Triggering GitLab CI Pipelines via API and Passing Parameters

The preparation steps include configuring the project, CI/CD settings, and creating a dedicated authentication token for pipeline triggers.

To trigger a pipeline via API, you can use a curl command such as:

curl -X POST \
      -F token=b2ba95b229f5fd0eb834454bc9aad8 \
      -F ref=main \
      http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/31/trigger/pipeline

Postman can also be used for testing the same endpoint.

Within a GitLab CI job, the trigger can be invoked directly:

script:
  - "curl -X POST -F token=TOKEN -F ref=REF_NAME http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/31/trigger/pipeline"

For better security, store the token as a CI/CD variable and reference it in the script:

stages:
  - build

build-job:
  tags:
    - build
  stage: build
  script:
    - "curl -X POST -F token=${CITOKEN} -F ref=main  http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/29/trigger/pipeline"
    - echo "Compile complete."
    - sleep 1

Parameters can be passed to the pipeline by adding them as variables in the API call:

curl -X POST \
      -F token=TOKEN \
      -F "ref=main" \
      -F "variables[BUILD_TOOL]=mavenandmaven" \
      http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/31/trigger/pipeline

A corresponding job can retrieve and use the variable:

ciTriggerTest:
  tags:
    - build
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo ${BUILD_TOOL}

The article concludes with a note that the content is excerpted from the third DevOps practice training camp and invites readers to follow the DevOps Cloud Academy for more resources.