[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":792},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully":3,"navigation-en-us":38,"banner-en-us":438,"footer-en-us":448,"blog-post-authors-en-us-David O'Regan":688,"blog-related-posts-en-us-quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully":703,"assessment-promotions-en-us":743,"next-steps-en-us":782},{"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/quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully.yml","Quickly Onboarding Engineers Successfully",[7],"david-oregan",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to quickly (and successfully) onboard engineers","It's a tough hiring market today. Here's how GitLab gets engineers onboard fast and sets them up for success.",[18],"David O'Regan","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749670635/Blog/Hero%20Images/kubernetesterms.jpg","2022-07-21","No one ever said hiring was easy. As a matter of fact, talent hiring and retention are some of the hardest aspects to get right for any software company.\n\nAccording to [a recent article at Developer Pitstop](https://developerpitstop.com/how-long-do-software-engineers-stay-at-a-job/) the average engineer will only stay at a job for an average of two years before moving on, and this tenure is shrinking as time goes on.\n\nWhen we look at the average timeline for engineers in a new role we usually see something like:\n\n> - Learning and adaptation (3 / 6 months):\n>   Coming to grips with the new company, team, and their processes.\n>\n> - Creating value for the organization (6 / 12 months):\n>   Adding value to the business by becoming a functioning member of the team.\n>\n> - Becoming a role expert (6 / 18 months):\n>   Owning the role completely and helping to shape the direction of the team.\n\n## Software engineer onboarding\n\nAt GitLab we pride ourselves on an outstanding onboarding process to reduce the amount of time an engineer will spend in the `learning and adaptation` bracket and accelerate their evolution into the `creating value for the organization` bracket. We do this for two main reasons:\n\n- **Quicker integration**: We aim to have engineers ship production code in less than one week, and fully onboard them in less than three months.\n- **Reduce turnover**: Engineers who have an awesome onboarding experience tend to stay with the same company longer.\n\n**The bottom line is that with these benefits, investing in an amazing onboarding process gives you the highest ROI on your hiring initiatives.**\n\nSo, now that we know **why** we need to ensure we onboard quickly and correctly, let's talk about **how** we do it at GitLab.\n\n## Software engineer onboarding process: An overview\n\n- 💯 Before day one\n- 💥 It's all about the onboarding issue\n- 🥂 Pick the right onboarding buddy\n- 👌 Pair, pair, and more pairing\n- 🖐 All the coffee chats\n- 🤘 Tailor the experience to the role\n- 🚢 Ship some code in a week or less\n- 💬 Let's get (and give) some feedback\n\n![onboarding](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/onboarding.png){: .shadow}\n\n## 💯 Before day one\n\nThe best processes for onboarding software engineers start as soon as the candidate has officially accepted the offer. This is done in a few ways:\n\n- An onboarding issue is created with tasks for the hiring manager, their buddy, and People Experience (HR).\n- The hiring manager selects the right onboarding buddy for the engineer and communicates expectations (more on this later).\n- The engineer's accounts (Email, GitLab account, Okta, etc) are created and their hardware is shipped.\n- GitLab reaches out via email to let the candidate know what the onboarding process looks like.\n- The hiring manager reaches out to the engineer via email to set up a coffee chat on Day 1 as the initial process might seem overwhelming.\n\nFor us, the most important aspect is communication with the engineer to ensure they are set up for success. We provide them with access to their onboarding issue, helpful video guides for getting started, and a primer on how to navigate our [handbook like a pro](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/general-onboarding/). The reason this is so important is that we know if we stop communicating with the engineer after signing, we are at risk of creating uncertainty, introducing inefficiency, or even losing them to another offer during that time.\n\n## 💥 It's all about the onboarding issue\n\nAt GitLab, our [onboarding issue](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/general-onboarding/#onboarding-issue-template-links) is the most effective tool we have for successfully onboarding a new engineer quickly. Hiring managers use this issue almost exclusively, both for building momentum and for following our value of transparency. We use this issue, instead of Slack or email, to create a single source of truth for everyone during the process and to prevent fragmented communication. For anyone new at GitLab, the first few weeks can seem like a lot to get on top of, so the hiring manger wants to be mindful of opportunities to consolidate communication and reduce context switching.