{"id":49521,"date":"2025-05-28T02:36:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T02:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=49521"},"modified":"2025-05-28T02:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T02:38:17","slug":"gitlab-guide-to-generating-dora-metrics-in-gitlab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/gitlab-guide-to-generating-dora-metrics-in-gitlab\/","title":{"rendered":"Gitlab – Guide to Generating DORA Metrics in GitLab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

GitLab 18.x Ultimate provides native support for all four DORA metrics<\/strong> via its REST API<\/strong>, giving engineering teams deep insights into the performance and reliability of their software delivery processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u2705 Prerequisites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before you begin, ensure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Requirement<\/th>Description<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
GitLab Tier<\/td>GitLab Ultimate (SaaS or Self-Managed)<\/td><\/tr>
User Role<\/td>At least Reporter on the target project\/group<\/td><\/tr>
API Access<\/td>A personal access token with read_api<\/code> scope<\/td><\/tr>
Environments<\/td>Deployments to production<\/code> tier are configured<\/td><\/tr>
Incidents (for MTTR\/CFR)<\/td>Use GitLab\u2019s built-in incident management<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udded Overview of Supported DORA Metrics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Metric<\/th>Description<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Deployment Frequency<\/td>How often code is deployed to production<\/td><\/tr>
Lead Time for Changes<\/td>Time between MR merge and deployment<\/td><\/tr>
Change Failure Rate<\/td>Ratio of failed deployments (with incidents) to total deployments<\/td><\/tr>
Time to Restore Service<\/td>Time from incident creation to resolution<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd27 Step 1: Setup Deployments and Environments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Define production environments in your CI\/CD pipeline:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
    deploy_prod:\n  stage: deploy\n  script:\n    - .\/deploy.sh\n  environment:\n    name: production\n    tier: production\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Ensure your production deployments are successfully tracked under:
      Project \u2192 Operations \u2192 Environments<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n
      \ud83d\udee0 Step 2: Use GitLab\u2019s Incidents (For CFR + MTTR)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Go to: Project \u2192 Monitor \u2192 Incidents<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Create incidents manually or via \/incident<\/code> in issues<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Ensure incidents are associated with the correct environment (production<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Close incidents when resolved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        \ud83e\uddea Step 3: Generate DORA Metrics Using REST API<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \ud83d\udd38 Project-Level DORA Metrics<\/h3>\n\n\n
        GET \/projects\/:id\/dora\/metrics\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Example Request:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        curl --header \"PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>\"<\/span> \\\n  \"https:\/\/gitlab.com\/api\/v4\/projects\/123456\/dora\/metrics?metric=deployment_frequency&start_date=2024-01-01&end_date=2024-04-01\"<\/span>\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JavaScript<\/span> (<\/span>javascript<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        \ud83d\udd38 Group-Level DORA Metrics<\/h3>\n\n\n
        GET \/groups\/:id\/dora\/metrics\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Example Request:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        curl --header \"PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>\"<\/span> \\\n  \"https:\/\/gitlab.com\/api\/v4\/groups\/5678\/dora\/metrics?metric=lead_time_for_changes&interval=daily\"<\/span>\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JavaScript<\/span> (<\/span>javascript<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        \ud83d\udccc Supported API Parameters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        Parameter<\/th>Description<\/th>Default<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
        metric<\/code><\/td>Required. One of: deployment_frequency<\/code>, lead_time_for_changes<\/code>, change_failure_rate<\/code>, time_to_restore_service<\/code><\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
        start_date<\/code><\/td>ISO 8601 start date<\/td>3 months ago<\/td><\/tr>
        end_date<\/code><\/td>ISO 8601 end date<\/td>Today<\/td><\/tr>
        interval<\/code><\/td>daily<\/code>, monthly<\/code>, all<\/code><\/td>daily<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
        environment_tiers<\/code><\/td>production<\/code>, staging<\/code>, etc.<\/td>production<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n
        \ud83d\udce5 Example Responses<\/h2>\n\n\n
        [\n  { \"date\"<\/span>: \"2024-04-01\"<\/span>, \"value\"<\/span>: 4<\/span> },\n  { \"date\"<\/span>: \"2024-04-02\"<\/span>, \"value\"<\/span>: 2<\/span> }\n]\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JSON \/ JSON with Comments<\/span> (<\/span>json<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
          \n
        • value<\/code> meaning depends on the metric:\n
            \n
          • Deployment Frequency<\/strong>: # of successful deployments<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Lead Time<\/strong>: Seconds between merge and deploy<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Change Failure Rate<\/strong>: Ratio (e.g. 0.25 = 25%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • MTTR<\/strong>: Seconds taken to resolve incidents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            \ud83d\udcc8 Step 4: Visualize & Analyze Metrics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • Metrics appear in Project \u2192 Analytics \u2192 CI\/CD \u2192 DORA Metrics<\/strong> (UI available if licensed)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • You can export metrics to:\n
                \n
              • Grafana \/ PowerBI \/ Google Sheets<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • GitLab CI pipeline reports or Slack alerts<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                \n\n\n\n
                \u2699\ufe0f Step 5: Automate DORA API Pulls Using GitLab CI Job<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                Add the following job to your .gitlab-ci.yml<\/code> file:<\/p>\n\n\n
                dora_metrics:\n  stage: report\n  script:\n    - mkdir -p dora\n    - |\n      for<\/span> metric in deployment_frequency lead_time_for_changes change_failure_rate time_to_restore_service; do<\/span>\n        curl --silent --header \"PRIVATE-TOKEN: $GITLAB_TOKEN\"<\/span> \\\n          \"https:\/\/gitlab.com\/api\/v4\/projects\/$CI_PROJECT_ID\/dora\/metrics?metric=$metric&start_date=$(date -I -d '30 days ago')&end_date=$(date -I)&interval=daily\"<\/span> \\\n          > \"dora\/${metric}.json\"<\/span>\n      done\n    - echo<\/span> \"\u2705 DORA metrics saved in the 'dora' directory\"<\/span>\n  artifacts:\n    paths:\n      - dora\/\n    expire_in: 7<\/span> days\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
                \ud83d\udd10 CI\/CD Variable Required<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
                Key<\/th>Value<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
                GITLAB_TOKEN<\/code><\/td>Your personal access token with read_api<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                This will generate JSON files in dora\/<\/code> which can be uploaded to dashboards or emailed\/reported as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
                \n\n\n\n
                \ud83e\udde0 Best Practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                • Keep production<\/code> tier tagging consistent for environments<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Use structured commit messages to link MRs to features<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Automate incident creation when pipeline fails in production<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Pull metrics into dashboards to observe trends<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                  \n\n\n\n
                  \u2705 Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  DORA Metric<\/th>Setup Required<\/th>How to Fetch<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
                  Deployment Frequency<\/td>Deployments with production<\/code> tier<\/td>\/dora\/metrics?metric=deployment_frequency<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
                  Lead Time for Changes<\/td>MRs + Production Deployments<\/td>\/dora\/metrics?metric=lead_time_for_changes<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
                  Change Failure Rate<\/td>Incidents + Deployments<\/td>\/dora\/metrics?metric=change_failure_rate<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
                  MTTR<\/td>Incident open \u2192 close duration<\/td>\/dora\/metrics?metric=time_to_restore_service<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                  \n\n\n\n
                  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
                  GitLab 18.x Ultimate provides native support for all four DORA metrics via its REST API, giving engineering teams deep insights into the performance and reliability of their software delivery processes…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49523,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49521\/revisions\/49523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}