Why we built GitGumbo
It started as a command-line script that found merge requests nobody had looked at in a while. It is now the screen we keep open all day instead of GitLab's own boards.
Blog
RSS feedAccessibility, and the difference between a claim and a measurement
We ran a full audit, fixed what it found, and shipped three accessibility settings. Here is what is genuinely fixed, what is now opt-in, and what still is not good enough.
Shared boards now show each member what they can actually see
A board used to render everything the syncing account could see, for everyone in the firm. Visibility is now resolved per viewer, against that viewer's own provider account.
Create a merge request from a card
Start a merge request for a GitLab issue without leaving the board. It creates a draft, with a branch, linked back to the issue.
Pick how dates are written
Day-first, month-first, or ISO. One pinned format for everybody was a decision nobody made deliberately.
Your issue titles are encrypted at rest
Issue titles are the most identifying thing we hold. They are now encrypted in the database and in the nightly backup, and the plaintext columns are gone rather than merely unused.
Blocked and blocking on GitHub boards
GitHub's issue dependencies now light up the same blocked and blocking indicators that GitLab boards have.
See what is blocked, and what it is blocking
Issue link relationships now render on the board — both directions — with lines drawn between the cards involved. Confidential GitLab issues are also marked as confidential.
Two retro board themes — Index Card and Post-it
Cards that look like index cards on a desk, and cards that look like sticky notes. A physical-looking board for people who miss the wall.
Switch to Free without emailing anyone
Downgrading is now a control on the billing page, next to the one that upgraded you. Leaving should be as easy as arriving.
Reorder cards within a column
Drag a card up or down inside its own column to set its position, on GitLab boards — with a keyboard and switch-accessible path that does the same thing.
Work-in-progress limits per column
Columns can carry a WIP limit and show when they are over it — and a column that cannot have one now explains why rather than leaving a blank space.
Boards whose columns are not labels
GitLab boards can build lists from assignees or milestones rather than labels. Those boards now render, and a board with lists we cannot draw says so instead of quietly dropping them.
Milestones and due dates on cards
Cards now show the milestone they belong to and the date they are due, on both providers, and both are exposed on the public API.
A denser board view
A density toggle that shrinks cards vertically, so you can see substantially more of a busy board without scrolling.
More themes, and following your system
The theme set is now Light, Dark, High Contrast, Gruvbox and Dracula — plus System, which follows your operating system instead of making you choose.
Board stats
A statistics view over your board's history — throughput, cycle time, work in progress, age distribution, contributors and review activity.
Switch between a project's GitLab boards
A project with several GitLab boards no longer collapses into one. Pick which board you are looking at from the board itself.
How your board stays current
There are two clocks between a change in GitLab and a change on your screen, they run at different speeds, and they are measured in different units. Here is what each one does.
Your theme follows you
The theme you pick is now stored against your account rather than in one browser, so it is the same on your laptop, your desktop and your phone.
Shared boards — firms, invites and roles
Projects, boards and billing now belong to a firm rather than to one person, so a team can share a board and a subscription without sharing a login.
Plans, checkout, and the billing portal
GitGumbo now has paid plans, with Stripe checkout, a self-serve billing portal, and project limits that follow your plan.
Webhooks, on both providers
GitLab and GitHub can now tell us when something changes instead of waiting to be asked, and GitLab webhook registration is scope-aware so it fails loudly rather than silently.
The board became a kanban board
Issues now render as cards in columns, and the columns come from the labels your project already uses rather than from a workflow you have to describe to us again.