Pass job variable to all descendant jobs

GitLab CI/CD
1

Problem to solve

*I need to pass a variable that was generated in a job to all descendant jobs and stages.
I am generating the variable in a ci component, so I would like it to be available to all jobs that want to use it, without those jobs having to add anything other than the variable usage. So I would like to avoid using needs or dependencies.

Using dotenv report artifacts ALMOST does exactly what I need, however, the variables are only available in the direct child stage and not any grandchild+ stages.*

Steps to reproduce

The following configuration is an abbreviated representation of my real ci configs.
In reality the component is supposed to be included multiple times and the generator job and resulting variables should support naming via component inputs, which makes using needs annoying.

Configuration

# my ci component
generate-variable:
  stage: .pre
  script:
    - GENERATED_VARIABLE=generate-variable
    - echo "GENERATED_VARIABLE=$GENERATED_VARIABLE" >> my-comp.env
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: my-comp.env

# my project gitlab-ci.yml
include:
  - component: gitlab.foobar.xyz/devops/mycomponent/mycomp@main

stages:
  - build
  - deploy

build-job:
  stage: build
  script: echo $GENERATED_VARIABLE # works

deploy-job:
  stage: deploy
  script: echo $GENERATED_VARIABLE # does not work

deploy-job-with-needs:
  stage: deploy
  needs: generate-variable
  script: echo $GENERATED_VARIABLE # works, but becomes annoying to communicate to component users when inputs are involved

Afterword

Is it possible to pass a variable generated by a job to ALL subsequent jobs without adding something to each subsequent job?

Unfortunately using needs in default is not supported, so I cannot add it to every job that way.

2

You could use a child pipeline trigger I think.

generate-variable:
  ...

subsequent-pipeline-trigger:
  needs:
  - generate-variable
  variables:
    GENERATED_VARIABLE: not required but serves to document our intention to pass.
  trigger:
    include:
    - local: .gitlab/subsequent-pipeline.yml

and then the variable should be available universally in the subsequent-pipeline jobs regardless of “needs” or “dependencies”.

Obviously, move your entire pipeline that depends on this result to subsequent-pipeline.yml

3

Unfortunately that is not satisfactory since it requires an even more complex setup in projects using the component.