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Enable or disable GitLab CI

To effectively use GitLab CI, you need a valid .gitlab-ci.yml file present at the root directory of your project and a runner properly set up. You can read our quick start guide to get you started.

If you are using an external CI server like Jenkins or Drone CI, it is advised to disable GitLab CI in order to not have any conflicts with the commits status API.

GitLab CI is exposed via the /pipelines and /builds pages of a project. Disabling GitLab CI in a project does not delete any previous jobs. In fact, the /pipelines and /builds pages can still be accessed, although it's hidden from the left sidebar menu.

GitLab CI is enabled by default on new installations and can be disabled either individually under each project's settings, or site-wide by modifying the settings in gitlab.yml and gitlab.rb for source and Omnibus installations respectively.

Per-project user setting

The setting to enable or disable GitLab CI can be found with the name Pipelines under the Sharing & Permissions area of a project's settings along with Merge Requests. Choose one of Disabled, Only team members and Everyone with access and hit Save changes for the settings to take effect.

Sharing & Permissions settings

Site-wide administrator setting

You can disable GitLab CI site-wide, by modifying the settings in gitlab.yml and gitlab.rb for source and Omnibus installations respectively.

Two things to note:

  1. Disabling GitLab CI, will affect only newly-created projects. Projects that had it enabled prior to this modification, will work as before.
  2. Even if you disable GitLab CI, users will still be able to enable it in the project's settings.

For installations from source, open gitlab.yml with your editor and set builds to false:

## Default project features settings
default_projects_features:
  issues: true
  merge_requests: true
  wiki: true
  snippets: false
  builds: false

Save the file and restart GitLab: sudo service gitlab restart.

For Omnibus installations, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the line:

gitlab_rails['gitlab_default_projects_features_builds'] = false

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure.