GitLab Duo Chat gets agentic AI makeover Close To search repositories and projects, login to gitlab.com . Suggestions GitLab Duo Agent Platform Code Suggestions (AI) CI/CD GitLab on AWS GitLab on Google Cloud Why GitLab? * Platform Execution & Workflows * CI/CD * Source Code Management * Agile Delivery Security & Governance * Application Security Testing * Governance & Compliance * Supply Chain Security Context & AI * Agentic Orchestration * Context Graph * Visibility & Measurement Explore the Platform Why GitLab One platform for speed with control across your software lifecycle. Learn more * Solutions Outcomes * DevOps Modernization * Security Modernization * AI Modernization By size * Enterprise * Small Business * Startups Industries * Financial Services * Public Sector * Telecommunications * Automotive * Education * Aerospace View all Solutions GitLab Transcend Catch our latest innovations announced at the last Transcend. Read the blog * Pricing * Resources Discover * Docs * University * Demo Series * Demo Hub * Services Connect * Blog * Community * Customers * Partners * Events View all resources What’s new in GitLab Stay updated with our latest features and improvements. Read the latest * Company * About * Jobs * Press * Handbook * Leadership * Investor relations * Trust Center * AI Transparency Center * Newsletter * Contact us * Talk to sales * Support portal * Customer portal Request a demo Get free trial Sign in * English * Deutsch * Français * 日本語 Get free trial Ship at agent speed. Prove every step. Transcend returns on October 6. Register now Blog AI GitLab Duo Chat gets agentic AI makeover Published on: May 29, 2025 6 min read GitLab Duo Chat gets agentic AI makeover Our new Duo Chat experience, currently an experimental release, helps developers onboard to projects, understand assignments, implement changes, and more. Torsten Linz AI news features DevSecOps platform product tutorial Generative AI chat assistants have become standard in software development, helping create and fix code just to start. But what if your chat assistant could understand the artifacts of your entire development process, not just your code? What if that chat assistant could help you work through issues and project documentation before it helps you write code, and could access CI/CD pipelines and merge requests to help you finish coding tasks properly? Meet the next generation of GitLab Duo Chat – GitLab Duo Agentic Chat, a significant evolution in AI-native development assistance and the newest addition to our platform, now in experimental release . GitLab Duo Agentic Chat is currently available as an experimental feature in VS Code to all users on GitLab.com that have any one of these add-ons: Duo Core, Duo Pro, or Duo Enterprise. Agentic Chat transforms chat from traditional conversational AI to a chat experience that takes action on your behalf, breaking down complex problems into discrete tasks that it can complete. Instead of simply responding to questions with the context you provide, Agentic Chat can: * Autonomously determine what information it needs to answer your questions * Execute a sequence of operations to gather that information from multiple sources * Formulate comprehensive responses by combining insights from across your project * Create and modify files to help you implement solutions And all of this is done while keeping the human developer within the loop. Agentic Chat is built on the Duo Workflow architecture, which is currently in private beta . The architecture comprises agents and tools that take on specific tasks like finding the right context for a given question or editing files. Use cases for GitLab Duo Agentic Chat Here are some real-world and common use cases for Agentic Chat: * Onboard to new projects faster by having AI help you familiarize yourself with a new codebase. * Jump into assigned work immediately, even when issue descriptions are unclear, because Agentic Chat can help you connect the dots between requirements and existing implementations. * When it's time to make changes, Agentic Chat can handle the implementation work by creating and editing multiple files across your project. * At release time, Agentic Chat can help you verify that your solution actually addresses the original requirements by analyzing your merge requests against the initial issue or task. Agentic Chat making code edits From learning to shipping: A complete workflow demonstration in four steps To show how Agentic Chat transforms the development experience, let's walk through a real scenario from our engineering teams. Imagine you're a new team member who's been assigned an issue but knows nothing about the codebase. You can follow along with this video demonstration: Step 1: Understand the project Instead of manually exploring files and documentation, you can prompt Agentic Chat: Copy I am new to this project. Could you read the project structure and explain it to me? Agentic Chat provides a comprehensive project overview by: * Exploring the directory structure * Reading README files and documentation * Identifying key components and applications Step 2: Understand your assigned task Next, you need to understand your specific assignment, so you can enter this prompt: Copy I have been assigned Issue 1119. Could