glw

watch a gitlab pipeline. ding when done.

$ glw
14:02:11  watching pipeline #987654 (root status: running)
14:02:11  #987654 running   https://gitlab.com/foo/bar/-/pipelines/987654
14:03:42  #987654 → discovered downstream #987655  https://gitlab.com/foo/deploy/-/pipelines/987655
14:03:42  #987655 created   https://gitlab.com/foo/deploy/-/pipelines/987655
14:04:11  #987655 manual    https://gitlab.com/foo/deploy/-/pipelines/987655
                ↑ desktop notification fires here ("needs manual trigger")
14:06:31  #987655 running
14:08:01  #987654 success
14:08:11  #987655 success
14:08:11  ✓ done — success: #987654 #987655
                ↑ second notification fires here

one bash file. zero deps beyond glab. mac + linux. caveman tier.

install

prereq — install glab and log in once:

glab auth login

then drop glw somewhere on your $PATH:

sudo install -m 0755 glw /usr/local/bin/glw

(or just chmod +x glw && cp glw ~/bin/ — whatever. it's one script.)

use

glw                                                  # latest pipeline on current branch (run from inside the repo)
glw 1234567                                          # by pipeline id (uses current repo for project context)
glw https://gitlab.com/foo/bar/-/pipelines/1234567   # by url — works from anywhere, including cross-project

what it does, every GLW_POLL seconds:

1. polls the pipeline you pointed it at
2. discovers any downstream / triggered child pipelines via the bridges api and adds them to the watch
3. fires a desktop notification + bell on any pipeline hitting manual (it'll keep watching after you trigger it)
4. exits when the whole tree is done. 0 if every pipeline ended success/skipped. 1 if any ended failed/canceled. final desktop notification + bell on the way out.

so you can chain:

glw && ./deploy.sh

ctrl-c to stop watching at any time.

config

env vars (also see .env.example):

var	default	what
GLW_POLL	10	seconds between polls

glab itself handles auth / token / instance host — glw doesn't need any of that.

notifications

best to worst, glw tries each in turn:

• mac: terminal-notifier → osascript (built-in)
• linux: notify-send (libnotify; usually preinstalled with most desktops)
• fallback: terminal bell (\a)

if you're on a headless box, the bell is all you'll get — that's fine, exit code still works for glw && deploy.

how it works (briefly)

• pipeline tree state lives in parallel bash arrays keyed by globally-unique pipeline id; we map id → project id so cross-project downstreams just work.
• json parsing is grep/sed — no jq dep. only the few fields we need (id, project_id, status, web_url).
• manual is treated as "stuck waiting on a human" — notify once, keep polling. only success/failed/canceled/skipped are terminal for exit.
• the script polls glab api directly rather than glab ci ... text output, since the json shape is more stable than the cli's pretty-printing.