\n\nOur onboarding issues are confidential because they contain sensitive account information, but the templates of the issue are [public](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/general-onboarding/#onboarding-issue-template-links) and they look something like this:\n\n```yaml\n- Accounts and access\n- Day 1: Getting started: Accounts and paperwork\n- Day 2: Remote working and our values\n- Day 3: Security & compliance\n- Day 4: Social & benefits\n- Day 5: Git & push some code\n- Weeks 2 - 4: Explore\n- Job-specific tasks\n```\n\nAs a hiring manager, you want to ensure that you have fleshed out the `job specific tasks` ahead of time with things that are important for the specific role the engineer will be working in. This will generally include things like ensuring they have database access, pointing them to the working groups that will support their work, and letting them know the right Slack channels to support their development.\n\n## 🥂 Pick the right onboarding buddy\n\nThe advantages of the buddy system have been [well documented for years](https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/implementing-buddy-system-workplace-9376). At GitLab we lean heavily on the onboarding buddy [model](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/general-onboarding/onboarding-buddies/) and rather than having multiple people support the new engineer, it will generally be the hiring manager and a single buddy.\n\nThe advantages of an onboarding buddy at GitLab are several:\n\n- **Domain expert**: A onboarding buddy knows the domain the new engineer is going to be working in. They have already written, reviewed, and merged code into production in the same way we want the new engineer to. They know the process, pitfalls, and gotchas of the domain.\n- **Single context / Accountabilibuddy**: A single onboarding buddy drastically reduces context switching and \"paralysis by analysis.\" They know they always have someone to ask and this creates a psychologically safe space for them. GitLab can often be a scary environment to navigate when you are new due to impostor syndrome and we want to curb that.\n- **GitLabisms**: At GitLab, we have code and then we have \"GitLabisms.\" These are things that are specific to GitLab, be it workflows or custom tooling. These are often more complicated to become familiar with than the code itself. The onboarding buddy should have experience with these already and be able to point the engineer in the right direction when they are stuck.\n- **Mentor**: Mentoring is one of the single best things an engineer can do to grow themselves and become more sure of their own skills. By being an onboarding buddy, they are given a growth opportunity to cover their own blindspots and upskill.\n\nAs a rule of thumb, the onboarding buddy should ideally be someone from the engineer's new team who is working in the same domain, i.e. a senior frontend engineer mentors a new intermediate frontend engineer, both of which are from the same team. While this rule is not set in stone, it is often less effective to have an onboarding buddy be cross-team due to a lack of domain expertise.\n\n## 👌 Pair, pair, and more pairing\n\nPairing when programming and when working on tasks is a very effective way to help new engineers build up their knowledge without needing to pour through documentation.\n\nIn general, we would recommend that the engineer pair with their onboarding buddy on their first few merge requests to get used to the workflow and pitfalls of working with the GitLab Development Kit. But this is not where it should stop. We encourage pairing across the board at GitLab either via open pairing sessions such as our Frontend Pairing office hours, having a manager pair with an engineer, or pairing with a stable counterpart such as your team's UX designer.\n\nWhen it comes to onboarding, pairing is helpful. We do this because we want to:\n\n- **Create psychological safety**: We all feel impostor syndrome. This is worse when you're new to a job and don't know the ecosystem yet. Regular pairing helps to undo that worry as you see people are just people and even staff/principal engineers forget the closing brace!\n- **Create relationships/network**: In an all-remote company, it becomes important to know who to reach out to in moments of need. Regular pairing helps to foster these relationships and creates a safety net with your peers.\n- **Demonstrate our values**: We believe in [CREDIT](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/) at GitLab. Regular pairing supports all our core values and helps to encourage us to be mindful of them when working.