version: "1.0.3" name: glab-config description: Manage glab CLI configuration settings including defaults, preferences, and per-host settings. Use when configuring glab behavior, setting defaults, or viewing current configuration. Triggers on config, configuration, settings, glab settings, set default.

glab config

Overview

 
  Manage key/value strings.
  Current respected settings:
  - branch_prefix: Prefix used by glab stack for generated branch names.
  - browser: If unset, uses the default browser. Override with environment variable $BROWSER.
  - check_update: Notify about new glab versions. Override with $GLAB_CHECK_UPDATE.
  - display_hyperlinks: Enable terminal hyperlinks. Override with $FORCE_HYPERLINKS.
  - duo_cli_auto_download / duo_cli_auto_run: Skip Duo CLI download/run prompts.
  - editor: If unset, uses the default editor. Override with environment variable $EDITOR.
  - git_protocol: Git protocol, ssh or https.
  - glab_pager: Pager command, such as less -R.
  - glamour_style: Markdown renderer style: dark, light, notty, or a custom glamour style.
  - host: If unset, defaults to `https://gitlab.com`.
  - no_prompt: Disable interactive prompts. Prefer the $GLAB_NO_PROMPT override in automation.
  - notify_skill_updates: Show installed agent-skill update notices. Override with $GLAB_NOTIFY_SKILL_UPDATES.
  - orbit_local_auto_download / orbit_local_auto_run: Skip Orbit local CLI download/run prompts.
  - remote_alias: Preferred Git remote name when multiple remotes exist.
  - show_whats_new: Show the one-time post-upgrade glab whatsnew banner. Override with $GLAB_SHOW_WHATS_NEW.
  - telemetry: Enable usage data to the GitLab instance. Override with $GLAB_SEND_TELEMETRY.
  - token: Your GitLab access token. Defaults to environment variables.
  - visual: Takes precedence over editor. Override with $VISUAL.
  USAGE
    glab config [command] [--flags]
  COMMANDS
    edit [--flags]               Opens the glab configuration file.
    get <key> [--flags]          Prints the value of a given configuration key.
    set <key> <value> [--flags]  Updates configuration with the value of a given key.
  FLAGS
    -g --global                  Use global config file.
    -h --help                    Show help for this command.

Quick start

glab config --help

Per-host HTTPS proxy configuration

You can configure an HTTPS proxy on a per-host basis. This is useful when different GitLab instances (for example gitlab.com vs a self-hosted instance) require different proxy settings.

# Set HTTPS proxy for a specific host
glab config set https_proxy "http://proxy.example.com:8080" --host gitlab.mycompany.com
 
# Set globally (applies to all hosts without a specific override)
glab config set https_proxy "http://proxy.example.com:8080" --global
 
# Verify
glab config get https_proxy --host gitlab.mycompany.com

Precedence: Per-host config overrides global config. Global config overrides the HTTPS_PROXY / https_proxy environment variables.

Configuration file search order

glab uses this global config selection:

1. $GLAB_CONFIG_DIR/config.yml when GLAB_CONFIG_DIR is set. This is an explicit override; glab uses this directory even when no config file exists there yet.
2. Otherwise, the first existing normal candidate wins:

• ~/.config/glab-cli/config.yml, retained as the legacy location.
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/glab-cli/config.yml (on macOS this defaults to ~/Library/Application Support/glab-cli/config.yml).
• $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/glab-cli/config.yml for system-wide defaults. The usual Linux default is /etc/xdg/glab-cli/config.yml; on macOS, set XDG_CONFIG_DIRS explicitly when relying on system-wide config.

Files are not merged. If both the legacy and platform-specific XDG files exist, glab uses the legacy file and warns. Repository-local settings live in .git/glab-cli/config.yml, while per-host settings are stored in the selected global file. Prefer glab config get, set, and edit over directly modifying files, and do not copy stored tokens into logs or version control.

Env-first agent pattern

For agentic setups, prefer per-agent env files over one shared shell profile. Example:

# ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-reviewer.env
GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-...
GITLAB_HOST=gitlab.com

Keep these env files outside version control, restrict their permissions (for example chmod 600), be mindful of backup exposure, and use least-privilege bot/service-account tokens.

Load plain KEY=value env files like this so the variables are exported to glab:

set -a
source ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-<agent>.env
set +a

A plain source ~/.config/openclaw/env/gitlab-<agent>.env updates the current shell but may leave the values unexported. In that case glab can miss the env overrides and silently reuse stored auth from the active global config file.

Use distinct GitLab bot/service accounts when agents need distinct visible identities. Multiple PATs on one GitLab user still act as that same user.

Non-interactive prompts and config validation

Use GLAB_NO_PROMPT=1 for non-interactive automation that must fail instead of prompting. Upstream docs now prefer the GLAB_-prefixed name; older NO_PROMPT is deprecated and should not be used in new scripts.

GLAB_NO_PROMPT=1 glab repo prune --dry-run

glab config set validates keys against the canonical config schema. If a set operation fails, check the spelling and whether the setting is host-scoped (--host) or global (--global) rather than forcing an unknown key into the config file.

Common Settings

# View current config
glab config get --global
 
# Set default editor
glab config set editor vim --global
 
# Set pager
glab config set glab_pager "less -R" --global
 
# Disable update checks
glab config set check_update false --global
 
# Select the Git remote glab should prefer
glab config set remote_alias origin --global
 
# Allow Duo CLI to download and run without wrapper prompts
glab config set duo_cli_auto_download true --global
glab config set duo_cli_auto_run true --global
 
# Set default host
glab config set host https://gitlab.mycompany.com --global

Subcommands

See references/commands.md for full --help output.