• Include a single configuration file
• Include an array of configuration files
• Use default configuration from an included configuration file
• Override included configuration values
• Override included configuration arrays
• Use nested includes
  • Use nested includes with duplicate includes entries
• Use variables with include
• Use rules with include
  • include with rules:if
  • include with rules:exists
• Use include:local with wildcard file paths

GitLab CI/CD include examples

You can use include to include external YAML files in your CI/CD jobs.

Include a single configuration file

To include a single configuration file, use either of these syntax options:

• include by itself with a single file. If this is a local file, it is the same as include:local. If this is a remote file, it is the same as include:remote.

  include: '/templates/.after-script-template.yml'
  

• include with a single file, and you specify the include type:

  include:
    remote: 'https://gitlab.com/awesome-project/raw/main/.before-script-template.yml'
  

Include an array of configuration files

You can include an array of configuration files:

• If you do not specify an include type, each array item defaults to include:local or include:remote, as needed:

  include:
    - 'https://gitlab.com/awesome-project/raw/main/.before-script-template.yml'
    - '/templates/.after-script-template.yml'
  

• You can define a single item array:

  include:
    - remote: 'https://gitlab.com/awesome-project/raw/main/.before-script-template.yml'
  

• You can define an array and explicitly specify multiple include types:

  include:
    - remote: 'https://gitlab.com/awesome-project/raw/main/.before-script-template.yml'
    - local: '/templates/.after-script-template.yml'
    - template: Auto-DevOps.gitlab-ci.yml
  

• You can define an array that combines both default and specific include types:

  include:
    - 'https://gitlab.com/awesome-project/raw/main/.before-script-template.yml'
    - '/templates/.after-script-template.yml'
    - template: Auto-DevOps.gitlab-ci.yml
    - project: 'my-group/my-project'
      ref: main
      file: '/templates/.gitlab-ci-template.yml'
  

Use default configuration from an included configuration file

You can define a default section in a configuration file. When you use a default section with the include keyword, the defaults apply to all jobs in the pipeline.

For example, you can use a default section with before_script.

Content of a custom configuration file named /templates/.before-script-template.yml:

default:
  before_script:
    - apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y -qq sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev nodejs
    - gem install bundler --no-document
    - bundle install --jobs $(nproc)  "${FLAGS[@]}"

Content of .gitlab-ci.yml:

include: '/templates/.before-script-template.yml'

rspec1:
  script:
    - bundle exec rspec

rspec2:
  script:
    - bundle exec rspec

The default before_script commands execute in both rspec jobs, before the script commands.

Override included configuration values

When you use the include keyword, you can override the included configuration values to adapt them to your pipeline requirements.

The following example shows an include file that is customized in the .gitlab-ci.yml file. Specific YAML-defined variables and details of the production job are overridden.

Content of a custom configuration file named autodevops-template.yml:

variables:
  POSTGRES_USER: user
  POSTGRES_PASSWORD: testing_password
  POSTGRES_DB: $CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG

production:
  stage: production
  script:
    - install_dependencies
    - deploy
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://$CI_PROJECT_PATH_SLUG.$KUBE_INGRESS_BASE_DOMAIN
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

Content of .gitlab-ci.yml:

include: 'https://company.com/autodevops-template.yml'

image: alpine:latest

variables:
  POSTGRES_USER: root
  POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secure_password

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - production

production:
  environment:
    url: https://domain.com

The POSTGRES_USER and POSTGRES_PASSWORD variables and the environment:url of the production job defined in the .gitlab-ci.yml file override the values defined in the autodevops-template.yml file. The other keywords do not change. This method is called merging.

Override included configuration arrays

You can use merging to extend and override configuration in an included template, but you cannot add or modify individual items in an array. For example, to add an additional notify_owner command to the extended production job’s script array:

Content of autodevops-template.yml:

production:
  stage: production
  script:
    - install_dependencies
    - deploy

Content of .gitlab-ci.yml:

include: 'autodevops-template.yml'

stages:
  - production

production:
  script:
    - install_dependencies
    - deploy
    - notify_owner

If install_dependencies and deploy are not repeated in the .gitlab-ci.yml file, the production job would have only notify_owner in the script.

Use nested includes

You can nest include sections in configuration files that are then included in another configuration. For example, for include keywords nested three deep:

Content of .gitlab-ci.yml:

include:
  - local: /.gitlab-ci/another-config.yml

Content of /.gitlab-ci/another-config.yml:

include:
  - local: /.gitlab-ci/config-defaults.yml

Content of /.gitlab-ci/config-defaults.yml:

default:
  after_script:
    - echo "Job complete."

