GitLab CI/CD — Prerequisites

What to Know Before Starting GitLab CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD is approachable if you already understand the basic shape of a CI/CD pipeline — the learning curve is mostly .gitlab-ci.yml syntax and GitLab-specific concepts, not CI/CD theory from scratch.

Required (Must Have)

1. Git Fundamentals

git clone, git add, git commit, git push, git branch, git merge

GitLab CI/CD pipelines are triggered by Git events (push, merge request) — you need to be comfortable with the basic Git workflow before pipeline triggers and rules will make sense.

2. YAML Syntax

key: value
list:
  - item1
  - item2
nested:
  key: value

.gitlab-ci.yml is entirely YAML — indentation errors are a real, common source of confusing pipeline failures, so basic YAML comfort (not expertise) matters from day one.

3. Basic Linux Command Line

Most pipeline jobs run shell commands inside a container:

ls, cd, cat, echo, export    # Comfortable enough to read/write a job's script: section

Nice to Have (Speeds Up Learning)

Docker Basics

Module 03's Docker executor (the most common runner executor type) will make far more sense if you already understand what a container image is and how docker run works — this site's Docker section covers exactly that foundation.

Prior CI/CD Tool Experience (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI)

The concepts (pipeline, stage, job, artifact) transfer directly even if you've used a different tool — you're learning GitLab's specific syntax and features (rules:, needs: DAG pipelines, built-in security scanning), not CI/CD from first principles.

Kubernetes Basics (Optional, for the Kubernetes Executor)

Module 03 covers the Kubernetes executor as the production-scale autoscaling option — not required to start, but useful once you reach that module.

What You Do NOT Need

Time Estimate

If you have the prerequisites above:

Start Here

Go to the Installation section to set up a GitLab Runner, then proceed to Fundamentals.