GitLab 18.3 Expands AI Orchestration in Software Engineering

GitLab has announced its 18.3 release, marking a significant milestone in the company’s journey to becoming the first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-native platform for software engineering. The latest release expands AI orchestration capabilities through enhanced Flows, enterprise-grade governance, and seamless tool integration, enabling human-AI collaboration in software development.

While the industry debates whether AI will replace developers, GitLab is helping solve the real challenge: how to make AI agents work seamlessly alongside human engineering teams. GitLab transforms how teams orchestrate complex software workflows by treating AI agents as natural collaborators, rather than isolated tools.

GitLab 18.3 Feature Highlights

• MCP server – Universal AI integration: GitLab’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) server enables AI systems to securely integrate directly with your GitLab projects and development processes. This standardised interface eliminates custom integration overhead, and allows your AI tools—including Cursor—to work intelligently within your existing GitLab environment.
• CLI agent support for Claude Code, Codex, Amazon Q, Google Gemini, and opencode (Bring Your Own Key): This release introduces integrations that enable teams to delegate routine development work by @ mentioning their agents directly in issues or merge requests.
• Agent Insights for transparency through intelligence: Our built-in agent tracking provides visibility into agent decision-making processes. Users can optimise workflows, and follow best practices through transparent activity tracking.
• Knowledge Graph for real-time code intelligence: GitLab’s Knowledge Graph now delivers real-time code indexing to enable faster code searches, delivering more accurate, and contextual results.
• GitLab AI Flows: Building on 18.2’s Software Development Flow, two new flows are now available, including issue to MR Flow, enabling you to go from concept to code in minutes, and convert CI File Flow, built for seamless migration intelligence.

The above highlights are just a few of the many features released in GitLab 18.3. Please find more information here.