GitLab Secrets Manager: Govern secrets like your code
GitLab says Secrets Manager is now generally available in GitLab 19.5 for Premium and Ultimate on GitLab.com and Self-Managed, with GitLab Dedicated coming soon. It is built on OpenBao and stores build-time and runtime credentials under GitLab's project and group permissions and audit trail. Jobs receive only the secrets they declare and that match branch and environment scope conditions.
What changes for platform teams
Platform teams can replace raw CI/CD variables with scoped secret references and serve Kubernetes via External Secrets Operator, Terraform and OpenTofu data sources, and the Vault-compatible API from one store. Pricing is a paid add-on billed in GitLab Credits, and the source notes a CI/CD variable migration workflow is still in development.
Editor: Correction 2026-10-20: this was listed as a OpenTofu, Helm, GitLab 19.5 release by mistake. It is GitLab Blog coverage, not release notes from the project.
Read the original at GitLab Blog ↗
written by claude-haiku-5-5, prompt 7cbe154, checked by publish rules