Building Blocks Instead of Construction Sites – Achieving the Perfect Pipeline with GitLab CI/CD Components
Why are Standardized Pipelines a Game Changer?
Maintaining CI/CD pipelines can quickly become confusing and redundant in larger organizations, especially if each project uses its own templates or manual pipeline definitions. With CI/CD Components and the CI/CD Catalog, GitLab offers a modern approach to providing reusable, standardized, and versioned pipeline building blocks.
This blog post shows why this approach not only makes sense organizationally, but also ensures greater clarity, security, and speed from a technical perspective.
Organizational Advantages of CI/CD Components
Standardization and Governance
CI/CD Components promote the standardization of build, test, and deployment processes throughout the organization. Instead of configuring dozens of projects individually, reusable components can be defined and maintained centrally. This allows you to:
Time Savings and Efficiency
Once defined, components can be used in any number of projects, which saves time not only when creating pipelines but also during maintenance.
Example: An adjustment to the way container images are built only needs to be changed in one place – not in 50 individual projects.
Clear Interfaces and Modularization
By using inputs: CI/CD Components define a clear interface. Users of the component do not need to know internal details – they simply specify parameters and use proven logic.
This creates:
GitLab CI/CD Components in Practice
GitLab CI/CD Catalog – Developer Experience at a New Level
GitLab offers its own UI for the CI/CD Catalog, accessible under:
👉 https://gitlab.com/explore/catalog → Your Groups tab
Here, developers can see at a glance which components are available, including:
This turns the catalog into a kind of internal “CI/CD building block library” – simply browse, select, and integrate.
Component Versioning: Releases & Branches
CI/CD Components can be versioned via GitLab Releases, e.g. with v1.0.0, v1.1.2, etc. Semantic Versioning allows changes to be communicated transparently:
Tip: In addition to releases, branches can also be referenced, e.g. main, develop, feature/…. This is especially useful during development or for specific test phases.
FullStackS CI/CD Components
FullStackS GmbH has already developed an extensive collection of CI/CD components – including:
These components are available to interested partners and customers on request and can be flexibly integrated or adapted into their own pipelines.
Example: Creating a Component
# https://gitlab.com/my-organization/cicd-components/container/templates/build-kaniko/template.yml
# cicd-components/container/build-kaniko/template.yml
spec:
inputs:
# Default Inputs
stage:
type: string
default: build
job_name:
type: string
default: "build-kaniko"
tags:
type: array
default: ["fullstacks"]image_registry:
type: string
default: "registry.lab.cloudstacks.eu"
image_name:
type: string
default: "base-images/kaniko-project/executor"
image_tag:
type: string
default: "v1.12.1-debug"
# Custom Inputs
dockerfile:
type: string
default: "Dockerfile"
container_image_name:
type: string
default: "$/$"
container_image_tags:
type: array
default: ["latest"]registry_user:
type: string
default: "$"
registry_password:
type: string
default: "$"
—
"$[[ inputs.job_name ]]":
stage: $[[ inputs.stage ]]tags: $[[ inputs.tags ]]image:
name: "$[[ inputs.image_registry ]]/$[[ inputs.image_name ]]:$[[ inputs.image_tag ]]"
script:
– echo "Building image $[[ inputs.container_image_name ]] with tag(s) $[[ inputs.container_image_tags ]]"
– /kaniko/executor –dockerfile "$[[ inputs.dockerfile ]]" …
Example: Using a Component
include:
– component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/fullstacks-gmbh/cicd-components/container/build-kaniko@1.1
inputs:
dockerfile: "Dockerfile.custom"
container_image_tags: ["latest", "$"]
Limitations and Workarounds
Current Restrictions
Workaround: Referencing pre-built pipelines
In practice, complex processes can be encapsulated by storing finished .yml pipelines in the component repo and integrating them into the project:
# java/saas_flow_application.yaml
include:
– component: cicd-components/release/semver@1.2
– component: cicd-components/java/mvn-deploy@1.4
…
Then in a project:
include:
– project: ‘cicd-components/java’
file: ‘/saas_flow_application.yaml’
ref: v1.1.5
Other Exciting Aspects for IT & Dev Teams
Security and Compliance
Standardized components provide a solid basis for security policies:
Developer Experience & Onboarding
New developers no longer have to write pipelines “by hand” – instead, a glance at the CI/CD Catalog is enough to get started. This lowers the barrier to entry and prevents errors.
Observability and Tracing
Components allow you to build structured pipelines with consistent logging and tracing – ideal for AIOps or Incident Response.
Conclusion
CI/CD Components are a big step towards scalable, standardized, and maintainable CI/CD in GitLab.
They enable:
✅ Time savings
✅ Consistency and quality
✅ Clear interfaces
✅ Controlled versioning
✅ Fewer errors during implementation and maintenance
And with the CI/CD Catalog, these advantages become visible and accessible to development teams as well.
Anyone still using classic templates should take a look at the component approach now – it is not only more modern, but also better in many ways.
Questions, interest in our components, or feedback? Feel free to write to us!
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