you help me understand this task, specifically where do I need to apply the refactoring? Agentic Chat explains the task and proposes a refactoring approach by: * Retrieving and analyzing the issue details from the remote GitLab server * Examining relevant project files * Identifying the specific locations requiring changes Step 3: Implement the solution Rather than doing the work manually, you can request: Copy Could you make the edits for me? Please start with steps one, two, three. Agentic Chat then: * Creates new directories and files as needed * Extracts and refactors code across multiple locations * Ensures consistency across all modified files * Provides a summary of all changes made Step 4: Verify completion Finally, after creating your merge request, you can verify your work: Copy Does my MR fully address Issue 1119? Agentic Chat confirms whether all requirements have been met by analyzing both your merge request and the original issue. Try it today and share your feedback GitLab Duo Agentic Chat is currently available as an experimental feature in VS Code to all users on GitLab.com that have any one of these add-ons: Duo Core, Duo Pro, or Duo Enterprise. See our setup documentation for prerequisites and configuration steps. As an experimental feature, Agentic Chat has some known limitations we're actively addressing, including slower response times due to multiple API calls, keyword-based rather than semantic search, and limited support for new local folders or non-GitLab projects. Your feedback is crucial in helping us prioritize improvements and bring Agentic Chat to general availability so please share your experience in this issue . What's next? We are fully focused on improving Agentic Chat, including bringing it to general availability. In the meantime, we are aiming to improve response times and are adding capabilities that GitLab Duo Chat currently has, such as using self-hosted models or supporting JetBrains and Visual Studio in addition to VS Code. Once we have switched Duo Chat to this new architecture we plan to also bring Agentic Chat to the chat in the GitLab web application. We also plan to add a lot more functionality, such as editing GitLab artifacts, supporting context from custom Model Context Protocol, or MCP, servers, and offering commands to run in the terminal. Ready to experience autonomous development assistance but not yet a GitLab customer? Try Agentic Chat today as part of a free trial of GitLab Ultimate with Duo Enterprise and help shape the future of AI-powered development. Follow these setup steps for VS Code . And make sure to join the GitLab 18 virtual launch event to learn about our agentic AI plans and more. Register today! Disclaimer: This blog contains information related to upcoming products, features, and functionality. It is important to note that the information in this blog post is for informational purposes only. Please do not rely on this information for purchasing or planning purposes. As with all projects, the items mentioned in this blog and linked pages are subject to change or delay. The development, release, and timing of any products, features, or functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab. Learn more * GitLab Duo Workflow: Enterprise visibility and control for agentic AI * What is agentic AI? * Agentic AI guides and resources Is AI achieving its promise at scale? Get your AI maturity score Quiz will take 5 minutes or less More to explore View all blog posts AI GPT-6 Astra on GitLab: Faster runs, fewer tokens used Read the blog AI Bring your own model to GitLab Duo Self-Hosted with Microsoft Foundry Read the blog AI GitLab’s internal playbook to foster AI-fluent technical teams Read the blog We want to hear from you Enjoyed reading this blog post or have questions or feedback? Share your thoughts by creating a new topic in the GitLab community forum. Share your feedback Start building faster today See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. Get your free trial Contact sales ® Footer links Pricing * View plans * Why Premium? * Why Ultimate? Contact Us * Contact sales * Support portal * Customer portal * Status * Terms of use * Privacy statement * Platform * Explore the platform * Agentic Orchestration * CI/CD * Context Graph * Why GitLab Topics * CI/CD * GitOps * DevOps * Version Control * DevSecOps * Cloud Native * AI for Coding * Agentic AI Solutions * DevOps modernization * Security modernization * AI modernization * Financial services * Public sector * Telecommunications * Automotive * Education * Aerospace * Enterprise * Small business * Startups * GitOps * Software composition analysis * Value stream management * All solutions Resources * Install * Quick start guides * Docs * University * Demo Series * Demo Hub * Services * Blog * Community * Customers * Partners * Events * Newsletter * What's new * All resources Company * About * Jobs * Press * Handbook * Leadership * Investor relations * Trust Center * AI Transparency Center * Sustainability * Diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB) * Modern Slavery Transparency Statement * * * * Git is a trademark of Software Freedom Conservancy and our use of 'GitLab' is under license View page source Edit this page Please contribute © 2026 GitLab Inc.