Developers love Claude Code because it feels like pairing with a senior engineer right in the terminal or IDE: it helps you understand unfamiliar code, propose fixes, and scaffold new features quickly.But here is a pattern worth watching. The better agentic coding tools get at writing code, the more the rest of the software lifecycle struggles to keep up. Bug backlogs grow. Pipeline failure rates climb. Security vulnerabilities accumulate faster than teams can triage them. Writing code and shipping software are not the same thing, and the gap between the two is real.GitLab comes in to accelerate everything in the remaining stages of the software lifecycle after Claude Code: CI/CD, security scanning, code review, and approvals, all in one place, with an auditable trail.This tutorial walks you through three scenarios with Claude Code moving fast in the codebase, and GitLab handling everything that turns that code into a certified, shipped change:Fix a C++ bug with Claude Code, then let GitLab CI/CD, security scanning, and Duo Code Review take it from there.Add GitLab MCP context so Claude works from the actual issue, not just local files.Use a Claude-powered external agent in Duo Agent Platform to address code review feedback directly in the MR.PrerequisitesClaude Code in the terminal, configured and running.A GitLab project with bug reports and feature proposal issues, for example, the Tanuki Iot Platform projectFor specific use cases: GitLab MCP server and GitLab Duo Agent Platform with external agents.For building code: CMake, Make, gcc/clang++ for C++, Maven for Java.Prepare the GitLab projectIf you want to follow along, you can repeat the entire steps here in your own developer environment. To do so:Import the Tanuki Iot Platform project into your GitLab environment, including all open issues.Clone the project into your local environment, and navigate into it.Open a terminal and run Claude Code with claude. git clone https://gitlab.example.com/examplegroup/tanuki-iot-platform.git