2026-05-04: GITLAB_DEPENCY_TOKEN fails to authenticate across multiple projects

GITLAB_DEPENCY_TOKEN fails to authenticate across multiple projects (Severity 2)

Problem: The GITLAB_DEPENDENCY_TOKEN failed to authenticate in multiple projects due to an expired Docker organization access token, causing CI pipeline failures for engineering teams.

Impact: Internal engineering teams were blocked from running CI pipelines across multiple projects, preventing code merges and releases. This did not affect external customers.

Causes: The Docker organization access token used by the GitLab dependency proxy expired, preventing authentication. This token, stored as 'Docker gitlabci OAT' in 1Password, could no longer be used by CI pipelines.

Response strategy: We generated a new Docker organization access token and updated credentials for the affected GitLab groups (gitlab-org and gitlab-com). Retrying previously failing jobs confirmed that pipelines are now working as expected. Follow-up actions have been created to automate token rotation and improve documentation.

This ticket was created to track INC-9793, by incident.io 🔥