Use nested includes with duplicate includes entries

Nested includes can include the same configuration file. The duplicate configuration file is included multiple times, but the effect is the same as if it was only included once.

For example, with the following nested includes, where defaults.gitlab-ci.yml is included multiple times:

• Contents of the .gitlab-ci.yml file:

  include:
    - template: defaults.gitlab-ci.yml
    - local: unit-tests.gitlab-ci.yml
    - local: smoke-tests.gitlab-ci.yml
  

• Contents of the defaults.gitlab-ci.yml file:

  default:
    before_script: default-before-script.sh
    retry: 2
  

• Contents of the unit-tests.gitlab-ci.yml file:

  include:
    - template: defaults.gitlab-ci.yml
  
  unit-test-job:
    script: unit-test.sh
    retry: 0
  

• Contents of the smoke-tests.gitlab-ci.yml file:

  include:
    - template: defaults.gitlab-ci.yml
  
  smoke-test-job:
    script: smoke-test.sh
  

The final configuration would be:

unit-test-job:
  before_script: default-before-script.sh
  script: unit-test.sh
  retry: 0

smoke-test-job:
  before_script: default-before-script.sh
  script: smoke-test.sh
  retry: 2

Use variables with include

In include sections in your .gitlab-ci.yml file, you can use:

• Project variables.
• Group variables.
• Instance variables.
• Project predefined variables.

• In GitLab 14.2 and later, the $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME predefined variable.

  When used in include, the CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME variable returns the full ref path, like refs/heads/branch-name. In include:rules, you might need to use if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /main/ (not == main). This behavior is resolved in GitLab 14.5.

In GitLab 14.5 and later, you can also use:

• Trigger variables.
• Scheduled pipeline variables.
• Manual pipeline run variables.

• Pipeline predefined variables.

  YAML files are parsed before the pipeline is created, so the following pipeline predefined variables are not available:

  • CI_PIPELINE_ID
  • CI_PIPELINE_URL
  • CI_PIPELINE_IID
  • CI_PIPELINE_CREATED_AT

For example:

include:
  project: '$CI_PROJECT_PATH'
  file: '.compliance-gitlab-ci.yml'

You cannot use variables defined in jobs, or in a global variables section which defines the default variables for all jobs. Includes are evaluated before jobs, so these variables cannot be used with include.

For an example of how you can include predefined variables, and the variables’ impact on CI/CD jobs, see this CI/CD variable demo.

Use rules with include

You can use rules with include to conditionally include other configuration files.

You can only use rules with certain variables, and these keywords:

• rules:if.
• rules:exists.

You cannot use needs: to create a job dependency that points to a job added with include:local:rules. When the configuration is validated, GitLab returns undefined need: <job-name>. Issue 345377 proposes improving this behavior.

include with rules:if

Use rules:if to conditionally include other configuration files based on the status of CI/CD variables. For example:

include:
  - local: builds.yml
    rules:
      - if: $INCLUDE_BUILDS == "true"
  - local: deploys.yml
    rules:
      - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"

test:
  stage: test
  script: exit 0

include with rules:exists

Use rules:exists to conditionally include other configuration files based on the existence of files. For example:

include:
  - local: builds.yml
    rules:
      - exists:
          - file.md

test:
  stage: test
  script: exit 0

In this example, GitLab checks for the existence of file.md in the current project.

There is a known issue if you configure include with rules:exists to add a configuration file from a different project. GitLab checks for the existence of the file in the other project. For example:

include:
- project: my-group/my-project-2
  ref: main
  file: test-file.yml
  rules:
    - exists:
        - file.md

test:
  stage: test
  script: exit 0

In this example, GitLab checks for the existence of test-file.yml in my-group/my-project-2, not the current project. Follow issue 386040 for information about work to improve this behavior.

Use include:local with wildcard file paths

You can use wildcard paths (* and **) with include:local.

Example:

include: 'configs/*.yml'

When the pipeline runs, GitLab:

• Adds all .yml files in the configs directory into the pipeline configuration.

• Does not add .yml files in subfolders of the configs directory. To allow this, add the following configuration:

  # This matches all `.yml` files in `configs` and any subfolder in it.
  include: 'configs/**.yml'
  
  # This matches all `.yml` files only in subfolders of `configs`.
  include: 'configs/**/*.yml'