.. | ||
graphql | ||
openapi | ||
releases | ||
templates | ||
access_requests.md | ||
admin_sidekiq_queues.md | ||
api_resources.md | ||
appearance.md | ||
applications.md | ||
audit_events.md | ||
avatar.md | ||
award_emoji.md | ||
boards.md | ||
branches.md | ||
broadcast_messages.md | ||
commits.md | ||
container_registry.md | ||
custom_attributes.md | ||
dependencies.md | ||
dependency_proxy.md | ||
deploy_keys.md | ||
deploy_tokens.md | ||
deployments.md | ||
discussions.md | ||
dora4_group_analytics.md | ||
dora4_project_analytics.md | ||
environments.md | ||
epic_issues.md | ||
epic_links.md | ||
epics.md | ||
error_tracking.md | ||
events.md | ||
experiments.md | ||
feature_flag_specs.md | ||
feature_flag_user_lists.md | ||
feature_flags.md | ||
feature_flags_legacy.md | ||
features.md | ||
freeze_periods.md | ||
geo_nodes.md | ||
group_activity_analytics.md | ||
group_badges.md | ||
group_boards.md | ||
group_clusters.md | ||
group_import_export.md | ||
group_iterations.md | ||
group_labels.md | ||
group_level_variables.md | ||
group_milestones.md | ||
group_repository_storage_moves.md | ||
group_wikis.md | ||
groups.md | ||
import.md | ||
instance_clusters.md | ||
instance_level_ci_variables.md | ||
invitations.md | ||
issue_links.md | ||
issues.md | ||
issues_statistics.md | ||
iterations.md | ||
job_artifacts.md | ||
jobs.md | ||
keys.md | ||
labels.md | ||
license.md | ||
lint.md | ||
managed_licenses.md | ||
markdown.md | ||
members.md | ||
merge_request_approvals.md | ||
merge_request_context_commits.md | ||
merge_requests.md | ||
merge_trains.md | ||
metrics_dashboard_annotations.md | ||
metrics_user_starred_dashboards.md | ||
milestones.md | ||
namespaces.md | ||
notes.md | ||
notification_settings.md | ||
oauth2.md | ||
packages.md | ||
pages.md | ||
pages_domains.md | ||
personal_access_tokens.md | ||
pipeline_schedules.md | ||
pipeline_triggers.md | ||
pipelines.md | ||
plan_limits.md | ||
project_aliases.md | ||
project_analytics.md | ||
project_badges.md | ||
project_clusters.md | ||
project_import_export.md | ||
project_level_variables.md | ||
project_repository_storage_moves.md | ||
project_snippets.md | ||
project_statistics.md | ||
project_templates.md | ||
project_vulnerabilities.md | ||
projects.md | ||
protected_branches.md | ||
protected_environments.md | ||
protected_tags.md | ||
README.md | ||
remote_mirrors.md | ||
repositories.md | ||
repository_files.md | ||
repository_submodules.md | ||
resource_access_tokens.md | ||
resource_iteration_events.md | ||
resource_label_events.md | ||
resource_milestone_events.md | ||
resource_state_events.md | ||
resource_weight_events.md | ||
runners.md | ||
scim.md | ||
search.md | ||
services.md | ||
settings.md | ||
sidekiq_metrics.md | ||
snippet_repository_storage_moves.md | ||
snippets.md | ||
statistics.md | ||
suggestions.md | ||
system_hooks.md | ||
tags.md | ||
todos.md | ||
users.md | ||
v3_to_v4.md | ||
version.md | ||
visual_review_discussions.md | ||
vulnerabilities.md | ||
vulnerability_exports.md | ||
vulnerability_findings.md | ||
wikis.md |
stage | group | info |
---|---|---|
none | unassigned | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments |
API Docs
Automate GitLab by using a simple and powerful API.
The main GitLab API is a REST API. Because of this, the documentation in this section assumes that you're familiar with REST concepts.
There's also a partial OpenAPI definition, which allows you to test the API directly from the GitLab user interface. Contributions are welcome.
Available API resources
For a list of the available resources and their endpoints, see API resources.
For an introduction and basic steps, see How to make GitLab API calls.
SCIM (PREMIUM SAAS)
GitLab provides an SCIM API that both implements
the RFC7644 protocol and provides the
/Users
endpoint. The base URL is /api/scim/v2/groups/:group_path/Users/
.
Road to GraphQL
GraphQL is available in GitLab, which allows for the deprecation of controller-specific endpoints.
GraphQL has several benefits, including:
- We avoid having to maintain two different APIs.
- Callers of the API can request only what they need.
- It's versioned by default.
GraphQL co-exists with the current v4 REST API. If we have a v5 API, this should be a compatibility layer on top of GraphQL.
Although there were some patenting and licensing concerns with GraphQL, these have been resolved to our satisfaction by the relicensing of the reference implementations under MIT, and the use of the OWF license for the GraphQL specification.
