Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.kodekloud.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

In this guide, we’ll architect a centralized monitoring solution for all your GitLab CI/CD pipelines using the GitLab CI Pipelines Exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana. Collect metrics across multiple projects and visualize them in real time.

​
1. GitLab’s Built-in CI/CD Analytics

GitLab offers a per-project CI/CD analytics dashboard that displays overall pipeline success rates and duration trends. While convenient for a handful of repositories, it doesn’t scale to dozens of projects:
The image shows a CI/CD analytics dashboard from GitLab, displaying overall pipeline statistics and a chart of pipeline durations for the last 30 commits.

​
2. Centralized Pipeline Monitoring

To obtain a global view, pair Prometheus with Grafana and the GitLab CI Pipelines Exporter:
The image shows a GitLab documentation page about pipeline monitoring, including text and a dashboard screenshot with metrics and visualizations.
The GitLab CI Pipelines Exporter polls GitLab’s API, translates pipelines, jobs, and environment metrics into Prometheus format, and ships three Grafana dashboards out of the box.

​
3. GitLab CI Pipelines Exporter

The image shows a GitHub repository page for "gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter," including file listings, a README section, and contributor information. The repository is primarily written in Go.

​
3.1 Installation Options

Choose the installer that matches your environment:
PlatformInstall Command
macOS (Homebrew)brew install mvisonneau/tap/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter
Dockerdocker run -it --rm quay.io/mvisonneau/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter:latest
Windows (Scoop)scoop bucket add gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter https://github.com/mvisonneau/scoops
scoop install gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter
Nixnix-env -iA nixos.prometheus-gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter

​
3.2 Quickstart Example

A Docker Compose quickstart brings up the exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana in one go: 
git clone https://github.com/mvisonneau/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.git
cd gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter/examples/quickstart

# Replace <your_token> in config file
sed -i 's/<your_token>/YOUR_TOKEN/' gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml

docker-compose up -d
Once running, access the stack at:
ServiceURL
Exporter Metricshttp://localhost:8080/metrics
Prometheus UIhttp://localhost:9090
Grafana UIhttp://localhost:3000 (admin/admin)

​
3.3 Docker Compose Overview

version: '3'
services:
  gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter:
    image: quay.io/mvisonneau/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter:latest
    ports:
      - '8080:8080'
    environment:
      GCPE_GITLAB_TOKEN: ${GCPE_GITLAB_TOKEN}
      GCPE_CONFIG: /etc/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml
    volumes:
      - ./gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml:/etc/gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml

  prometheus:
    image: prom/prometheus:v2.44.0
    ports:
      - '9090:9090'
    volumes:
      - ./prometheus/config.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana:9.5.2
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    environment:
      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED: 'true'
      GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS: grafana-polystat-panel,yesoreyeram-boomtable-panel
    volumes:
      - ./grafana/dashboards.yml:/etc/grafana/provisioning/dashboards/default.yml
      - ./grafana/datasources.yml:/etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/default.yml

​
3.4 Prometheus Scraping Config

Configure Prometheus to scrape the exporter: 
# prometheus/config.yml
global:
  scrape_interval: 15s

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter'
    scrape_interval: 10s
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter:8080']

​
3.5 Exporter Configuration

A minimal gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml: 
---
log:
  level: debug

gitlab:
  url: https://gitlab.com
  token: <your_token>

project_defaults:
  pull:
    pipeline:
      jobs:
        enabled: true

projects:
  - name: gitlab-org/gitlab-runner
    pull:
      environments:
        enabled: true
        name_regexp: '^stable.*'
  - name: gitlab-org/charts/auto-deploy-app
For the full configuration schema, refer to the exporter’s docs:
The image shows a GitHub repository page displaying a markdown file titled "GitLab CI Pipelines Exporter - Configuration syntax," with code snippets for log configuration and server settings.

​
4. Creating a Personal Access Token

Generate a token under User Settings → Access Tokens with at least read_api scope:
The image shows a GitLab user interface for creating a personal access token, with fields for token name, expiration date, and scope selection. The sidebar includes various user settings options like Profile, Account, and Access Tokens.
Keep your personal access token secure. Do not commit it to public repositories or share it in logs.
Paste this token into gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter.yml before launching the stack.

​
5. Verifying the Exporter

Ensure the exporter is up and exposing metrics: 
docker-compose ps
docker logs -f quickstart_gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter_1
# Check metrics output:
curl -s http://localhost:8080/metrics | grep gcpe_
A sample output might include: 
gcpe_projects_count 47
gcpe_gitlab_api_requests_remaining 1997
gcpe_metrics_count 0
...

​
6. Exploring in Prometheus

Visit Status → Targets in Prometheus (http://localhost:9090) to confirm the exporter is up:
The image shows a Prometheus monitoring dashboard displaying the status of a target called "gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter," which is up and running with details about its endpoint, state, labels, last scrape time, and scrape duration.
Query your GitLab metrics:
The image shows the Prometheus interface with a search query for GitLab metrics, displaying a list of available metrics related to GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
Render a time series graph:
The image shows a Prometheus dashboard displaying a stacked graph of GitLab CI pipeline coverage over time, with blue and green horizontal bands.
Adjust time ranges and resolution to dig into historical data:
The image shows a Prometheus dashboard with a stacked graph displaying data over time, likely related to GitLab CI pipeline coverage. The interface includes options for time range, resolution, and various settings.

​
7. Grafana Dashboards

Log in to Grafana (http://localhost:3000, admin/admin). The exporter provides three ready-to-use dashboards:

​
Environments & Deployments

The image shows a dashboard for GitLab CI environments and deployments, displaying various metrics such as availability, deployment status, and environment details in a graphical and tabular format.

​
Pipelines Overview

The image shows a dashboard for GitLab CI pipelines, displaying metrics such as the number of pipelines, failed pipelines, and average pipeline duration, along with a visual representation of pipeline runs and their statuses.

​
Jobs Statistics

The image shows a GitLab CI jobs dashboard with statistics on job runs, including average job duration and frequency, and lists of running, failed, and successfully completed jobs.
Dive into any metric and click through to GitLab for full context.
For production environments, check out the HA setup example in the exporter repository.

Watch Video