How to Deploy to Kubernetes With kubectl in GitLab CI/CD

kubectl set image triggers a rolling update and kubectl rollout status makes the job wait until it succeeds.

Point kubectl at your cluster, run kubectl set image to bump the Deployment to the new tag, then block on kubectl rollout status so a stuck rollout fails the pipeline.

Steps

• Provide a kubeconfig via a masked file variable.
• Run kubectl set image deployment/<name> <container>=<image>.
• Wait with kubectl rollout status and a timeout.
• Scope the job to the default branch.

.gitlab-ci.yml

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: bitnami/kubectl:1.30
  variables:
    KUBECONFIG: /tmp/kubeconfig
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH'
  script:
    - echo "$KUBE_CONFIG_B64" | base64 -d > "$KUBECONFIG"
    - kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp="$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA" -n production
    - kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n production --timeout=120s

Gotchas

• Store the kubeconfig as a masked, protected file variable so it never prints to logs.
• Without rollout status the job passes even when the new pods crash-loop.

Related guides