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Workflows

This page contains practical recipes for common tasks.

Generate repositories

For all students/groups in assignment:

glabs generate <course> <assignment>

For selected students/groups using regex patterns:

glabs generate <course> <assignment> alice bob 'a.*'

Protect branches for existing repositories

glabs protect <course> <assignment>

Use this after changing branch protection settings in config. Does not regenerate repositories, only updates protection rules.

Merge-only development branch

Use this branch config:

branches:
  - name: main
    mergeOnly: true
    default: true

Expected behavior in GitLab UI:

  • Allowed to merge: Developers and Maintainers
  • Allowed to push and merge: No one

This allows developers to review and merge code, but cannot push directly.

Clone repositories locally

glabs clone <course> <assignment>

Useful flags:

  • -b, --branch: checkout specific branch
  • -p, --path: target directory
  • -f, --force: remove existing directory first
  • -s, --suppress: print only local paths (for scripting)

Examples:

Clone to specific directory:

glabs clone mpd blatt01 -p ~/work/submissions

Clone and force-remove existing:

glabs clone mpd blatt01 -f -p /tmp/work

Clone only students matching pattern:

glabs clone mpd blatt01 'a.*' -p /tmp/work

Get repository URLs

glabs urls <course> <assignment>

Open pages directly in browser:

glabs urls <course> <assignment> | xargs open

Save to file:

glabs urls <course> <assignment> > urls.txt

Change project access level

Change the access level for existing repositories:

glabs setaccess <course> <assignment> -l developer

Supported levels:

  • guest (10): can view projects
  • reporter (20): can create issues, pull requests
  • developer (30): can push code, merge
  • maintainer (40): full admin access

Override per assignment:

glabs setaccess mpd blatt01 -l reporter

Only affect specific students:

glabs setaccess mpd blatt01 alice bob -l maintainer

Delete repositories permanently

glabs delete <course> <assignment>

⚠️ Warning: This asks for confirmation and permanently deletes all repositories. Cannot be undone.

Delete only specific student repos:

glabs delete mpd blatt01 alice

Update repositories with new code

glabs update <course> <assignment>

⚠️ USE WITH CARE! Only works with unmodified repositories. Merge conflicts cannot be resolved automatically.

When to use:

  • Early in the semester, before students start working
  • To push bug fixes to starter code
  • Small template changes across all repos

When NOT to use:

  • After students have worked on code
  • If you're unsure about merge conflicts
  • In production/live semester

Archive or unarchive repositories

Archive (hide from UI):

glabs archive <course> <assignment>

Unarchive:

glabs archive <course> <assignment> -u

Archived projects are hidden in GitLab UI but:

  • Data is still there
  • Can be unarchived anytime
  • Useful for cleanup at semester end

Generate reports

Default (plain text):

glabs report <course> <assignment>

HTML report:

glabs report <course> <assignment> --html

JSON report (for scripts):

glabs report <course> <assignment> --json

Custom template:

  1. Export default template:
glabs report <course> <assignment> -e > template.tmpl

  1. Modify the template

  2. Use custom template:

glabs report <course> <assignment> --html -t template.tmpl

Release workflow with merge requests and Docker

Use this config for release setup:

release:
  mergeRequest:
    source: develop      # Branch with new code
    target: main         # Production branch
    pipeline: true       # Wait for CI/CD to pass
  dockerImages:
    - myapp/backend
    - myapp/frontend

When configured, glabs can manage:

  • Automatic merge request creation
  • Docker image builds
  • Container registry integration

This enables a GitLab Flow where development happens on develop and production releases are merged to main.

Replicate issues from starter repository

When creating new repositories from startercode, configure issue replication with issues:

issues:
  replicateFromStartercode: true
  issueNumbers: [1, 3, 7]

Behavior:

  • Only on newly generated repositories
  • Copies title and description from starter repo
  • Creates new issues in student repos
  • Useful for: assignment requirements, bonus tasks, grading checklist

Examples:

startercode:
  url: git@gitlab.example.org:course/starter.git
issues:
  replicateFromStartercode: true
  issueNumbers: [1]  # Replicate first issue (usually assignment spec)

Seed repositories with custom code

For complex seeding (beyond simple startercode copy), use seeder:

seeder:
  cmd: python
  args:
    - /path/to/generator.py
    - "%s"              # %s is replaced with repo path
  name: Generator Bot
  email: generator@example.org
  toBranch: main
  protectToBranch: false

The seeder script receives the local path and can:

  • Generate files programmatically
  • Create specific folder structures
  • Run build commands
  • Commit with custom author/email

With GPG signing:

seeder:
  cmd: python
  args: [/path/to/gen.py, "%s"]
  name: Bot Name
  email: bot@example.org
  signKey: |
    -----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
    [base64-encoded key]
    -----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----

When you run generate, you will be prompted for the GPG passphrase if needed.

Show resolved configuration

Debug what glabs actually uses:

glabs show <course> <assignment>

This shows the merged configuration after:

  • Loading main config (~/.glabs.yaml)
  • Loading course config
  • Loading assignment config
  • Applying defaults

Useful for understanding which values are being used.