Download GitLab 16.6
You can compare GitLab with the better known one GitHubbut contains some subtle differences. It is an environment for managing Git repositories on-premises and is released under the MIT Expat license and developed in Ruby on Rails. It is available in two versions, namely the free-to-use Community Edition and a paid Enterprise Edition, with more features aimed at large companies. The two flavors run out this page explained. The development team released version 16.6 with the following announcement:
GitLab 16.6 Release
GitLab 16.6 released with GitLab Duo Chat available in Beta
Today, we are excited to announce the release of GitLab 16.6 with GitLab Duo Chat Available in Beta, MR approvals as a compliance policy, improved forking, improved UI for CI/CD variable management, and much more!
These are just a few highlights from the 25+ improvements in this release. Read on to check out all of the great updates below.
To the wider GitLab community, thank you for the 137 contributions you provided to GitLab 16.6! At GitLab, everyone can contribute and we couldn't have done it without you!
To preview what's coming in next month's release, check out our Upcoming Releases page, which includes our 16.7 release kickoff video.
Key improvements released in GitLab 16.6
- GitLab Duo Chat available in Beta
- Automatic claims of enterprise users
- Minimal forking – only include the default branch
- Allow users to enforce MR approvals as a compliance policy
- Switchboard portal for GitLab Dedicated is now generally available
- CI/CD components Beta release
- Improved UI for CI/CD variable management
- Runner Fleet Dashboard – Starter metrics (Beta)
Other improvements in GitLab 16.6
- Comprehensive list of items that failed to be imported
- Consistent navigation experience for all users
- GitLab Runner 16.6
- macOS 14 (Sonoma) and Xcode 15 image support
- Upload packages to the Maven repository with basic HTTP authentication
- Prevent duplicate NuGet packages
- Real-time Kubernetes status updates in the GitLab UI
- Connect to Kubernetes clusters with the GitLab CLI
- Container Scanning: Exclude findings which won't be fixed
- Include CVSS Vectors in the vulnerability report export
- Added support for SBT projects using Java 21
- Changes to the vulnerability report's Tool filter
- DAST analyzer updates
- Improved handling of unresponsive external status checks
- Allow compliance teams to prevent pushing and force pushing into protected branches
- GitLab Silent Mode
- Group-level audit event streaming to AWS S3
- Hide archived projects in search results by default
- Service accounts have optional expiry dates
- Private group names are hidden from unauthorized users
Deprecations
New deprecations and the complete list of all features that are currently deprecated can be viewed in the GitLab documentation. To be notified of upcoming breaking changes, subscribe to our Breaking Changes RSS feed.
- The GitHub importer Rake task
- Proxy-based DAST deprecated
- GraphQL: deprecate support for `canDestroy` and `canDelete`
- Breaking change to the Maven repository group permissions
- File type variable expansion fixed in downstream pipelines
- Legacy Geo Prometheus metrics
- Container Registry support for the Swift and OSS storage drivers
Changelog
Please check out the changelog to see all the named changes:
| Version number | 16.6 |
| Release status | Final |
| Operating systems | Linux |
| Website | GitLab |
| Download | https://about.gitlab.com/install/ |
| License type | Prerequisites (GNU/BSD/etc.) |