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GitLab Duo licensing for local development

To use GitLab Duo Features, you need to:

  • Use GitLab enterprise edition
  • Have an online cloud license
  • Have either Premium or Ultimate Subscription License plan
  • Have one of the Duo add-ons in addition to your license plan (Duo Core, Duo Pro, or Duo Enterprise)

This document walks you through how to get ensure these requirements are met for your GDK.

Set up GitLab Team Member License for GDK

Why: Cloud licenses are mandatory for our cloud connected Duo features for GitLab Self-Managed and Dedicated customers. As opposed to "legacy" GitLab licenses, cloud licenses require internet connectivity to validate with customers.gitlab.com (CustomersDot). GitLab periodically checks license validity, and provides automatic updates to subscription changes through CustomersDot.

GitLab Duo is available to Premium and Ultimate customers only. You likely want an Ultimate license for your GDK. Ultimate gets you access to all GitLab Duo features. Premium gets access to only a subset of GitLab Duo features.

How:

  1. Follow the process to obtain an Ultimate license for your local instance. Start with a GitLab Self-Managed Ultimate license. After you have a GitLab Self-Managed license configured, you can always simulate a SaaS instance and assign individual groups Premium and Ultimate licenses in the admin panel.

  2. Upload your license activation code

  3. Set environment variables in GDK:

    export GITLAB_LICENSE_MODE=test
export CUSTOMER_PORTAL_URL=https://customers.staging.gitlab.com
export CLOUD_CONNECTOR_SELF_SIGN_TOKENS=1

(Alternatively) Connect to staging AI Gateway

Developers may also choose to connect their local GitLab instance to the staging AI Gateway instance.

To connect to the staging AI Gateway, configure it through the Admin UI. This option is only available with Ultimate license and active Duo Enterprise add-on:

  1. Go to Admin Area > Settings > GitLab Duo > Self-hosted models
  2. Set the AI Gateway URL to https://cloud.staging.gitlab.com/ai
  3. Select Save changes

Alternatively, you can set the AI gateway URL in a Rails console (useful when you don't have access to the Admin UI):

Ai::Setting.instance.update!(ai_gateway_url: 'https://cloud.staging.gitlab.com/ai')
  • Restart your GDK.
  • Inside your GDK, navigate to Admin area > GitLab Duo Pro, navigate to /admin/code_suggestions
  • Filter users to find root and use the toggle to assign a GitLab Duo Pro add-on seat to the root user.

Troubleshooting

If you're having issues with your Duo license setup:

  • Run the Duo health check to identify specific issues. Note that if you have Duo licenses that were generated from a setup script locally, this will show "Cloud Connector access token is missing" but that is OK.
  • Verify your license is active by checking the Admin Area
  • Ensure your user has a Duo seat assigned. The GDK setup scripts assign a Duo seat to the root user only. If you want to test with other users, make sure to assign them a seat.
  • To more deeply debug why the root user cannot access a feature like Duo Chat, you can run GlobalPolicy.new(User.first, User.first).debug(:access_duo_chat). This Declarative Policy debug output will help you dive into the specific access logic for more granular debugging.
  • Check logs for any authentication or license validation errors
  • For cloud license issues, reach out to #s_fulfillment_engineering in Slack
  • For AI Gateway connection issues, reach out to #g_ai_framework in Slack

Best Practices

  • Test in both environments: For thorough testing, consider alternating between multi-tenant and single-tenant setups to ensure your feature works well in both environments.
  • Consult domain documentation: Review specific feature documentation to understand if there are any environment-specific behaviors you need to consider.
  • Consider end-user context: Remember that features should work well for both GitLab.com users and self-managed/dedicated customers.

Additional resources

Setting up GitLab Duo for your Staging GitLab.com user account

When working in staging environments, you may need to set up Duo add-ons for your staging.gitlab.com account.

Duo Pro

  1. Have your account ready at https://staging.gitlab.com.
  2. Create a new group or use an existing one as the namespace which will receive the Duo Pro access.
  3. Go to Settings > Billing.
  4. Initiate the purchase flow for the Ultimate plan by clicking on Upgrade to Ultimate.
  5. After being redirected to https://customers.staging.gitlab.com, click on Continue with your Gitlab.com account.
  6. Purchase the SaaS Ultimate subscription using a test credit card.
  7. Find the newly purchased subscription card, and select from the three dots menu the option Buy GitLab Duo Pro.
  8. Purchase the GitLab Duo Pro add-on using the same test credit card from the above steps.
  9. Go back to https://staging.gitlab.com and verify that your group has access to Duo Pro by navigating to Settings > GitLab Duo and managing seats.

Duo Enterprise

Internal use only: Purchasing a license for Duo Enterprise is not self-serviceable; post a request in the #g_provision Slack channel to grant your staging account a Duo Enterprise license.