Glossary

Glossary

Plain-language definitions for the names, acronyms, and terms used across the Theseus pages.

Theseus basics

Theseus — GitLab’s developer platform for building new services.
Component — One new piece of software built on Theseus.
Modular GitLab — GitLab’s larger effort to reorganize how the company builds and runs its product. Theseus is the tool that effort depends on; it is not the effort itself.
Monolith — GitLab’s original, single large codebase that most of the product has historically been built into.
v1 — The first version of Theseus, covering both the Pilot and GA milestones.
Pilot — The first, small, real-world release of Theseus, October 30 2026, running the first two components.
GA, General Availability — The point where Theseus becomes the default, standard way to build a new component, January 29 2027.

GitLab.com — GitLab’s own hosted product that most customers use.
Dedicated — GitLab’s offering for customers who want their own private, GitLab-managed instance.
Self-managed — Customers who run GitLab on their own servers instead of on GitLab.com.
Kubernetes — A common way to run software across many machines at once.
Omnibus — GitLab’s older, all-in-one install method for self-managed customers.
CNG, Cloud Native GitLab — GitLab’s newer install method for self-managed customers, built to run on Kubernetes.
OAK, Omnibus-Adjacent Kubernetes — The way Theseus delivers components to self-managed customers who still use Omnibus but bring their own Kubernetes alongside it.
Helm — A common tool for installing and configuring software on Kubernetes; one way self-managed customers set up components.
Operator — A more automated way to manage components on Kubernetes, built on top of Helm.
Bridge — A simple, point-and-click screen, in early testing, for self-managed admins to install and manage components without editing configuration files.
Crete — A single-machine install option, in early testing, for self-managed customers who don’t want to run a full Kubernetes setup.
Tenant Scale — The team that operates GitLab.com’s and Cells' infrastructure, deciding how and when updates roll out to customers.
Cells — A way of organizing and scaling GitLab.com’s infrastructure.

Artifact Registry — One of the first two real components running on Theseus.
GATE — A smaller piece that’s part of Artifact Registry.
Orbit — The other of the first two real components running on Theseus.
AutoFlow — The next component planned to use Theseus, a workflow-automation tool. It needs more from the platform than the first two components did.

Infrastructure and Platforms Monetization Roadmap — The fuller, epic-by-epic roadmap for this work, for anyone who wants more detail than these pages cover.

Last updated on September 8, 2026