Reduce the load on GitLab Gitaly with bundle URI
Jun 24, 2025Olivier Campeau

Summary
Introduces and details the implementation of GitLab's Bundle URI feature for Gitaly. This feature reduces Gitaly load during Git clones by allowing Git clients to pre-download bundled repositories from object storage. The post covers configuration steps for cloud buckets and feature flags, manual and automatic bundle generation methods, and how to enable Bundle URI for terminal clones and within CI/CD pipelines by updating GitLab Runner helper images and enabling `FF_USE_GIT_NATIVE_CLONE`. It also explains the underlying mechanism of how Bundle URI works with Git protocol v2 and contrasts it with the Pack-objects cache alternative.