[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":788},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/vue-big-plan":3,"navigation-en-us":33,"banner-en-us":433,"footer-en-us":443,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Jacob Schatz":685,"blog-related-posts-en-us-vue-big-plan":699,"assessment-promotions-en-us":739,"next-steps-en-us":778},{"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/vue-big-plan.yml","Vue Big Plan",[7],"jacob-schatz",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"vue-big-plan",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9},"Our big Frontend plan revealed","Our long term plan to make GitLab as fast and performant as possible with Vue and webpack.",[18],"Jacob Schatz","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749683983/Blog/Hero%20Images/vue-big-plan-cover.png","2017-02-06","The Frontend at GitLab is getting better and better every day. Today we did two big things, and I'd like to share them with you and our big plans for the future.\n\n\u003C!--more-->\n\n\u003Cblockquote style=\"color: red\">\n\u003Cul>\n  \u003Cli>If you use the GDK, then make sure you update it! If you have no idea what I am talking about, then just keep reading.\u003C/li>\n  \u003Cli>Please see the \u003Ca href='https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/blob/master/doc/update-gdk.md'>documentation\u003C/a> for instructions on updating your GDK.\u003C/li>\n  \u003Cli>Please see our \u003Ca href='https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/blob/master/doc/howto/troubleshooting.md#webpack'>troubleshooting guide\u003C/a> for any issues when updating your GDK.\u003C/li>\n  \u003Cli>Feel free to \u003Ca href='https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/new'>report\u003C/a> any additional issues you find.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n\u003C/blockquote>\n\n## Our big Frontend plan\n\n[Vue](https://vuejs.org/) is awesome. I wrote an article a while ago that showed [GitLab's love for Vue](/blog/why-we-chose-vue/). Today's article is a way to show our plan over the long term to make GitLab as fast and performant as possible with Vue and webpack. We want to make GitLab the easiest to develop for Frontend Developers.\n\nOne of the lessons I live by is \"It's not _always_ about the tools you use, but **how** you use them.\"  Saying \"we chose Vue\", does not imply success. This also means that we could be using Angular or React and have just as awesome of a product. Vue is simply the way there.\n\nHow do we plan to use Vue over the long run to make GitLab better, faster, easier and more awesome?\n\nThe plan below is a work in progress and very ambitious, but I believe that it will result in a much better frontend for development and performance. This document is also a reference to myself of the things we plan to do here at GitLab's Frontend.\n\n## A healthier Frontend\n\nWhen I started at GitLab, our stack was (oversimplifying here) Rails with jQuery. It hasn't changed much big picture wise except for Vue. Smaller picture, we've added many linters, better code coverage, and many other great things.\n\n### 1. Rewrite only what you need to\n\nWe are not rewriting GitLab's frontend entirely in Vue. That would be a very bad idea. It's not a bad idea for everyone, but it's a bad idea for a startup. It would cost a tremendous amount of time and money. The existing jQuery code (although some say is uncool) has been tested and works very well. There is no need to rewrite functionality that works well, unless there is going to be a major gain.\n\nWe also aren't writing every new thing in Vue. You do not need to do this either. But, it would be hard to find some part of the UI that would not benefit from even the simplest parts of Vue.\n\nExamples of this are:\n\n1. The issue page (which shows an individual issue), has a lot of jQuery on it. We won't rewrite now, because it works well. We will rewrite small parts in Vue once we make certain features more real-time. We are currently making the title and description real time.\n\n1. The [Issue Boards](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/issue_board.html), which [Phil](https://twitter.com/iamphill) wrote, was a perfect candidate for Vue. It was a brand new feature and had lots of reactive parts.\n\n1. The current issue page loads all comments at once and adds lots of event listeners to the page. This page could benefit from Vue for performance reasons. We could make the comment section a Vue app and make the comments a component with the emoji picker as components as well, etc. While we're in there, we'll amp up the UX by allowing you to see the comment you linked to immediately without waiting. There are better ways to show massive amounts of comments so we have to potentially rethink that.\n\n1. The pipelines page rewritten in vue for the arrival of real time updating.\n\n1. The environments was written in Vue.\n\n1. There are many other places where we will be using Vue in the future and where we are already using Vue. Too many to list here.\n\nAs you can see, we won't just slap Vue on everything.\n\n### 2. Add in webpack\n\nRails has this awesome system of grabbing your Ruby libraries and bundling them into your app. `bundle install` will install all the stuff you need from your `Gemfile`. So why does Frontend have to stick all their libraries in the `vendor` directory? Are we not on point enough to have our own library delivery system? The javascript ecosystem has matured since the asset pipeline first arrived, and we now have `npm install` and advanced code bundling tools that we can take advantage of.