Use GitLab as a microservice

Many applications need to access JSON APIs, so application tests might need access to APIs too. The following example shows how to use GitLab as a microservice to give tests access to the GitLab API.

1. Configure a runner with the Docker or Kubernetes executor.

2. In your .gitlab-ci.yml add:

   services:
     - name: gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
       alias: gitlab
   
   variables:
     GITLAB_HTTPS: "false"             # ensure that plain http works
     GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD: "password"  # to access the api with user root:password
   

Then, commands in script sections in your .gitlab-ci.yml file can access the API at http://gitlab/api/v4.

For more information about why gitlab is used for the Host, see How services are linked to the job.

You can also use any other Docker image available on .

The gitlab image can accept environment variables. For more details, see the Omnibus documentation.