GitLab retro dispatch does not pass required env vars to pipeline

[ggallen]

Context

The retro agent now supports GitLab (agents PR #817, issue #816). When triggered via the GitLab CI API (source: api), the pipeline fails immediately at environment validation because the dispatch does not supply the required host variables.

Failed pipeline: https://gitlab.cee.redhat.com/gallen/integration-service/-/pipelines/17171756

Error

Error: validating env: env.runner[ORIGINATING_URL]: host variable ORIGINATING_URL is not set (referenced in "${ORIGINATING_URL}")

The harness declares these in env.runner (top-level, applies to both forges):

Variable	Required	Purpose
ORIGINATING_URL	Yes	MR/issue URL to analyze
REPO_FULL_NAME	Yes	Project path (e.g. group/project)

And these in the forge.gitlab section:

Variable	Required	Purpose
GITLAB_TOKEN	Yes	GitLab API token

For GitHub, the reusable dispatch workflow already sets these from workflow inputs and GitHub context. The GitLab dispatch equivalent needs to do the same.

Expected behavior

When the retro agent is triggered on a GitLab MR (via /fs-retro or MR close event), the dispatch should pass ORIGINATING_URL, REPO_FULL_NAME, and GITLAB_TOKEN as CI/CD variables in the pipeline trigger payload.

Related

• agents#816 — retro agent multi-forge issue
• agents#817 — retro agent multi-forge PR

[fullsend-ai-triage]

🤖 Finished Triage · ✅ Success · Started 4:21 PM UTC · Completed 4:26 PM UTC

Commit: 2c7812a · View workflow run →

[fullsend-ai-triage]

Triage Summary

Severity: High — GitLab retro dispatch is completely non-functional.

Root cause: The dispatch() function in internal/poll/dispatch.go builds pipeline variables for stage routing (STAGE, EVENT_TYPE, RESOURCE_KEY, etc.) but does not include the harness-level variables that the retro agent's env.runner section requires. The Poller struct already holds gitlabURL and projectPath, which are sufficient to construct both missing variables.

Recommended fix:

• Construct ORIGINATING_URL from p.gitlabURL + "/" + p.projectPath + "/-/merge_requests/" + iid (or /-/issues/ for issue events)
• Set REPO_FULL_NAME to p.projectPath
• For GITLAB_TOKEN, the secure approach is to expect it as a pre-configured protected CI/CD variable in the target project rather than forwarding it in the trigger payload

Note: The related cross-repo work (fullsend-ai/agents#817 — multi-forge retro agent) is still open. Both this dispatch fix and that PR need to land for GitLab retro to function end-to-end.

Proposed test case:

func TestDispatchRetroIncludesOriginatingURL(t *testing.T) {
    // Setup: poller with gitlabURL="https://gitlab.com", projectPath="group/project"
    // Dispatch a retro stage for MR event with IID=42
    // Assert variables include:
    //   ORIGINATING_URL = "https://gitlab.com/group/project/-/merge_requests/42"
    //   REPO_FULL_NAME  = "group/project"
    // Also test subgroup paths: "group/sub/project" → correct URL
}

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Labels: This is a dispatch-side bug affecting the retro agent on GitLab. The component/dispatch and agent/retro labels match the affected subsystem. type/bug and priority/high reflect the nature and severity.

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Next steps:

• /fs-code — agent creates a PR to implement this issue
• /fs-code <your instruction> — agent implements with your specific guidance

[fullsend-ai-coder]

🤖 Finished Code · ✅ Success · Started 4:28 PM UTC · Completed 4:37 PM UTC

Commit: 2c7812a · View workflow run →