GitLab has announced that Duo Chat is now generally available in GitLab 16.11, offering a range of AI features in a single natural language chat experience.

GitLab Chat provides real-time guidance for tasks such as understanding code and boosting collaboration. The new announcement extends the reach of GitLab Duo capabilities. The chat option is being made available as part of GitLab Duo Pro, which is an add-on available for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs or in the GitLab IDE.

The GitLab Duo Chat is part of GitLab Duo Pro, and GitLab says it will remain available to existing Premium and Ultimate customers (without the add-on) for a short period of time 'to ease the transition for Chat beta users who have yet to purchase GitLab Duo Pro'. An announcement will be made at the point that access changes to be restricted to Duo Pro subscribers.

Duo Chat is part of the release of GitLab 16.11, which also adds code explanation, code refactoring, and automatic test generation.

GitLab Duo Chat consists of a natural-language chat interface that processes and generates text and code in a conversational manner. Users can ask questions about GitLab topics, code issues and epics. 

Chat can also be extended by adding custom tools specific to an organization.

GitLab's 2023 State of AI in Software Development Report found that developers spend 75% of their time on tasks other than writing code, including understanding and improving existing code, maintaining code, and testing. The report also found that over three-quarters of DevSecOps professionals said they are concerned about AI tools having access to private information or intellectual property.

The new feature offers code explanation to help developers understand unfamiliar code, along with code refactoring designed to improve and modernize existing code. The tool can also be used to generate tests for functions and methods.

Chat is currently freely accessible by all Ultimate and Premium users. Instance administrators, group owners, and project owners can choose to restrict Duo features from accessing and processing their data.

More Information

GitLab Homepage

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