CI/CD with GitLab CI

RAPS provides four reusable GitLab CI templates that you can include in any .gitlab-ci.yml file. Each template defines a hidden job (prefixed with .) that you extend with your own variables, giving you a clean, declarative way to automate APS operations in GitLab pipelines.

Workflow Overview

Available Templates

All templates are hosted at dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions under the gitlab/ directory.

Include Templates

Add the remote templates to your .gitlab-ci.yml using the include: remote pattern:

include:
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/setup.yml'
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/upload.yml'
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/translate.yml'
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/pipeline.yml'

Required Variables

Set your APS credentials in Settings → CI/CD → Variables:

• APS_CLIENT_ID — Your APS application client ID
• APS_CLIENT_SECRET — Your APS application client secret

Mark both variables as Protected and Masked to keep them secure. The hidden jobs reference these variables automatically, so no extra configuration is needed in your job definitions.

Upload + Translate Pipeline

A complete .gitlab-ci.yml that uploads Revit models and translates them to SVF2, with downloadable output artifacts:

include:
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/setup.yml'
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/upload.yml'
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/translate.yml'

stages:
  - upload
  - translate

upload-models:
  stage: upload
  extends: .raps-upload
  variables:
    RAPS_BUCKET: my-project-models
    RAPS_FILES: "models/*.rvt"
    RAPS_CREATE_BUCKET: "true"

translate-model:
  stage: translate
  extends: .raps-translate
  variables:
    RAPS_URN: "$MODEL_URN"
    RAPS_TIMEOUT: "30m"
    RAPS_DOWNLOAD: "true"
    RAPS_OUTPUT_DIR: "./output"
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - output/

How it works

1. Include — The remote templates are fetched and their hidden jobs become available.
2. Upload stage — The upload-models job extends .raps-upload, which installs RAPS, authenticates, and uploads all .rvt files to the specified OSS bucket.
3. Translate stage — The translate-model job extends .raps-translate, which translates the model and downloads the derivative output to ./output.
4. Artifacts — The translated output is saved as a GitLab artifact for download or use in downstream jobs.

Custom RAPS Commands

For operations beyond upload and translate, extend .raps-setup directly and write your own script. This gives you a fully authenticated RAPS CLI to use however you need:

include:
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/setup.yml'

custom-job:
  extends: .raps-setup
  script:
    - raps bucket list
    - raps translate status $URN --output json

Example: Nightly Cleanup

cleanup-old-models:
  extends: .raps-setup
  rules:
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule"
  script:
    - |
      echo "Listing objects in bucket..."
      raps object list my-project-models --output json
      echo "Cleanup complete"

Pipeline File Execution

Run declarative RAPS pipeline files using the pipeline template:

include:
  - remote: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmytro-yemelianov/raps-actions/v1/gitlab/pipeline.yml'

run-pipeline:
  extends: .raps-pipeline
  variables:
    RAPS_PIPELINE_FILE: "raps-pipeline.yaml"
    RAPS_DRY_RUN: "false"

Set RAPS_DRY_RUN to "true" in merge request pipelines to validate without executing.

Troubleshooting

CI/CD variable visibility

If jobs fail with authentication errors, check variable scope. Variables set at the project level may not be visible to pipelines triggered from forks. For protected branches, ensure the variables are marked as Protected and the branch or tag matches.

Ubuntu image dependencies

The RAPS templates use the default GitLab runner image. If you override the image keyword, make sure it includes curl and bash as the setup job requires them to install the RAPS binary.

custom-job:
  extends: .raps-setup
  image: ubuntu:22.04
  before_script:
    - apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl
  script:
    - raps bucket list

Timeout format

The RAPS_TIMEOUT variable accepts duration strings like 30m, 1h, or 90m. Do not use bare numbers — 30 is not valid. Always include the unit suffix.

Merge request pipelines

Use GitLab rules to run dry-run validation on merge requests and full execution on the default branch:

translate-model:
  extends: .raps-translate
  rules:
    - if: $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ID
      variables:
        RAPS_DRY_RUN: "true"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

Related

• CI/CD with GitHub Actions — GitHub Actions for RAPS
• Cookbook: AEC & BIM — AEC workflow recipes
• Model Coordination Pipeline — Multi-discipline model coordination