cdk-gitlab-runner

What it is and what it does

cdk-gitlab-runner is an AWS CDK construct library that automates the provisioning of GitLab Runner infrastructure on AWS. It generates EC2 instances, VPCs, subnets, security groups, and IAM roles needed to run GitLab CI/CD jobs directly in your AWS environment, eliminating the need to store credentials in GitLab variables.

The package wraps the complexity of setting up a self-hosted runner into a few lines of Python or TypeScript code. It supports customization of instance types, VPCs, IAM policies, security groups, and EBS volumes. By default it creates a T3.micro instance with a public subnet and associated networking. The runner authenticates to GitLab using a registration token and communicates back with your GitLab instance to receive and execute pipeline jobs.

Use it for:

• Deploy to AWS production from GitLab pipelines without exposing AWS credentials in environment variables.
• Run CI/CD jobs that require AWS IAM permissions (S3 access, EC2 management, etc.) with role-based authentication.
• Quickly spin up and tear down self-hosted runners for projects that exceed GitLab's free tier minute limits.
• Customize runner infrastructure (instance size, security groups, VPC) declaratively as part of your CDK stack.
• Integrate GitLab CI/CD with existing AWS CDK-managed infrastructure in a single deployment.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Defines AWS infrastructure for GitLab Runner using AWS CDK, enabling you to deploy and manage CI/CD runners on AWS EC2 with IAM role integration instead of credential management.

No. The repository is archived and abandoned; the maintainer is no longer accepting updates or fixes. While the package itself has no known vulnerabilities and low install friction, you are adopting unmaintained infrastructure-as-code that will not evolve with GitLab Runner or AWS CDK. For new projects, use an actively maintained alternative or manage the runner infrastructure directly with CDK or Terraform.

Install

cdk-gitlab-runner on PyPI

pip install cdk-gitlab-runner

uv add cdk-gitlab-runner

poetry add cdk-gitlab-runner

Installing cdk-gitlab-runner

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Repository is archived and marked abandoned as of the latest release; maintenance has ceased, so expect no updates or security patches going forward.

License in practice

Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), so you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install cdk-gitlab-runner

from cdk_gitlab_runner import GitlabContainerRunner
import aws_cdk as cdk

stack = cdk.Stack()
runner = GitlabContainerRunner(
    stack, 'runner',
    gitlabtoken='glrt-YOUR_TOKEN',
    gitlabRunnerVersion='15.10'
)

Requires AWS CDK v2 installed and AWS credentials configured; you must obtain a GitLab Runner registration token from your GitLab project or group before instantiation.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works with GitLab Runner versions after 16.0 or if it has compatibility gaps with recent GitLab releases.
• Current state of the abandoned repository—whether critical bugs or security issues in dependencies have emerged since the last release.
• Whether the default T3.micro instance and generated VPC/subnet configuration remain suitable for modern CI/CD workloads.

Package facts

Evidence: cdk_gitlab_runner-2.4.74-py3-none-any.whl

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