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Turn multi-step software delivery into agentic flows you can trust (opens in new tab)

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GitLab Duo Agent Platform’s Custom Flows are now generally available, enabling teams to automate multi-step software delivery rather than relying on chat responses, scripts, or manual runbooks. Flows can start from GitLab events or Agentic Chat, execute tasks across projects, and include human approval checkpoints. The goal is dependable, repeatable automation for work such as implementing issues, repairing pipelines, and reviewing merge requests.

Why Software Delivery Remains Manual

  • Real development tasks involve multiple steps: gathering context, changing code, opening a merge request, waiting for CI, and responding to reviews.
  • Without workflows, people must manually coordinate each handoff and remember undocumented team practices.
  • Teams previously hesitated to formalize these processes because Custom Flows lacked production readiness and sufficient event coverage.

What Agentic Flows Provide

  • Automate trusted sequences triggered by events such as:
    • Mentions and assignments
    • Pipeline activity
    • Merge request lifecycle changes
    • Work item updates
  • Run under a composite identity, keeping permissions bounded and actions attributable.
  • Launch specialist workflows from Agentic Chat, including:
    • Developer Flow for implementing changes
    • Code Review Flow for reviewing merge requests
    • Fix CI/CD Pipeline Flow for diagnosing and repairing failures
  • Require user approval before handing work from chat to a flow, while displaying progress inline.
  • Use review exclusions to avoid automatically reviewing bot-authored or branch-pattern merge requests.
  • Apply custom review instructions so automated reviews match team standards.

Custom Flow Configuration

  • Create flows from a project or the AI Catalog.
  • Set visibility, enable flows for selected projects, and attach GitLab event triggers.
  • Add human-in-the-loop checkpoints for sensitive operations.
  • GitLab 19.2 adds:
    • A “work item status changed” trigger
    • Bulk enablement of public flows across up to 100 projects
  • A future Flow Creation Agent is planned to generate runnable flow definitions from plain-language descriptions.

Costs and Adoption

  • Event-driven flows consume GitLab credits according to the work they perform.
  • GitLab recommends testing flows in a small number of projects before broad deployment.
  • Access is available through a GitLab Duo Agent Platform trial or through included credits for Premium and Ultimate subscribers.

Teams should begin by encoding a few well-understood delivery processes as Custom Flows, adding approval gates where necessary, and expanding gradually while monitoring credit usage and automation quality.