GitLab Pipeline Traces

Overview

Collect GitLab CI/CD pipeline traces using the GitLab Receiver and send them to SigNoz.

Each GitLab pipeline event triggers a webhook to the OTel Collector. The receiver converts the completed pipeline and its jobs into a trace with job-level child spans.

Prerequisites

• OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib v0.123.0 or later
• Access to SigNoz (Cloud or Self-Hosted)
• A GitLab project where you have Maintainer or Owner access to configure webhooks

Setup

Step 1. Configure the GitLab Receiver

If you have a collector running, append the gitlab receiver, resource/gitlab processor, and traces pipeline to your existing config.yaml. Otherwise, create a new config.yaml with the full config below.

The collector listens on port 19418 for pipeline webhooks, stamps every trace with service.name, and exports to SigNoz over OTLP.

receivers:
  gitlab:
    webhook:
      # Binds on all interfaces so the collector is reachable externally.
      endpoint: 0.0.0.0:19418
      path: /events
      health_path: /health
      secret: ${env:GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET}

processors:
  resource/gitlab:
    attributes:
      - key: service.name
        value: <service-name>
        action: upsert

exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: "ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
    headers:
      signoz-ingestion-key: ${env:SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY}
    tls:
      insecure: false

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [gitlab]
      processors: [resource/gitlab]
      exporters: [otlp]

Replace the in-file placeholders (edit these directly in the config):

• <service-name>: A name to identify this pipeline source in SigNoz (e.g. gitlab-ci).
• <region>: Your SigNoz Cloud region.

Set these as environment variables (${env:...} resolves them at runtime):

• GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET: A secret string you choose. The receiver checks the X-Gitlab-Token header on every request and rejects any that do not match. If omitted, no secret validation occurs.
• SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY: Your SigNoz Cloud Ingestion Key.

Step 2. Run the OTel Collector

# Set environment variables and start the collector
export GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET=<your-webhook-secret>
export SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY=<your-ingestion-key>
./otelcol-contrib --config ./config.yaml

# Run the collector in Docker, mounting the config from Step 1
docker run -d \
  -e GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET=<your-webhook-secret> \
  -e SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY=<your-ingestion-key> \
  -p 19418:19418 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/etc/otel/config.yaml \
  otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:0.123.0 \
  --config=/etc/otel/config.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: gitlab-otel-secrets
  namespace: signoz
stringData:
  GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET: <your-webhook-secret>
  SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY: <your-ingestion-key>
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: gitlab-otel-config
  namespace: signoz
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      gitlab:
        webhook:
          endpoint: 0.0.0.0:19418
          path: /events
          health_path: /health
          secret: ${env:GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET}

    processors:
      resource/gitlab:
        attributes:
          - key: service.name
            value: <service-name>
            action: upsert

    exporters:
      otlp:
        endpoint: "ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
        headers:
          signoz-ingestion-key: ${env:SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY}
        tls:
          insecure: false

    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [gitlab]
          processors: [resource/gitlab]
          exporters: [otlp]
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: gitlab-otel-collector
  namespace: signoz
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: gitlab-otel-collector
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: gitlab-otel-collector
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: collector
          image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:0.123.0
          command: ["/otelcol-contrib", "--config=/etc/otel/config.yaml"]
          ports:
            - containerPort: 19418
          envFrom:
            - secretRef:
                name: gitlab-otel-secrets
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config
              mountPath: /etc/otel
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: gitlab-otel-config
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: gitlab-otel-webhook
  namespace: signoz
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 19418
  selector:
    app: gitlab-otel-collector

# Apply the manifest to your cluster
kubectl apply -f gitlab-otel-collector.yaml

# Forward local port 19418 to the collector Service
kubectl port-forward svc/gitlab-otel-webhook -n signoz 19418:80

Step 3. Create a GitLab webhook

In your GitLab project, go to Settings → Webhooks and add a webhook:

• URL: https://<collector-host>:19418/events — the hostname or IP where your OTel Collector is reachable from GitLab. If port-forwarding on Kubernetes, use localhost.

• Secret token: The same value you set for GITLAB_WEBHOOK_SECRET.
• Trigger: Enable Pipeline events only.

Click Add webhook. Use Test → Pipeline events to confirm the collector receives the request.

Validate

Trigger a pipeline run in GitLab. Once the pipeline completes, open the Traces tab in SigNoz. Each pipeline appears as a root span with its jobs as child spans.

Click a Trace ID to open the span detail view and inspect per-job durations and statuses.

Limitations

• Traces only: no metrics or logs.
• Pipeline events only: the receiver processes Pipeline Hook webhooks only. Other event types (including Job Hook) are not processed and return an error.
• No child or multi-project pipelines: parent-child pipeline relationships are not preserved; each pipeline produces a separate independent trace.
• No manual instrumentation correlation: trace IDs are a SHA-256 hash of the pipeline ID and finished_at timestamp, available only after completion. Application-level spans cannot be correlated with pipeline spans.
• Alpha stability: receiver is in alpha. Config schema may change in future otelcol-contrib releases.

Next Steps

• Set up trace-based alerts to get notified on pipeline failures or duration regressions.
• Explore the Traces view to filter and analyze pipeline runs.
• CI/CD Monitoring overview for other supported integrations.

Get Help

If you need help with the steps in this topic, please reach out to us on SigNoz Community Slack.

If you are a SigNoz Cloud user, please use in product chat support located at the bottom right corner of your SigNoz instance or contact us at cloud-support@signoz.io.