GitLab Inc. announced Thursday the general availability of its new generative artificial intelligence chatbot Duo Chat, which can bring real-time guidance for both advanced software engineers and non-engineers with a conversational experience.

The new AI chat capability is now available as part of GitLab 16.11 and is designed to bring together all of the platform’s AI features into one natural language interface to connect DevSecOps lifecycle capabilities. DevSecOps is the practice of automating the integration of security practices, at every phase of the software development lifecycle, from the coding, through testing, delivery and finally deployment.

With the addition of Chat, GitLab said that users will have a side-by-side assistant within their coding, testing and deployment environment that can assist them in their workflows to help them along their development journey.

It combines capabilities including code explanation to help users understand unfamiliar code. Users need only highlight a section of their code and ask the chatbot to describe how it works to get a better understanding of what it does and how it works, all without needing to copy and paste it into Google or crack a book. This is because Chat lives in the same place that developers code, which means that they don’t need to go anywhere else to access it.

Developers can also use Chat to automate the creation of tests, which are useful for discovering bugs and issues before they’re a problem. Tests are fundamental for security by making certain that code is working as intended and doesn’t have vulnerabilities or potential pitfalls. Chat can also be used to add modules to the workflow pipeline, such as a vulnerability scanner, if the user discovers it hasn’t been enabled.

“An IDC generative AI survey revealed that developers leaning into generative AI code assistants have concerns about the security of the generated code,” said Jim Mercer, program vice president of software development, DevOps, and DevSecOps at International Data Corp. “The features in GitLab Duo can help organizations overcome these concerns and use AI to produce software more effectively while maintaining application security.”

Chat is available within the Duo Pro add-on, which is combined with other AI-enabled features such as code suggestions that can predictively complete entire blocks of code within a developer’s coding environment.

“GitLab Duo embeds AI throughout the software development lifecycle while keeping customer privacy and security at the forefront,” said David DeSanto, chief product officer at GitLab. “With the general availability of Chat, we look forward to partnering with our customers to help increase developer productivity, improve code quality and automate security for more efficient and secure software development.”

Duo Chat is available within the GitLab web interface, including the GitLab development environment and other popular development tools such as VS Code and the JetBrains suite of development tools. Chat can also be extended by adding custom tools to help users complete custom tasks that are unique to their organization, GitLab said.

The company said that the Duo Pro platform is built with privacy and security in mind. Private, non-public customer code stored in GitLab is not used for training or fine-tuning AI models. Additionally, a new AI privacy controls feature has been added for GitLab Premium and Ultimate subscribers.

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