GitLab 17.9 brings self-hosted LLMs, parallel deployments, and enhanced IDE integration

GitLab has released version 17.9, featuring new additions like General Availability of GitLab Duo Self-Hosted, which allows users to run Large Language Models (LLMs) on their own infrastructure, supporting models like Mistral, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and OpenAI for better data sovereignty and privacy.

The update also introduces parallel deployments for GitLab Pages, enabling developers to manage multiple site versions with unique URLs and customizable expiration settings, improving testing and content management. The integration with popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and JetBrains has been improved, allowing GitLab Duo Chat to access project files directly for more context-aware AI assistance. Sysbox support for workspaces enables container building and running without additional configuration in Kubernetes environments.

GitLab has also simplified workspace setup by removing the need for custom devfiles, offering a default configuration with pre-configured tools. Deployment management is streamlined with GitLab-managed Kubernetes resources, while improved visibility in the Environments list aids project tracking. Other enhancements include wiki page comments for better collaboration, Value Stream Analytics with merge request review time insights, and security upgrades like EPSS, KEV, and CVE data integration for vulnerability risk prioritization.