store – it's just as easy to set up as the rest of this has been.\n\nWe'd love to hear in the comments how this is working for you, as well as your\nideas for how we can make GitLab a better place to do iOS development in general.\n\nPhoto by eleven_x on 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statement",{"items":677},[678,681,684],{"text":679,"config":680},"Terms",{"href":506,"dataGaName":507,"dataGaLocation":454},{"text":682,"config":683},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":516,"dataGaLocation":454,"id":517,"isOneTrustButton":28},{"text":685,"config":686},"Privacy",{"href":511,"dataGaName":512,"dataGaLocation":454},[688],{"id":689,"title":18,"body":8,"config":690,"content":692,"description":8,"extension":26,"meta":696,"navigation":28,"path":697,"seo":698,"stem":699,"__hash__":700},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/jason-yavorska.yml",{"template":691},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":693},{"headshot":694,"ctfId":695},"","jyavorska",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/jason-yavorska",{},"en-us/blog/authors/jason-yavorska","eFtNS4VsB5vvAsfbNZ0pGZ1cC600ZgmmRzLEDxetiGk",[702,716,729],{"content":703,"config":714},{"title":704,"description":705,"authors":706,"heroImage":708,"date":709,"body":710,"category":9,"tags":711},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[707],"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/)",[712,713,25],"tutorial","product",{"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",[258,609,725],"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",[609,258,713],"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":28,"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":240},"/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",[713,555],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":761,"config":762},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":763,"dataGaName":752,"dataGaLocation":240},"/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":240},"/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":49,"dataGaLocation":786},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":492,"config":788},{"href":53,"dataGaName":54,"dataGaLocation":786},1773350844601]