GitLab 18.6 adds redesigned UI, exact code search, new CI/CD capabilities, and much more

GitLab 18.6 arrives as the latest release of this well-known code hosting and DevOps platform. At its core, the update unveils a redesigned user interface, which offers a more intuitive, side-by-side workspace. With the addition of contextual panels, teams can minimize unnecessary clicks and maintain their workflow focus.

Building on workflow improvements, GitLab 18.6 adds exact code search in limited availability. Users can leverage exact match and regular expression modes to search code across entire instances, groups, or projects, powered by the open-source Zoekt search engine.

GitLab’s CI/CD tools also see stronger flexibility. Components may now reference their own metadata, such as version numbers or commit SHAs, within their configurations using the spec:component keyword. Alongside this, the release makes it much easier to create and manage dynamic 1–1 dependencies, supporting cleaner, scalable parallel:matrix pipelines.

Following changes to security workflows, the GitLab Security Analyst Agent becomes a default part of Duo Agentic Chat. This ensures it is available out of the box on self-managed and dedicated setups, removing the need for manual additions from the AI catalog. Meanwhile, new security dashboards offer an updated and clearer interface.

Aside from major updates, GitLab 18.6 also delivers a range of other enhancements and bug fixes.