GitLab CI/CD 1 cheatsheet

GitLab CI/CD 1: Caching, artifacts and ordering

6 common GitLab CI/CD 1 tasks.

Cache dependencies

Reuse downloaded packages between pipelines. The key changes when the lock file does.

test-job:
  cache:
    key:
      files:
        - package-lock.json
    paths:
      - node_modules/

Pass files to later jobs

Keep build output so later jobs and people can download it.

build-job:
  script:
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/
    expire_in: 1 week

Start a job as soon as dependencies finish

Skip waiting for the whole previous stage.

test-job:
  needs:
    - build-job

Run a job for several versions

Create one job per variable combination.

test-job:
  parallel:
    matrix:
      - NODE_VERSION: ["22", "24"]
  image: node:$NODE_VERSION
  script:
    - npm test

Start a database for tests

Run a service container beside the job.

test-job:
  services:
    - postgres:18
  variables:
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
    DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/postgres

Show test results in merge requests

Upload a JUnit report so failures show up in the merge request.

test-job:
  script:
    - npm test
  artifacts:
    when: always
    reports:
      junit: junit.xml