The Monday Merge July Edition!

Hey GitLab community! It’s Fatima here, and you know what time it is: The Monday Merge time, hot off the processor for July! And wow, do we have a month to talk about.

From our biggest GitLab 18 moments to a jam-packed NYC AWS Summit, a brand new live show, and a seriously impressive customer story, July is brimming with DevSecOps energy. We're also teaming up with IBM to modernize mainframe DevOps (yep, COBOL just got cool again).

Let’s get into it 👇

GitLab 18 Virtual Launch: Where AI meets orchestration

Last month, we hosted the GitLab 18 Virtual Launch event, and if you missed the livestream, don’t worry. Here’s the TL;DR:

The spotlight moment? The introduction of the GitLab Duo Agent Platform. This innovative platform enables many-to-many collaboration between engineers and AI agents across the full software development lifecycle, designed to help teams dramatically improve productivity and cycle time.

Our CEO, Bill Staples, summed it up perfectly:

“A DevSecOps orchestration platform for humans and AI agents, leverages agentic AI for collaboration across the software development lifecycle.”

This isn't about replacing developers. It's about amplifying human creativity and expertise by removing the friction from routine tasks. That’s the future we’re building.

We also showcased GitLab Duo + Amazon Q, a seriously powerful pairing that accelerates secure software innovation with GitLab’s unified DevSecOps platform and Amazon Q Developer agents. The integrating offering marks a new era of seamless, AI-driven software development. 

And a huge shoutout to Barclays and Thales, who joined us during the event to share how GitLab 18 is transforming the way they build. From high-security finance to aviation innovation, the impact is real.

👉 Catch the full replay on our GitLab 18 Launch Event page..

GitLab 18.1 is here: Security, speed, and AI updates

Just a couple weeks later, we dropped GitLab 18.1, the first release in the GitLab 18 cycle and it’s packed with updates designed to help teams move faster and build more securely.

Here are a few standouts:

• ✅ Duo Code Review is now generally available, providing developers with intelligent AI-driven feedback on merge requests to expedite reviews and identify bugs before human reviewers are involved.
• 📦 Maven Virtual Registry is now in beta, simplifying Maven dependency management in GitLab.
• 🔐 Compromised password detection helps identify if your password is part of a known data breach and provides instructions on how to update your credentials.
• 🔁 We’ve added SLSA Level 1 compliance support using new CI/CD components to support your software supply chain security efforts.

And perhaps most exciting? Over 110 improvements and 311 community contributions made this release possible. Thank you to everyone who commits, reviews, documents, and builds with us.

👉 Full release notes here!

New livestream series: The Developer Show – Powered by GitLab

We just launched something brand new: The Developer Show – Powered by GitLab. A monthly livestream series hosted by me and Security PMM, Sal.

This isn’t your standard webinar. Each episode dives into the tech that’s actually changing how we work today. It’s for developers, dev leads, and anyone who touches code and wants to keep up with the real conversations happening in our industry.

Episode 1 is a GitLab 18 Virtual Launch recap. Think of it as the highlight reel with commentary, practical tips, and hot takes.

👉 Watch it here and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.

AWS Summit New York: come say hi!

We’re heading to the AWS Summit in NYC on July 16, and if you’re anywhere near the Javits Center, trust us, you’ll want to stop by the GitLab booth.

Here’s what’s happening:

• Hands-on demos of GitLab Duo’s AI features
• Lightning talks on security, velocity, and developer experience
• Conversations with GitLab’s DevSecOps experts (we love questions!)
• Giveaways and limited-edition swag

Don’t miss the keynote from Swami Sivasubramanian, AWS VP of Agentic AI. He’ll be exploring how agentic AI is reshaping software development – it’s a topic we’re pretty passionate about.

👉 Registration is free so save your spot here.

Meet GitLab at WeAreDevelopers World Congress

We're excited to connect with developers from around the world on July 9-11. Stop by stand A07 to explore how GitLab's DevSecOps platform can accelerate your software delivery and strengthen collaboration across your teams.

Whether you're interested in CI/CD, security automation, or improving your development workflow, our team is ready to share insights and answer your questions.

Don’t miss Maw Wildpaner, GitLab VP of Engineering speak on “Why Security-First Development Helps You Ship Better Software Faster” at 1:40pm on Friday. And Emilio Salvador, GitLab’s VP of Strategy and Developer Relations on “The Strategic Power of DevRel: From Community to Business Impact” panel on Friday at 4:30pm.

👋See you in Berlin

Customer spotlight: Thales

This month’s Customer Spotlight takes us 35,000 feet in the air with Thales, a global aerospace and defense leader that turned a legacy DevOps process into a cloud-native, CI/CD-powered innovation engine.

Using GitLab, Thales built FlytEDGE, a next-gen in-flight entertainment system that delivers personalized content and services for passengers — all while cutting deployment time by 95%.

They streamlined collaboration across distributed teams, adopted automation across their pipelines, and empowered developers to ship faster with fewer bottlenecks. That’s how you go from sluggish releases to 20× faster deployments.

👉 Dive into the full case study here.

What we’re reading

There’s no shortage of incredible DevSecOps thinking out there — here’s what’s been circulating across GitLab Slack channels this month:

Quote of the Month

“It always seems impossible until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela

Whether you're deploying faster, securing smarter, or building for the next generation of developers, you've got this.

Until next time — Happy Merging!

Fatima Sarah Khalid | Developer Advocate, GitLab

Like this newsletter? Forward it to your team. And don’t forget to 👉 subscribe to The Developer Show.