title: How to use protected variables in gitlab ci
body: <p>The documentation on protected variables is pretty obscure. When I make a variable as protected I have to idea how to access it. No matter what I do it is always empty. I have tried base64 encoding it and then base64 encoding it again in the pipeline so I can see what it is and I get an empty string: <code>Cg==</code>. Can someone please explain how to use protected variables? </p>