\n- **Give and get real-time feedback**: When pairing, we can get real-time feedback on our process and how we're approaching solutions. This is extremely important for new engineers who might not be familiar with core GitLab concepts such as [iteration](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration) (\"How can we break this down?\").\n\n## 🖐 All the coffee chats\n\nBeing distributed means we do communication differently at GitLab. One key to successfully onboarding a new engineer is to get them comfortable with our communication style.\n\nTo do this, we encourage regular [coffee chats](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/informal-communication/#coffee-chats) and a culture of zero shame about it.\n\nEncourage your new hire to set up regular coffee chats with people across the company to help build rapport and become comfortable with GitLab as a whole.\n\nTo help empower new hires, have them ask the following question in their initial 10  - 15 chats:\n\n> What is the one thing I can do to be successful at GitLab?\n\n## 🤘 Tailor the experience to the role\n\nAs a hiring manger, you need to understand that people learn and grow in different ways. No single method will work for everyone and it is your job to ensure your new hire feels supported in how they want to learn.\n\nDuring the onboarding, observe your new hire and touch base with them in your weekly 1:1 for what they are and **are not** enjoying about the experience so far. Once you have this information, iterate on it and tailor their onboarding to include more of what they prefer.\n\nAsk constructive questions that can have actionable tasks each week to ensure a better process for them:\n\n> Do you want to pair more? Do you want more alone time? Are there particular areas you need more guidance in? Are there things I can do to better support you?\n\nYou should aim to strike a balance during their onboarding for a mixture of practical work and time dedicated to studying. Work with the direct report to establish the best balance for them as an individual.\n\n## 🚢 Ship some code in a week or less\n\nThis is arguably the most important aspect of successfully onboarding an engineer and setting them up for success. The sooner they can push code to production, the sooner they can begin to refine their skills and work effectively with the team.\n\nThe best software companies in the world set a timeline of shipping code in a week. At GitLab, this is not a hard-and-fast rule, but in the **Create** stage is what we strive for.\n\nTo ensure an engineer can ship code within a week, we need to ensure they are supported in a few ways:\n\n- **Tooling**: At GitLab we have a fantastic [local development kit](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit) which sets up an engineer to begin delivering code. We support this kit heavily as a first-class citizen and are constantly refining the tooling and [docs](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/-/tree/main/doc) to ensure everyone can contribute. For a new hire, consider having their first pairing session to be setting up their GDK – this will get them one step closer to shipping quality code.\n- **Dev process**: At GitLab, we always strike to [break down work into its smallest deliverable](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product/product-principles/#the-minimal-viable-change-mvc) that can be picked up by an engineer without deep contextual understanding. We do this to support the open source community as much as our own engineers.\n\n## 💬 Let's get some feedback\n\nAs a hiring manager, you want to ensure you build a stable feedback loop into your processes and this includes onboarding. During your 1:1s you should include a weekly feedback cycle for both **you** and your direct report.\n\nThese feedback cycles should take the form of:\n\n- **Appreciation (Collaboration / Results / Diversity / Iteration / Transparency)**: A moment of appreciation for something positive that is highlighted inline with our values.\n- **Coaching (Collaboration / Results / Diversity / Iteration / Transparency)**: A growth opportunity that is highlighted inline with our values.\n\nThese weekly feedback loops allow the engineer to highlight things that could be done better in both the context of the onboarding and their day-to-day experience.\n\nLastly, it is optional but encouraged to hold an onboarding retrospective when the initial onboarding issue is closed with the following points to talk through:\n\n- What went well?\n- What didn't go so well?\n- What could be improved?\n- Action items\n\n## 💾 TL;DR\n\nThe most successful software companies have a solidified onboarding process and continue to expand on it, setting up both the company and engineers for long-term success. The above methods are how we do it at GitLab.