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In this lesson we explore GitLab’s predefined CI/CD variables—auto-generated environment variables that provide contextual information about jobs, pipelines, repositories, and more. Leveraging these variables makes your pipelines flexible and secure by avoiding hardcoded values. For a complete list of all predefined variables, see the GitLab Documentation on Predefined CI/CD Variables.

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Categories of Predefined Variables

CategoryAvailable InUsage Scenario
Pipeline-level VariablesPipeline config & job scriptsDetect pipeline source, IDs, status
Runner-level VariablesJob executionAccess runner-specific details (e.g., shell, token)
Merge Request VariablesMerge request pipelinesRetrieve MR labels, branches, title

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Inspecting All Available Variables

To view every environment variable supplied to a CI job, add a job that runs the export command:
The image shows a GitLab documentation page listing predefined CI/CD variables, including their names, versions, applicable runners, and descriptions. The sidebar contains navigation links for various GitLab features and settings.
export CI_JOB_ID="50"
export CI_COMMIT_SHA="1ecfd27573eff1d6b4844ea3168962458c9f27a"
export CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA="1ecfd275"
export CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME="main"
export CI_REPOSITORY_URL="https://gitlab-ci-token:[masked]@example.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git"
export CI_COMMIT_TAG="1.0.0"
export CI_JOB_NAME="spec:other"
export CI_JOB_STAGE="test"
export CI_JOB_MANUAL="true"
export CI_JOB_TRIGGERED="true"
export CI_PIPELINE_ID="1000"
export CI_PIPELINE_IID="10"
export CI_PAGES_DOMAIN="gitlab.io"
export CI_PAGES_URL="https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab"

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1. Creating a New GitLab Project

  1. Navigate to your GitLab instance and click New project.
  2. Select Create blank project, choose a group (e.g., demos-group), set visibility to Public, and initialize with a README.
  3. Clone the repository locally or open it in the Web IDE.
The image shows a GitLab interface for creating a new blank project, with fields for project name, URL, and visibility settings. Options for initializing a repository with a README and enabling security testing are also visible.
Create a .gitlab-ci.yml file at the root of your project: 
workflow:
  name: Exploring Predefined Variable Pipeline

export_variable_job:
  script:
    - export

generic_predefined_variables:
  script: |
    echo "GITLAB_USER_LOGIN = $GITLAB_USER_LOGIN"
    echo "GITLAB_USER_EMAIL = $GITLAB_USER_EMAIL"
    echo "CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR = $CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR"
    echo "CI_COMMIT_BRANCH = $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH"
    echo "CI_PROJECT_NAME = $CI_PROJECT_NAME"
    echo "CI_PROJECT_URL = $CI_PROJECT_URL"
    echo "CI_JOB_STAGE = $CI_JOB_STAGE"
    echo "CI_PIPELINE_NAME = $CI_PIPELINE_NAME"
    echo "CI_PIPELINE_ID = $CI_PIPELINE_ID"
    echo "CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE = $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE"

merge_request_predefined_variables:
  script: |
    echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_LABELS = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_LABELS"
    echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME"
    echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES"
    echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME"
    echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE"
Commit and push your changes to trigger the pipeline: 
git add .gitlab-ci.yml
git commit -m "Add predefined variable exploration pipeline"
git push origin main

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2. Pipeline Overview

Once pushed, GitLab triggers a pipeline named Exploring Predefined Variable Pipeline. By default, all jobs run in the test stage and execute in parallel:
The image shows a GitLab pipeline interface with a running pipeline titled "Exploring Predefined Variable Pipeline," displaying three jobs in progress.

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2.1 export_variable_job

This job dumps all environment variables. Here’s a truncated output: 
$ export
declare -x CI="true"
declare -x CI_API_GRAPHQL_URL="https://gitlab.com/api/graphql"
declare -x CI_API_V4_URL="https://gitlab.com/api/v4"
declare -x CI_BUILD_ID="6035315241"
declare -x CI_COMMIT_SHA="2eb37fc3a7591ffecfbab205433395b34ef4a88c"
declare -x CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME="main"
declare -x CI_JOB_ID="6035315241"
declare -x CI_JOB_NAME="export_variable_job"
declare -x CI_JOB_STAGE="test"
declare -x CI_PIPELINE_ID="1154671161"
declare -x CI_PIPELINE_NAME="Exploring Predefined Variable Pipeline"
declare -x CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE="push"
# … plus over 100 more variables
Running export will print all environment variables, including sensitive tokens. Ensure your job logs are protected.

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2.2 generic_predefined_variables

This job echoes commonly used variables to illustrate dynamic scripting: 
$ echo "GITLAB_USER_LOGIN = $GITLAB_USER_LOGIN"
GITLAB_USER_LOGIN = sidd-harth

$ echo "GITLAB_USER_EMAIL = $GITLAB_USER_EMAIL"
GITLAB_USER_EMAIL = [email protected]

$ echo "CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR = $CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR"
CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR = Barahalikar Siddharth <[email protected]m>

$ echo "CI_COMMIT_BRANCH = $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH"
CI_COMMIT_BRANCH = main

$ echo "CI_PROJECT_NAME = $CI_PROJECT_NAME"
CI_PROJECT_NAME = predefined-variables

$ echo "CI_PROJECT_URL = $CI_PROJECT_URL"
CI_PROJECT_URL = https://gitlab.com/demos-group/predefined-variables

$ echo "CI_JOB_STAGE = $CI_JOB_STAGE"
CI_JOB_STAGE = test

$ echo "CI_PIPELINE_ID = $CI_PIPELINE_ID"
CI_PIPELINE_ID = 1154671161

$ echo "CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE = $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE"
CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE = push
Use these variables to customize your jobs based on commit metadata and pipeline context.

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2.3 merge_request_predefined_variables

This job attempts to print merge-request–specific variables: 
$ echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_LABELS = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_LABELS"
CI_MERGE_REQUEST_LABELS = 

$ echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME"
CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME = 

$ echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES"
CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES = 

$ echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME"
CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME = 

$ echo "CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE = $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE"
CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE =
Merge request variables are only populated in pipelines triggered by Merge Requests. In direct pushes, these remain empty.
For more on Merge Request CI/CD variables, see the GitLab Merge Request Variables documentation.
The image shows a GitLab documentation page detailing predefined variables for merge request pipelines, including variable names, GitLab versions, runners, and descriptions. The sidebar on the left lists various sections related to CI/CD variables.

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