GitLab + Steady

GitLab Integration for Developer Team Coordination

Your team’s work already lives in GitLab; commits, merge requests, code reviews, etc. But that activity doesn’t automatically translate into team visibility. Developers waste time manually copying MR links into standup messages. Managers chase down updates across Slack threads, project boards, and repositories. Product stakeholders can’t tell what’s shipping without interrupting engineers.

Steady bridges that gap. Connect GitLab and your development activity automatically flows into context that everyone understands; daily check-ins, sprint summaries, goal updates, and on-demand reports.

How the GitLab Integration Works

Connect GitLab to Steady in 30 seconds and your development activity automatically flows into every part of your team’s coordination workflow.

Smart Check-ins: Commits and MRs sync with each developer’s daily check-ins automatically. When Sarah pushes code, it appears in her standup. When Marcus merges an MR, it shows up in today’s team update. No manual linking, no copying MR URLs into Slack; GitLab activity attaches to check-ins so everyone sees concrete progress, fully contextualized by human-written summaries.

Goal Stories: Use AI-enhanced templates to quickly draft updates by automatically summarizing GitLab activity however you need it. Instead of manually reviewing repositories and copying MR links, prompt the AI: “Summarize what was merged in GitLab last week, organized into 3-5 coherent themes.” The AI synthesizes your commits and MRs into high-level narratives that show strategic progress, not just technical activity. Turn raw GitLab data into stakeholder-ready goal updates in seconds.

Echoes: Set up automated reports that monitor your GitLab data on whatever schedule you need. Configure an Echo to summarize merged MRs every Friday, track repository activity monthly, or report on feature delivery quarterly. Echoes delivers tailored GitLab summaries automatically; no more manually generating the same reports week after week.

Insights: GitLab activity flows into Steady’s realtime analytics, giving you visibility into development patterns over time. The Activity report tracks total activity from GitLab and all your integrated tools, filterable by team, people, or date range. Cross-compare GitLab activity with other Insights reports—like Participation, Intentions Met, or Blockers—to understand holistic trends. Are GitLab commits increasing while check-in participation drops? Is one team coding heavily but reporting more blockers than others? Insights connects the dots across your coordination data.

Key Benefits

Eliminate Status Update Meetings - When commits and MRs flow into daily check-ins automatically, you don’t need meetings where developers recite what they pushed yesterday. Everyone can see who’s working on what, who’s blocked, and what shipped; all without interrupting anyone’s flow.

Give Non-Technical Stakeholders Visibility - Product managers and executives see exactly what developers are building without learning Git commands or digging through repositories.

Draft Stakeholder Updates in Seconds - Summarize GitLab activity in seconds with AI-powered templates. Pick your level of detail — high-level overview or commit-by-commit breakdown — and AI transforms MRs and commits into polished progress reports.

AI-Powered GitLab Reports - Ask Echoes natural language questions about your GitLab data and get fresh answers week after week, automatically. No need for custom scripts, GitLab API queries, or complex filtering.

Reduce Context Switching - Developers stay in their flow. GitLab activity appears in Steady automatically; no need to manually update project management tools.

Use Cases

Async Daily Standups for Distributed Teams - Your developers span San Francisco, London, and Singapore. Instead of a 5am meeting for some, everyone submits check-ins when their day starts. Steady automatically attaches yesterday’s commits and merged MRs—no one types “worked on authentication” because the MRs are right there. The whole team sees concrete progress across time zones without synchronous coordination.

Sprint Planning Prep on Autopilot - Planning next sprint and need to know what actually shipped last sprint? Set up an Echo: “Summarize all GitLab MRs merged in the last two weeks, organized by feature area. Include any MRs still in review.” Schedule it to deliver 30 minutes before your bi-weekly sprint planning meeting. Walk into planning with a complete picture of what shipped, what’s in flight, and what’s blocked; automatically generated from real GitLab data, not manually compiled the night before.

Cross-Team Visibility for Engineering Leadership - You manage three engineering teams working on different parts of the product. Set up an Echo that delivers a weekly summary: “High-level overview of GitLab activity from Backend, Frontend, and Mobile teams.” Every Monday morning you get a digest showing which teams shipped features, which had mostly maintenance work, and where activity was unusually high or low—without asking anyone for status.

Weekly Engineering Updates Without Manual Summaries - Every Friday afternoon you need to summarize what engineering shipped. Instead of reviewing dozens of merged MRs manually, set up an Echo: “List all GitLab MRs merged this week, organized by repository.” It delivers automatically every Friday at 3pm. Copy the summary into your stakeholder email and you’re done in two minutes.

Installation

To set up the GitLab integration, go to Account Settings -> Integrations and connect to GitLab. Read the documentation for more information.

About GitLab

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform delivered as a single application, combining source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security testing, and project planning in one unified interface. It provides Git repository hosting, issue tracking, merge requests, and automated deployment capabilities, enabling teams to manage the entire software development lifecycle from planning to production.

Frequently asked questions

How does the GitLab integration work with daily standups?

When you connect GitLab to Steady, each developer’s commits and MRs automatically appear in their daily check-in. Team members answer standup questions via Slack, web, or mobile, and Steady attaches their GitLab activity automatically; no manual copy-pasting of MR links or commit messages required.

Can I use GitLab with Slack for async standups?

Yes. Steady connects GitLab, Slack, and other tools together. Team members get reminders to check-in via in Slack, and Steady automatically includes their GitLab commits and MRs in those check-in responses. The entire team sees the updates in a unified feed, with GitLab activity providing concrete evidence of progress.

What GitLab data appears in Steady?

Steady syncs commits, merge requests, code reviews, and repository activity. You control which repositories to sync during setup. GitLab activity appears in Smart Check-ins automatically, flows into Insights reports for trend analysis, and can be summarized using AI-enhanced templates in Goal Stories or scheduled Echoes reports.

Do developers need to do anything after GitLab is connected?

No. Once an admin connects GitLab at the organization level, all team members’ code activity automatically syncs to their check-ins. Developers don’t need to authenticate individually or change their workflow—just keep pushing code normally and it appears in Steady automatically.