\n\nBy [introducing webpack into the equation (merged and ready for action!)](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/7288) we gain multiple benefits.\n\n1. Javascript libraries aren't being bundled directly with the [GitLab source code](/solutions/source-code-management/) or included within gem wrappers. e.g. `jquery-ui` or `bootstrap-rails` are included as a ruby gem and we are at the mercy of the gem maintainer to keep the Javascript library up to date.\n1. When code is shared between files, we can make sure we don't load [lodash](https://lodash.com/) twice, for example. If both files load lodash, we should only load the code for lodash once. Not only will lodash not be included twice, but with [tree shaking](https://webpack.js.org/guides/tree-shaking/) only the components of lodash that we use will be included rather than the whole library.\n1. We can add [hot module replacement](https://webpack.js.org/concepts/hot-module-replacement/) to make our Vue development quicker. This is a development bonus, as our current development takes loads of time to refresh the page while developing GitLab. Spicy!\n1. We can now manage our dependencies properly. This should help a lot of frontenders to contribute to GitLab. Devs won't need to figure out the whole Rails Javascript situation in order to contribute. We can also dictate manually what we want to include.\n1. SVGs are going to be huge.\n    1. [webpack](https://webpack.js.org/) bundles SVGs directly into our Javascript.\n    1. Right now, SVGs live in a specific directory in Rails. We use Rails helpers to pull in SVGs. With webpack we can pull in SVGs one at a time because webpack precompiles assets.\n    1. We won't have to fetch SVGs with an HTTP request.\n    1. We don't have to do tricky HTML hidden elements which is technical debt.\n    1. We don't have to mess around with SVGs in CSS. You cannot change the color of SVGs in CSS.\n1. We use a lot of Ruby to solve Javascript and CSS problems. Now we can solve those problems on our own using only frontend tools.\n1. Using webpack's [CommonsChunkPlugin](https://webpack.js.org/plugins/commons-chunk-plugin/) we split all of our common vendor libraries into their own separate file. Since these change very infrequently, they can stay cached for a much longer period of time.\n1. With webpack's [code splitting](https://webpack.js.org/guides/code-splitting/) feature you can load just the JS you need to boot. Then you do a `require.ensure()` or `System.import()`. With this, we can tell webpack to request only exact JS you need. It keeps the size of the file really small. For example if you have `modal.js` for modals. If someone never uses the modals the code never loads. As soon as someone opens a modal, the JS gets loaded on demand.\n1. We can now properly manage our global scope. We can now do a `import x from y` instead of having our scripts pollute the global scope and pass classes around on `window.gl.lol`.\n1. We can slim down the our Vue bundles because we can precompile templates and omit the template compiler from our production code. [Evan You](https://twitter.com/youyuxi) (the creator of VueJS) explains this in the [feature overview for Vue 2.0](https://github.com/vuejs/vue/issues/2873):\n  > There will be two different builds:\n  > - Standalone build: includes both the compiler and the runtime. ...\n  > - Runtime only build: since it doesn't include the compiler, you need to either pre-compiled templates in a compile step, or manually written render functions.\n\n\n### 3. Remove Turbolinks\n\nWe used [TurboLinks](https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks) in GitLab, but we've recently [removed it](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/8570) with the linked merge request, merged on 2017/02/03.\n\n#### What does Turbolinks achieve?\n\nWith TurboLinks, clicking a link won't navigate to a new page in the default browser `GET` request way. Instead, Turbolinks will replace the `body` tag of your app with the new content. All your Javascript is loaded one time, when using the asset pipeline. This usually only loads some small HTML and JavaScript. On GitLab, our pages would load an average of 20kb on each page load versus the full JavaScript file size of 800kb+. Turbolinks is a great solution for many projects. When you start introducing slightly more complex Javascript it becomes a pain.\nWe did speed tests on pages with Turbolinks and without Turbolinks and we found that the pages without Turbolinks performed better. We discovered that Turbolinks works well when you don't have a lot of event listeners to manage. To add to this, we will be able to make our pages even faster in the future because we will divide the Javascript up between pages better with the help of webpack. We were previously writing a lot of extra code to handle all of Turbolink's problems and we can remove that code now.\n\n#### The problem we need to solve\n\nWhen your JS is loaded one time for multiple pages, events become a major problem. If you are using `gem 'jquery-turbolinks'` as we are, then the `$` `ready` function will fire on every page load even though the page isn't loading in the traditional sense. It's painful to write page specific Javascript without including it for the whole app. We do it and it's fine, but, why? There really isn't a reason for a lot of our JS that needs to be included on every page.\n\nAny external links do load faster so, we need to be careful about performance.