This epic track various phases under https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vD5De11omQWnSBWw5cYIgU1pFcXkn3mVtMHm5xBbgOs/edit?tab=t.0 (which may evolves as earlier phases/POCs are completed). The key features we plan to prioritize in FY26 are: - GitLab Workload Identity Federation: to reduce the reliance of long-lived credentials. - Ephemeral ambient credentials for GitLab CI: to eliminate the need of using tokens in CI. - Fine-grained access controls for all authenticated principals: to build better access controls. with their requirements defined under https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/architecture/auth-architecture/design-doc/-/merge_requests/13/diffs. Each sub-epic contains issues to create design docs, spikes and schedule implementation issues.