GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions

GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions, known as GitLab Duo Code Suggestions, is a cutting-edge tool designed to enhance coding efficiency and productivity. This feature works by offering predictive coding, which means it can complete code blocks, generate logic for function declarations, and suggest common code patterns like regex expressions. Additionally, it provides suggestions for tests, making the coding process smoother and more efficient.

A key aspect of GitLab Duo Code Suggestions is its commitment to data privacy. The tool does not use private, non-public customer code as training data, ensuring that developers' proprietary information remains secure. This feature aligns well with GitLab's focus on transparency and privacy.

The tool supports a wide range of programming languages including C++, C#, Go, Google SQL, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Swift, and TypeScript. It's designed to be compatible with various integrated development environments (IDEs), such as the GitLab Web IDE, VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains-based IDEs, and NeoVIM, offering versatility for different development workflows.

GitLab Duo Code Suggestions utilizes the Claude AI model developed by Anthropic, which is specifically chosen for its ability to generate helpful, trusted code while maintaining a high level of integrity and safety in code generation. This AI model helps in generating algorithms or code blocks directly within the developer's IDE, based on the developer's instructions, thus saving time and effort on complex coding tasks.

This tool is available for both SaaS and self-managed GitLab instances, ensuring a broad range of accessibility for developers. Its availability, however, is subject to change. As of now, it's free and open access, but starting from February 15, 2024, it will become a paid add-on under the GitLab Duo Pro service.

In summary, GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions tool is a powerful asset for developers, offering enhanced coding productivity, a strong commitment to data privacy, and seamless integration with various IDEs. Its use of advanced AI technology, such as Anthropic's Claude AI model, ensures reliable and safe code generation, making it a valuable tool in the modern software development landscape.

GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions tool serves a variety of use cases, particularly in enhancing coding productivity and streamlining the software development process. Here are some key applications of this tool:

1. Predictive Coding and Logic Generation: It assists developers by predicting and completing code blocks, which is particularly useful when working with repetitive or complex code structures. This feature can also generate logic for function declarations, helping to speed up the development process.
2. Effortless Function Start and Boilerplate Code Assistance: For tasks that involve initiating functions or generating boilerplate code, the tool simplifies these processes, allowing developers to focus on more critical aspects of their projects.
3. Error Reduction and Code Quality Improvement: By providing intelligent code suggestions, the tool helps in reducing errors and improving the overall quality of the code. This is especially valuable in large projects where maintaining code quality can be challenging.
4. Enhancing Code Review Processes: The tool can be integrated into the code review process, helping to speed up reviews and reduce errors. It can highlight important changes, suggest improvements, and even propose test cases, thereby making the review process more efficient and thorough.
5. Multi-Language Support: Covering a wide range of programming languages, the tool offers versatility for developers working in different coding environments.
6. Data Privacy and Security: A significant aspect of GitLab's tool is its commitment to data privacy and security. It ensures that proprietary source code is protected, which is crucial for organizations concerned about intellectual property and data security.

In essence, GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions tool is designed to cater to the needs of software developers and coding teams aiming to boost productivity, reduce errors, and streamline the development lifecycle. Its features make it suitable for various coding scenarios, from individual development tasks to large-scale software projects.

As of 2024, GitLab offers three main subscription plans:

1. Free Plan: This plan is cost-free and includes features such as 5GiB storage, 10GiB transfer per month, 400 compute minutes per month, and allows up to 5 users per top-level group.
2. Premium Plan: Priced at $29 per user per month (billed annually), the Premium plan builds upon the Free plan by adding enhanced features like Code Ownership and Protected Branches, Merge Requests with Approval Rules, Enterprise Agile Planning, Advanced CI/CD, Enterprise User and Incident Management, 50GiB storage, 100GiB transfer per month, and 10,000 compute minutes per month.
3. Ultimate Plan: This plan is designed for enterprises and includes all features in the Premium plan, plus additional capabilities like Suggested Reviewers, Dynamic Application Security Testing, Security Dashboards, Vulnerability Management, Dependency Scanning, Container Scanning, Static Application Security Testing, Multi-Level Epics, Portfolio Management, Custom Roles, Value Stream Management, 250GiB storage, 500GiB transfer per month, 50,000 compute minutes per month, and free guest users.

Additionally, GitLab offers add-ons like GitLab Duo Pro, Enterprise Agile Planning, extra compute minutes, and additional storage options, each priced separately.

GitLab's team comprises 67 members, including key executives and a board of advisors. Sytse Sijbrandij, the Co-founder and CEO, leads the company. The executive team includes Robin Schulman as Chief Legal Officer and Head of Corporate Affairs, Brian Robins as Chief Financial Officer, Ashley Kramer as Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, and Mike Pyle as VP of Worldwide Enterprise Sales. Eliran Mesika is the Director of Corporate Development, and Taylor McCaslin serves as Group Manager of Product, Data Science. Sabrina Farmer holds the position of Chief Technology Officer. The board has 11 members and advisors, including Merline Saintil.



Sytse Sijbrandij

Co-founder and CEO



Robin Schulman

Chief Legal Officer and Head of Corporate Affairs



Brian Robins

Chief Financial Officer



Ashley Kramer

Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer



Mike Pyle

VP of Worldwide Enterprise Sales



Eliran Mesika

Director of Corporate Development



Taylor McCaslin

Group Manager of Product



Sabrina Farmer

Chief Technology Officer



Merline Saintil

Advisor

GitLab has raised a total of $413.5 million through six funding rounds. Their most significant funding, a Series E round, occurred on September 17, 2019, raising $268 million with Goldman Sachs and ICONIQ Growth as lead investors. Other notable rounds include a $100 million Series D in 2018 and a $20 million Series C in 2017. GitLab's IPO took place on October 14, 2021, under the ticker NASDAQ:GTLB, opening at a price of $77.00. The company has 20 investors, including prominent names like Goldman Sachs and Tiger Management Corporation. As of September 2019, GitLab's post-money valuation was estimated to be between $1 billion and $10 billion. Additionally, GitLab has made seven acquisitions, with the most recent being Opstrace in December 2021.