GitLab 17.4 makes code suggestions more dependent on context
The monthly update for GitLab brings new features for the AI tool GitLab Duo, security testing and the handling of extensions.
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The GitLab 17.4 development platform brings updates such as a connection to the Extension Marketplace for third-party extensions and more intelligent code suggestions with GitLab Duo. Ultimate customers can also benefit from the availability of the scanner for Advanced Static Application Security Testing (SAST). This scanner uses the technology that GitLab acquired from Oxeye this year and is designed to deliver more accurate results with fewer false positives when detecting vulnerabilities.
Extension Marketplace in the Web IDE
The new release launches an Extension Marketplace for all Software-as-a-Service editions of GitLab.com for searching, installing and managing third-party extensions. It should be noted that some extensions cannot be used with the web-only version of GitLab, as they require a local runtime environment.
As can be seen from the documentation, the Extension Marketplace is preconfigured at the GitLab instance level and hardcoded to the Open VSX Registry –, an alternative to the Visual Studio Marketplace. The Eclipse Cloud DevTools working group initially maintained Open VSX, but in 2023 the marketplace moved under the auspices of its own working group.
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The Marketplace is deactivated by default. It can be activated in the Integrations section of the user settings. For Enterprise customers, only users with the Owner role for a top-level group can activate it.
More in-depth code suggestions with contextual reference
In all paid versions of GitLab, code suggestions from the AI support GitLab Duo now include more context: they refer to the content of open editor tabs, which should enable more relevant and accurate help. To do this, users must be using at least GitLab 17.2 and one of the supported programming languages. For code completion, these are all configured languages, while code generation is compatible with Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Python, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript (.ts and .tsx files), Vue and YAML.
However, if you do not want to receive code suggestions, you can deactivate this in the IDE editor extension. GitLab Duo can also be deactivated for a group, a project or an instance.
Other updates in GitLab 17.4 include automatic merging after passing all checks in merge requests and the merging of issue discussions via GitLab Duo Chat. However, the latter only applies to Ultimate users and subscribers to the AI toolkit GitLab Duo Enterprise, which was launched this month.
Further information on the new features can be found on the GitLab blog.
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