Create and Run a Basic Pipeline

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up a simple CI/CD pipeline on GitLab. We’ll walk through:

1. Creating a GitLab Group
2. Initializing a GitLab Project
3. Configuring your .gitlab-ci.yml file
4. Reviewing pipeline execution

By the end, you’ll have a working pipeline that builds, tests, and deploys automatically.

1. Create a GitLab Group

First, organize your demos under a top-level group called demos-group:

1. Go to Groups → Create group.
2. Set Group name to demos-group.
   The Group URL will be gitlab.com/demos-group.
3. Choose Visibility Level: Public.
4. Click Create group.

Once created, you’ll see the group dashboard:

2. Create a New Project

Inside demos-group, create a project named hello-world:

1. Click New project → Create blank project.
2. Enter Project name: hello-world
   The Project URL becomes gitlab.com/demos-group/hello-world.
3. Set Visibility: Public.
4. Check Initialize repository with a README.
5. Click Create project.

Your project page will display the README and initial instructions:

If you already have local code, push it with:

git remote add origin https://gitlab.com/demos-group/hello-world.git
git branch -M main
git push -uf origin main

3. Set Up CI/CD Pipeline

Click CI/CD → Pipelines → Setup CI/CD (or Configure pipeline) to open the editor. You’ll see a list of templates and an empty .gitlab-ci.yml file:

Browse available templates:

If you leave the file empty, GitLab shows an error:

Define a Minimal Pipeline

Add the following to .gitlab-ci.yml at the repository root:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

first_job:
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo "This is our first GitLab CI Job"
    - ls
    - cat README.md

Commit directly to main. This push triggers a pipeline run automatically.

Pipeline Stages Overview

4. Inspect the Repository and Pipeline

Back in Code → Files, confirm README.md and .gitlab-ci.yml are present:

Then navigate to CI/CD → Pipelines. You’ll see your new pipeline with a Passed status once it finishes:

Click the pipeline ID to drill into stages and jobs. Selecting first_job reveals the full log:

Sample Job Output

$ echo "This is our first GitLab CI Job"
This is our first GitLab CI Job
$ ls
README.md
$ cat README.md
## Hello World
## Getting started
To make it easy for you to get started with GitLab...

GitLab Shared Runners automatically provision a Docker container, fetch your code, run the script commands, then clean up after success.

Next Steps

In the following lessons, we’ll explore:

• Advanced pipeline configurations
• Caching and artifacts
• Parallel and dynamic child pipelines

Links and References

• GitLab CI/CD Documentation
• Using GitLab Shared Runners
• GitLab .gitlab-ci.yml Reference