Architecture blueprint for GitLab CI CLI- local pipeline execution
Problem to solve
Local pipeline debugging (a five-year-old issue), with 316 votes is the most upvoted issue in the gitlab-runner project and second only to GitLab Runner priority (387 votes) in terms of popularity.
The problem to solve (described as one of the major pain points of using GitLab CI) is represented well in these customer quotes:
→ "it's really hard to believe that "I want to run the pipeline locally" isn't sufficient. Have you ever written a complex .gitlab-ci.yml? It only takes one or two iterations of push-wait-fail before you think, "I wish I could iterate on this locally instead.”
→ The whole notion that I have to add commits to my actual repository in order to validate that automation workflows actually work is ludicrous, but it's either that or just use thoughts and prayers.