TIL the difference between optional and blocking manual jobs in GitLab CI

2026-03-10 • 1 min

To create an optional job in GitLab CI, add when: manual to the job configuration. Note that the location of when: manual determines the type of manual job created:

• If defined outside rules, the job will default to allow_failure: true, making it optional. In this case, the pipeline can succeed - subsequent jobs can continue to run - if the manual job is not run or fails.
• If defined inside rules, the job defaults to allow_failure: false, making it blocking. The pipeline will stop at the stage where the job is defined. The blocking manual job must be run for the rest of the pipeline to proceed.

# References

• GitLab - Job Control