toddsmithsalter/dotfiles/glab-auth

glab auth

Manage GitLab CLI authentication.

Quick start

# Interactive login
glab auth login
 
# Check current auth status
glab auth status
 
# Login to different instance
glab auth login --hostname gitlab.company.com
 
# Logout
glab auth logout

Workflows

First-time setup

1. Run glab auth login
2. Choose authentication method (token or browser)
3. Follow prompts for your GitLab instance
4. Verify with glab auth status

v1.89.0+: When connecting to a self-hosted GitLab instance, glab auth login now prompts for the SSH hostname separately from the API hostname. This allows your SSH remote to use a different host than the API endpoint — useful when your company routes SSH and HTTPS traffic differently.

Example: API hostname gitlab.company.com, SSH hostname ssh.company.com

Switching accounts/instances

1. Logout from current:

``bash glab auth logout ``

1. Login to new instance:

``bash glab auth login --hostname gitlab.company.com ``

1. Verify:

``bash glab auth status ``

Docker registry access

1. Configure Docker helper:

``bash glab auth configure-docker ``

1. Verify Docker can authenticate:

``bash docker login registry.gitlab.com ``

1. Pull private images:

``bash docker pull registry.gitlab.com/group/project/image:tag ``

Troubleshooting

"401 Unauthorized" errors:

• Check status: glab auth status
• Verify token hasn't expired (check GitLab settings)
• Re-authenticate: glab auth login

Multiple instances:

• Use --hostname flag to specify instance
• Each instance maintains separate auth

Docker authentication fails:

• Re-run: glab auth configure-docker
• Check Docker config: cat ~/.docker/config.json
• Verify helper is set: "credHelpers": { "registry.gitlab.com": "glab-cli" }

Subcommands

See references/commands.md for detailed flag documentation:

• login - Authenticate with GitLab instance
• logout - Log out of GitLab instance
• status - View authentication status
• configure-docker - Configure Docker to use GitLab registry
• docker-helper - Docker credential helper
• dpop-gen - Generate DPoP token

Related Skills

Initial setup:

• After authentication, see glab-config to set CLI defaults
• See glab-ssh-key for SSH key management
• See glab-gpg-key for commit signing setup

Repository operations:

• See glab-repo for cloning repositories
• Authentication required before first clone/push