\n\nIf you aren't careful, your events will get loaded multiple times and thus fire multiple times. For example, take the following code:\n\n```js\n$(function(){\n  $(document).on('click','.some-element', function(){\n    console.log('Click loaded');\n  }\n});\n```\n\nThat click event will be loaded on every page and thus fire multiple times every time `.some-element` is clicked.\n\n#### The Solutions\nThere are a few remedies to this problem. Some are good and some are bad.\n\n1. Don't create events in `$` `ready` callbacks.\n2. Use the following stinky solution:\n\n    ```js\n    $(document)\n    .off('click', '.some-element')\n    .on('click'...\n    ```\n\n     I call this the `die live` method. Old jQuery code people use to write `die().live()` everywhere. That's the old school jQuery `off().on()`.\n3. Write an event manager to be a delegate for all added events.\n4. [Remove Turbolinks](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/8570) and make sure you load only the code you need on each page.\n\nI am opting for option 4, in order to make our development lives easier and get multiple performance gains.\n\n#### The Bonus\n\nAfter we remove Turbolinks we can do something really cool. We can have each page live on its own. Then, certain pages can be their own Vue apps. For example, we can make the file browser its own Vue application. The merge request page can be its own application. The code for the file viewer won't need to be loaded on any other page and the same goes for other pages. This is not anything new, this is just basic web development. This is also not a new paradigm, and we would not be the first.\n\n## Conclusion\nThere is the argument for making the whole site a single page application, but I think this would just be the hardest to maintain and has zero benefits for the performance and the user. Also, there's a higher chance of making GitLab a janky app. For example, the profile page could be potentially very light, and there would be no reason for that if someone is linked directly to the profile page; it should load every single piece of Javascript in our project.\n\nThis is just one small step for GitLab and one giant leap for the frontend team. In the future you will see many new cool things coming from our team. This move was one step in that direction.\n\nQuestions, suggestions, ideas? 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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":18,"body":8,"config":688,"content":690,"description":8,"extension":22,"meta":694,"navigation":24,"path":695,"seo":696,"stem":697,"__hash__":698},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/jacob-schatz.yml",{"template":689},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":691},{"headshot":692,"ctfId":693},"","jschatz1",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/jacob-schatz",{},"en-us/blog/authors/jacob-schatz","5Ni1pJap-3Oy_IR41XlYvyewBFNZN8dZyOWznuyUvoM",[700,715,728],{"content":701,"config":713},{"title":702,"description":703,"authors":704,"heroImage":706,"date":707,"body":708,"category":9,"tags":709},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[705],"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/)",[710,711,712],"tutorial","product","features",{"featured":12,"template":13,"slug":714},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":716,"config":726},{"title":717,"description":718,"authors":719,"heroImage":721,"date":722,"category":9,"tags":723,"body":725},"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.",[720],"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",[255,607,724],"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":727,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":729,"config":737},{"title":730,"description":731,"authors":732,"heroImage":733,"date":734,"category":9,"tags":735,"body":736},"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.",[720],"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",[607,255,711],"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":738,"featured":24,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"promotions":740},[741,755,766],{"id":742,"categories":743,"header":745,"text":746,"button":747,"image":752},"ai-modernization",[744],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":748,"config":749},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":750,"dataGaName":751,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":753},{"src":754},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":756,"categories":757,"header":758,"text":746,"button":759,"image":763},"devops-modernization",[711,553],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":760,"config":761},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":762,"dataGaName":751,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":764},{"src":765},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":767,"categories":768,"header":770,"text":746,"button":771,"image":775},"security-modernization",[769],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":772,"config":773},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":774,"dataGaName":751,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":776},{"src":777},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":779,"blurb":780,"button":781,"secondaryButton":786},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":782,"config":783},"Get your free trial",{"href":784,"dataGaName":44,"dataGaLocation":785},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":489,"config":787},{"href":48,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":785},1773350837827]