Improve workflow for reviewing gitlab-ci.yml changes

Problem to solve

When I'm making changes to my .gitlab-ci.yml file I'd like to have some easy feedback loop that the consequences of my changes are what I expect.

Intended users

Further details

Let's say I want to move my production deployment job to only run on tags. I have to do a bit of trial and error to make sure my end result is appropriate when submitting a merge request that updates my .gitlab-ci.yml file. A specific example of that workflow was illustrated in this walk-through.

Proposal

What if there is a special job (or maybe a template) that can be added to your pipeline that only runs on changes to your .gitlab-ci.yml file and runs a set of pipeline jobs (merge request, branch, pipeline, scheduled, etc) but stops them. Then you could see if the pipelines have the definition you were expecting quickly inside your MR.

Permissions and Security

Documentation

Availability & Testing

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

What is the type of buyer?

Is this a cross-stage feature?

Links / references

Edited by Kenny Johnston