\n\n## 💻 Remote development and the developer experience\n\nAt GitLab we have recently been hiring for our [Remote Development effort](https://about.gitlab.com/direction/create/remote_development/workspaces/) and many of these items are in play with the engineers we are bringing into the company. We want to improve these processes to make onboarding even easier, mitigating the need for even setting up a specific local development toolchain to be able to ship production code.\n\nIf you think you might be interested in a role at GitLab working on Remote Development, check out our open listings [here](https://boards.greenhouse.io/gitlab/jobs/6201785002).\n\nRead more about [leading endingeering teams](/blog/cadence-is-everything-10x-engineering-organizations-for-10x-engineers/).\n",[23,24,25],"DevOps","testing","collaboration","yml",{},true,"/en-us/blog/quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully",{"title":15,"description":16,"ogTitle":15,"ogDescription":16,"noIndex":12,"ogImage":19,"ogUrl":31,"ogSiteName":32,"ogType":33,"canonicalUrls":31},"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully","https://about.gitlab.com","article","en-us/blog/quickly-onboarding-engineers-successfully",[36,24,25],"devops","wEndBWP1t0sgfdJTmEd33V4-eTFgh1mvNHPlaaYi_Ho",{"data":39},{"logo":40,"freeTrial":45,"sales":50,"login":55,"items":60,"search":368,"minimal":399,"duo":418,"pricingDeployment":428},{"config":41},{"href":42,"dataGaName":43,"dataGaLocation":44},"/","gitlab logo","header",{"text":46,"config":47},"Get free 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statement",{"items":678},[679,682,685],{"text":680,"config":681},"Terms",{"href":508,"dataGaName":509,"dataGaLocation":456},{"text":683,"config":684},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":518,"dataGaLocation":456,"id":519,"isOneTrustButton":28},{"text":686,"config":687},"Privacy",{"href":513,"dataGaName":514,"dataGaLocation":456},[689],{"id":690,"title":691,"body":8,"config":692,"content":694,"description":8,"extension":26,"meta":698,"navigation":28,"path":699,"seo":700,"stem":701,"__hash__":702},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/david-oregan.yml","David Oregan",{"template":693},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":695},{"headshot":696,"ctfId":697},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749659853/Blog/Author%20Headshots/oregand-headshot.png","oregand",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/david-oregan",{},"en-us/blog/authors/david-oregan","CX5gLc3Gs5FrmvpMNVkBtC5zRi3vj8l3wJGnW0iSa6Y",[704,719,732],{"content":705,"config":717},{"title":706,"description":707,"authors":708,"heroImage":710,"date":711,"body":712,"category":9,"tags":713},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[709],"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/)",[714,715,716],"tutorial","product","features",{"featured":12,"template":13,"slug":718},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":720,"config":730},{"title":721,"description":722,"authors":723,"heroImage":725,"date":726,"category":9,"tags":727,"body":729},"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.",[724],"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",[260,610,728],"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":731,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":733,"config":741},{"title":734,"description":735,"authors":736,"heroImage":737,"date":738,"category":9,"tags":739,"body":740},"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.",[724],"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",[610,260,715],"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":742,"featured":28,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"promotions":744},[745,759,770],{"id":746,"categories":747,"header":749,"text":750,"button":751,"image":756},"ai-modernization",[748],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":752,"config":753},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":754,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":757},{"src":758},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":760,"categories":761,"header":762,"text":750,"button":763,"image":767},"devops-modernization",[715,556],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":764,"config":765},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":766,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":768},{"src":769},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":771,"categories":772,"header":774,"text":750,"button":775,"image":779},"security-modernization",[773],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":776,"config":777},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":778,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":780},{"src":781},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":783,"blurb":784,"button":785,"secondaryButton":790},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":786,"config":787},"Get your free trial",{"href":788,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":789},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":494,"config":791},{"href":53,"dataGaName":54,"dataGaLocation":789},1773350817788]