diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a68cf11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+stages:
+  - generate
+
+generate-child-pipeline:
+  stage: generate
+  image: alpine:latest
+  script:
+    - apk add --no-cache bash
+    - ./ci-scripts/generate-pipeline.sh > child-pipeline.yml
+  artifacts:
+    paths:
+      - child-pipeline.yml
+  trigger:
+    include:
+      - artifact: child-pipeline.yml
+        job: generate-child-pipeline
+    strategy: depend
diff --git a/ci-scripts/generate-pipeline.sh b/ci-scripts/generate-pipeline.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b026239
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci-scripts/generate-pipeline.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+echo "stages:"
+echo "  - validate"
+echo "  - deploy"
+
+for dir in templates/*; do
+  [ -d "$dir" ] || continue
+  name=$(basename "$dir")
+
+  cat <<EOF
+
+validate_${name}:
+  stage: validate
+  image: hashicorp/terraform:1.6
+  script:
+    - terraform -chdir=$dir init -backend=false
+    - terraform -chdir=$dir validate
+  only:
+    changes:
+      - $dir/**
+
+deploy_${name}:
+  stage: deploy
+  image: registry.bobert.me/anthorob/coder-images:coder-cli
+  script:
+    - cd $dir
+    - coder templates push ${name} --tag "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA}" --description "Auto-deployed from ${CI_PROJECT_PATH} on commit ${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA}" --latest --yes
+  only:
+    refs:
+      - main
+    changes:
+      - $dir/**
+EOF
+
+done
diff --git a/coder-base/variables.tf b/coder-base/variables.tf
index db33c64..21df4b4 100644
--- a/coder-base/variables.tf
+++ b/coder-base/variables.tf
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-variable "language" {
+variable "language" {       ## construct docker image with this?
   description = "Language label for metadata"
   type        = string
 }