diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yaml b/.gitlab-ci.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b42eba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+---
+stages: [checks, release]
+
+check-commitizen:
+  # Check the current commit message for compliance with commitizen
+  stage: checks
+  image: alpine:latest
+  variables:
+    GIT_STRATEGY: none
+  script:
+    - apk add --no-cache --upgrade py3-pip
+    # Pass --break-system-packages since since this containers sole purpose is
+    # running 2 applications. If we get to advance this, implement a proper venv
+    - pip install --break-system-packages commitizen
+    - cz check --message "$CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE" >/tmp/cz_check || true # why does it return 1 if its actually 0?
+    - grep "successful" /tmp/cz_check # ugly hack to workaround the above issue
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'merge_request_event'
+
+tag-to-release:
+  stage: release
+  # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli/-/blob/master/Dockerfile
+  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest
+  variables:
+    GIT_STRATEGY: none
+  script:
+    - apk add --no-cache --upgrade git py3-pip
+    # Pass --break-system-packages since since this containers sole purpose is
+    # running 2 applications. If we get to advance this, implement a proper venv
+    - pip install --break-system-packages -U commitizen
+    - git clone "$CI_PROJECT_URL.git"
+    - cd "$CI_PROJECT_NAME"
+    - CHANGELOG=$(cz changelog "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" --dry-run | sed /^Invalid/d)
+    - release-cli create --name "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" --description "$CHANGELOG" --tag-name "$CI_COMMIT_TAG"
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG != null