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drone-gitlab-ci is a CLI tool and CI/CD plugin that triggers GitLab CI pipelines from any environment. It serves as a bridge between different CI/CD platforms, enabling you to integrate GitLab CI into your existing workflows seamlessly.

In modern software development, teams often use multiple CI/CD platforms across different projects or services. This creates challenges when you need to:

• Cross-Platform Integration: Trigger GitLab CI pipelines from other CI/CD systems (Drone, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.)
• Microservices Orchestration: Automatically trigger dependent service pipelines after deployment
• Unified Pipeline Management: Centralize pipeline triggering logic across diverse infrastructure
• Hybrid Cloud Workflows: Connect CI/CD processes across different platforms and environments

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│   Drone CI      │     │                  │     │                 │
│   GitHub Actions│────▶│ drone-gitlab-ci  │────▶│   GitLab CI     │
│   Jenkins       │     │                  │     │   Pipeline      │
│   Local Dev     │     └──────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘
└─────────────────┘

• Trigger GitLab CI pipelines via API
• Pass custom variables to pipelines
• Wait for pipeline completion with configurable timeout
• Support for self-hosted GitLab instances
• Cross-platform binary (Windows, Linux, macOS)
• Docker image available
• Native support for Drone CI, GitHub Actions, and other CI/CD platforms

• drone-gitlab-ci
  • What is drone-gitlab-ci?
  • Why use this?
  • Use Cases
  • Features
  • Table of Contents
  • Quick Start
  • Installation
    • Download Pre-built Binaries
    • Install with Go
    • Build from Source
  • Configuration
    • GitLab Setup
      • 1. Create a Personal Access Token
      • 2. Get Your Project ID
    • Parameters
  • Usage
    • Command Line
    • Docker
    • Drone CI
    • GitHub Actions
  • Development
    • Run Tests
    • Build Binary
    • Code Quality
  • License

Trigger a GitLab CI pipeline in 3 steps:

# 1. Download the binary (or use Docker)
go install github.com/appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci@latest

# 2. Set your credentials
export GITLAB_TOKEN=your-gitlab-token
export GITLAB_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id

# 3. Trigger the pipeline
drone-gitlab-ci --ref main

Download from the release page. Supported platforms:

• Windows (amd64/386)
• Linux (amd64/386)
• macOS (amd64/arm64)

go install github.com/appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci@latest

git clone https://github.com/appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci.git
cd drone-gitlab-ci
make build

You need a GitLab token to authenticate API requests. See GitLab Token Overview.

1. Go to GitLab → User Settings → Access Tokens
2. Create a token with api scope
3. Save the token securely

Find your project ID in Settings → General → General project settings.

For more details, see Pipeline trigger tokens API.

Basic usage:

drone-gitlab-ci \
  --host https://gitlab.com \
  --token your-token \
  --project-id 12345 \
  --ref main

With variables and wait for completion:

drone-gitlab-ci \
  --host https://gitlab.com \
  --token your-token \
  --project-id 12345 \
  --ref main \
  --variables "DEPLOY_ENV=production" \
  --variables "VERSION=1.0.0" \
  --wait \
  --timeout 30m

Enable debug mode:

drone-gitlab-ci \
  --host https://gitlab.com \
  --token your-token \
  --project-id 12345 \
  --ref main \
  --debug

Basic usage:

docker run --rm \
  -e GITLAB_HOST=https://gitlab.com \
  -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your-token \
  -e GITLAB_PROJECT_ID=12345 \
  -e GITLAB_REF=main \
  appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci

With wait and debug:

docker run --rm \
  -e GITLAB_HOST=https://gitlab.com \
  -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your-token \
  -e GITLAB_PROJECT_ID=12345 \
  -e GITLAB_REF=main \
  -e GITLAB_WAIT=true \
  -e GITLAB_DEBUG=true \
  appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci

Add to your .drone.yml:

kind: pipeline
name: default

steps:
  - name: trigger-gitlab
    image: appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci
    settings:
      host: https://gitlab.com
      token:
        from_secret: gitlab_token
      project_id: 12345
      ref: main
      wait: true
      timeout: 30m
      variables:
        - DEPLOY_ENV=production
        - VERSION=${DRONE_TAG}

Create .github/workflows/trigger-gitlab.yml:

name: Trigger GitLab CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  trigger:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Trigger GitLab Pipeline
        uses: docker://appleboy/drone-gitlab-ci
        with:
          host: https://gitlab.com
          token: ${{ secrets.GITLAB_TOKEN }}
          project_id: 12345
          ref: main
          github: true
          wait: true

make test

make build

make lint

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.