GitLab CI Standards - View
Display a human-readable summary of GitLab CI standards to the user.
Usage
- •
/gitlab-ci:standards-view— Show summary of all standards - •
/gitlab-ci:standards-view job-ordering— Show job ordering standards - •
/gitlab-ci:standards-view topic1 topic2— Show multiple specific topics
Available Topics
- •
job-ordering— Pipeline job ordering withneedsvsdependencies
Argument Handling
Valid topics: job-ordering
- •If arguments are provided in
$ARGUMENTS, validate each one against the valid topics list above - •For any invalid topic, respond with:
Invalid topic:
[topic]. Valid topics:job-ordering. Run/gitlab-ci:standards-listto see all available topics. - •If all provided topics are valid, display only those topics
- •If no arguments are provided, display all topics
Related Commands
- •
/gitlab-ci:standards-list— List available standards topics - •
/gitlab-ci:standards-load— Load full standards into context - •
/gitlab-ci:standards-audit— Analyze repo for standards violations
Instructions
When this skill is invoked, output a concise summary of the requested standards for the user to read.
Job Ordering Summary
Core Rule: Use stages for cross-stage ordering and needs only for intra-stage ordering.
| Keyword | Use When |
|---|---|
needs | Ordering jobs within the same stage |
dependencies | Getting artifacts from earlier stages (no ordering effect) |
No needs | Entry-point jobs that should wait for all previous stage jobs |
Why it matters: If a job has needs pointing to an earlier stage, it bypasses stage gates entirely. This can cause production deployments to start before staging tests complete.
Quick check: Before adding needs to a job, ask: Is the dependency in the same stage?
- •Yes → Use
needs - •No → Don't use
needs. Usedependenciesif you need artifacts.
Example:
yaml
# CORRECT: Entry-point job with no needs
push-docker-images-prod:
stage: deploy-prod
dependencies:
- calculate-version # Artifacts only
# CORRECT: Intra-stage needs
deploy-prod-job:
stage: deploy-prod
needs:
- job: push-docker-images-prod # Same stage - OK
For full documentation with anti-patterns and checklists, run /gitlab-ci:standards-load.