Configuration

Where the running app reads its settings from.

Configuration files

File	Purpose
config/gitlab.yml	Master application config (host, ports, integrations, paths). Templated by Omnibus / Helm.
config/database.yml	Postgres connection settings (multi-DB aware).
config/redis.yml, config/redis.<role>.yml	Redis URLs per role (cache, queues, shared_state, trace_chunks, etc.).
config/secrets.yml	Devise secret, OTP key, OpenID secrets — usually generated.
config/cable.yml	Action Cable adapter config.
config/puma.rb	Puma worker/threads settings.
config/sidekiq_queues.yml	Sidekiq queue routing rules.
config/feature_flags/	Feature-flag manifests (~463 entries).
config/feature_categories.yml	All feature categories.
config/bounded_contexts.yml	All bounded contexts.
config/initializers/*.rb	Boot-time setup (~150 initializers).
config/routes.rb and config/routes/	Route definitions.
config/locales/	i18n strings.
config/vue3migration/	Vue 3 migration tracker.
config/oj.rb	Oj JSON config.
config/clickhouse.yml	ClickHouse connection.
config/database_geo.yml	Geo tracking DB (EE).

Settings model

Application configuration also lives in the database via ApplicationSetting (a single-row table). The settings page in the admin UI edits this row. Gitlab::CurrentSettings is a request-cached accessor.

Environment variables

Selected ones — there are dozens more. See lib/gitlab/utils/sanitized_env.rb for the full safe-env enumeration.

ENV	Purpose
RAILS_ENV	development / test / production
GITLAB_LOG_PATH	Directory for log files
RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT	Send logs to stdout (containerized)
EXPERIMENTAL_RAILS_QUEUE	Experimental queue adapters
MALLOC_ARENA_MAX	glibc allocator tuning
GITLAB_FEATURES	Override license features locally
RUBY_GC_HEAP_*	Ruby GC tuning
OTEL_*	OpenTelemetry tracing
GITLAB_KAS_VERSION, GITLAB_PAGES_VERSION, GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION, GITLAB_WORKHORSE_VERSION	Pinned external service versions
GITLAB_LICENSE_FILE	EE license file location
GITLAB_ALLOW_SEPARATE_CI_DATABASE	Multi-DB toggle
DATABASE_URL, GITLAB_DATABASE_URL	Postgres URL overrides
REDIS_URL and per-role	Redis overrides

Secrets layout

Secrets live in:

• config/secrets.yml — Devise secret base, OTP key, encrypted secrets key. Generated on install.
• /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json (Omnibus) — central secret bundle.
• Helm Secrets — one per role.
• config/credentials.yml.enc (Rails 7) — present but not used in production; GitLab pre-dates Rails encrypted credentials.

Where to look up "what is this config?"

1. Search config/initializers/ for the keyword.
2. Search config/gitlab.yml.example (the canonical reference) for the YAML key.
3. Search lib/gitlab/utils/sanitized_env.rb for env names.
4. The Omnibus repo's omnibus-gitlab/files/gitlab-cookbooks/... shows how each config is templated.

Related

• Deployment.
• Dependencies.