You don't need to write massive, robotic system instructions every time you want your AI agent to finish a Merge Request.
When you connect GitLab Mail, Antigravity IDE, CodeRabbit, and the glab CLI, simple plain-English prompts are all it takes to turn maintainer feedback into merged code.
Here is the visual flow of how a single plain-English prompt moves your code from an email notification straight onto the GitLab Merge Train:
+-----------------+ +------------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+
| 1. GitLab Mail | --> | 2. Antigravity | --> | 3. CodeRabbit | --> | 4. Green CI/CD | --> | 5. Merge Train |
| Unread Review | | Applies Fixes | | Strips Dead Code| | Passes RuboCop | | Auto-Dispatched |
+-----------------+ +------------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+
Below are the Top 10 Simple Human English Prompts you can copy and paste directly into Antigravity IDE for every real-world GitLab scenario.
1. The "All-in-One" Mail-to-Merge-Train Prompt (Most Popular)
When to use it: You just opened your laptop, saw GitLab emails in your inbox, and want the agent to handle everything silently from start to finish.
Prompt:
Check my unread GitLab emails, find the Merge Requests where maintainers left feedback, and fix every issue they pointed out. Run CodeRabbit to remove any unwanted or leftover lines of code, make sure everything follows the GitLab Handbook, get the CI/CD pipeline 100% green, and put the MR directly onto the Merge Train without asking me any questions.
2. The "Fix One Specific MR Right Now" Prompt
When to use it: Antigravity just listed your open MRs (like !264864 or !4539) and asked which one you want to process first.
Prompt:
Work on MR !264864 right now. Read all the maintainer and CodeRabbit comments, checkout the branch, fix the code, remove any extra lines we don't need, run the local tests, push the fix, and send it straight to the Merge Train. Do not stop to ask me for confirmation.
3. The "Clear My Whole MR Queue While I Sleep" Prompt
When to use it: You have multiple open MRs across gitlab-org/gitlab, gitlab-lsp, and ai-assist and want the agent to finish all of them one by one.
Prompt:
Go through all of my open GitLab Merge Requests one by one, starting with the fastest repos first. For each MR, read the latest review comments, fix the code, clean up the diff with CodeRabbit, pass all local linters and tests, push the changes, and add it to the Merge Train automatically.
4. The "CodeRabbit Deep Clean & Diff Diet" Prompt
When to use it: Your feature works, but you want to make sure there are zero unused imports, dead lines, or accidental formatting changes before a GitLab maintainer looks at it.
Prompt:
Review my current branch with CodeRabbit and compare the diff against the main branch. Delete any unwanted lines of code, unused variables, debug logs, or accidental formatting changes so the diff is 100% surgical and clean. Run the tests, push the cleaned branch, and enable Merge Train.
5. The "Heal My Broken CI/CD Pipeline" Prompt
When to use it: A maintainer approved your MR, or you just pushed a fix, but a CI job (like rubocop, rspec, eslint, or ruff) failed in the pipeline.
Prompt:
Check the failing CI/CD jobs on my active Merge Request. Read the failure logs, fix the broken tests or linter errors locally inside Antigravity IDE, verify they pass on my machine, push the fix, watch the pipeline until it turns 100% green, and put the MR back on the Merge Train.
6. The "Fix Dangerbot & GitLab Handbook Rules" Prompt
When to use it: The GitLab danger-review job failed because of commit message length (> 72 chars), missing Changelog: trailers, or MR description rules.
Prompt:
My pipeline failed on the GitLab Dangerbot check. Rewrite my commit messages and MR metadata so they strictly follow the GitLab Handbook rules (under 72 characters per line, proper Changelog trailer, and clean formatting). Force-push safely with lease and start the Merge Train once CI passes.
7. The "Rebase & Fix Merge Conflicts" Prompt
When to use it: Your MR got kicked off the Merge Train or shows a merge conflict because master/main moved ahead.
Prompt:
Pull the latest upstream main/master branch and cleanly rebase my current MR branch. Fix any merge conflicts without keeping any unwanted code, run CodeRabbit and local tests on the updated files, push the rebased branch, and put the MR right back onto the Merge Train.
8. The "Add Missing Tests Requested by Maintainer" Prompt
When to use it: A maintainer replies: "Looks good, but can we add unit test / RSpec coverage for this edge case?"
Prompt:
Read the maintainer's latest comment asking for more test coverage on this MR. Write clean, minimal tests covering the exact edge cases they mentioned, make sure 100% of the test suite and linters pass locally, reply to their comment with the new commit hash, and queue the MR on the Merge Train.
9. The "Reply to Maintainers & Resolve Threads" Prompt
When to use it: You fixed the code, and now all the open review threads need polite, handbook-compliant replies with the commit SHA so the MR isn't blocked by unresolved discussions.
Prompt:
Check all open review discussions on this MR. Verify that every point raised by the maintainer and CodeRabbit is fixed in the code, reply politely to each thread with the exact commit SHA that fixed it, resolve the threads, and trigger the Merge Train as soon as the pipeline finishes.
10. The "Zero-Question Autopilot Override" Prompt
When to use it: The AI agent pauses and asks you "Which MR should I pick?" or "Would you like me to push these changes?" and you want it to stop asking forever.
Prompt:
Do not ask me which MR to pick or ask for permission to push. Automatically pick the MR with the newest unread maintainer email or unresolved comment, fix all issues using CodeRabbit and the GitLab Handbook rules, push the clean code, and send it straight to the Merge Train on full autopilot.
💡 Quick Cheat-Sheet: Why Plain English Works So Well Here
| What You Say in Plain English | What Antigravity + CodeRabbit Does Under the Hood |
|---|---|
| "Check my unread GitLab emails" | Filters notifications & runs glab mr view / glab api to pull open threads |
| "Clean up unwanted lines with CodeRabbit" | Runs @coderabbitai checks & strips dead code, stray imports, and debug logs |
| "Follow the GitLab Handbook" | Runs rubocop/rspec/eslint/ruff + formats commits for danger-review
|
| "Get CI 100% green" | Monitors glab ci status --live & auto-heals failures using glab ci trace
|
| "Send straight to the Merge Train" | Runs glab mr merge --auto-merge or hits the /merge_trains API endpoint |
Bookmark this list, drop your favorite prompt into Antigravity IDE, and let your open-source MRs ship themselves! 🚀
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