Compatibility guidelines
The HTTP API is versioned using a single number, (currently 4). This number symbolizes the major version number, as described by SemVer. Because of this, backwards-incompatible changes require this version number to change. However, the minor version isn't explicit, allowing for a stable API endpoint. This also means that new features can be added to the API in the same version number.
New features and bug fixes are released in tandem with a new GitLab, and apart from incidental patch and security releases, are released on the 22nd of each month. Backward incompatible changes (for example, endpoints removal and parameters removal), and removal of entire API versions are done in tandem with a major point release of GitLab itself. All deprecations and changes between two versions should be listed in the documentation. For the changes between v3 and v4, see the v3 to v4 documentation.
Current status
Only API version v4 is available. Version v3 was removed in GitLab 11.0.
Basic usage
API requests should be prefixed with both api
and the API version. The API
version is defined in lib/api.rb
.
For example, the root of the v4 API is at /api/v4
. The following sections illustrate different uses:
Valid API request
If you have a GitLab instance at gitlab.example.com
:
curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
The API uses JSON to serialize data. You don't need to specify .json
at the
end of an API URL.
API request to expose HTTP response headers
If you want to expose HTTP response headers, use the --include
option:
curl --include "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
HTTP/2 200
...
This can help you investigate an unexpected response.
API request that includes the exit code
If you want to expose the HTTP exit code, include the --fail
option:
curl --fail "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/does-not-exist"
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404
The HTTP exit code can help you diagnose the success or failure of your REST call.
Authentication
Most API requests require authentication, or only return public data when
authentication isn't provided. For cases where it isn't required, this is
mentioned in the documentation for each individual endpoint (for example, the
/projects/:id
endpoint).
There are several methods you can use to authenticate with the GitLab API:
- OAuth2 tokens
- Personal access tokens
- Project access tokens
- Session cookie
- GitLab CI/CD job token (Specific endpoints only)
NOTE: Project access tokens are supported for self-managed instances on Free and higher. They're also supported on GitLab.com Bronze and higher.
For administrators who want to authenticate with the API as a specific user, or who want to build applications or scripts that do so, the following options are available:
If authentication information is invalid or omitted, GitLab returns an error
message with a status code of 401
:
{
"message": "401 Unauthorized"
}
OAuth2 tokens
You can use an OAuth2 token to authenticate with the API by passing
it in either the access_token
parameter or the Authorization
header.
Example of using the OAuth2 token in a parameter:
curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?access_token=OAUTH-TOKEN"
Example of using the OAuth2 token in a header:
curl --header "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH-TOKEN" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
Read more about GitLab as an OAuth2 provider.
Personal/project access tokens
You can use access tokens to authenticate with the API by passing it in either
the private_token
parameter or the PRIVATE-TOKEN
header.
Example of using the personal or project access token in a parameter:
curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?private_token=<your_access_token>"
Example of using the personal or project access token in a header:
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
You can also use personal or project access tokens with OAuth-compliant headers:
curl --header "Authorization: Bearer <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
Session cookie
Signing in to the main GitLab application sets a _gitlab_session
cookie. The
API uses this cookie for authentication if it's present. Using the API to
generate a new session cookie isn't supported.
The primary user of this authentication method is the web frontend of GitLab itself, which can, for example, use the API as the authenticated user to get a list of their projects without needing to explicitly pass an access token.
GitLab CI/CD job token
When a pipeline job is about to run, GitLab generates a unique token and injects it as the
CI_JOB_TOKEN
predefined variable.
You can use a GitLab CI/CD job token to authenticate with specific API endpoints:
- Packages:
- Package Registry. To push to the Package Registry, you can use deploy tokens.
- Container Registry
(the
$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD
is$CI_JOB_TOKEN
).
- Get job artifacts.
- Get job token's job.
- Pipeline triggers, using the
token=
parameter. - Release creation.
- Terraform plan.
The token has the same permissions to access the API as the user that triggers the pipeline. Therefore, this user must be assigned to a role that has the required privileges.
The token is valid only while the pipeline job runs. After the job finishes, you can't use the token anymore.
A job token can access a project's resources without any configuration, but it might give extra permissions that aren't necessary. There is a proposal to redesign the feature for more strategic control of the access permissions.
GitLab CI/CD job token security
To make sure that this token doesn't leak, GitLab:
- Masks the job token in job logs.
- Grants permissions to the job token only when the job is running.
To make sure that this token doesn't leak, you should also configure your runners to be secure. Avoid:
- Using Docker's
privileged
mode if the machines are re-used. - Using the
shell
executor when jobs run on the same machine.
If you have an insecure GitLab Runner configuration, you increase the risk that someone tries to steal tokens from other jobs.
Impersonation tokens
Impersonation tokens are a type of personal access token that can be created only by an administrator for a specific user. They can be useful if you want to build applications or scripts that authenticate with the API as a specific user.
They're an alternative to directly using the user's password (or one of their personal access tokens), and to using the Sudo feature, as the user's (or administrator's in the case of Sudo) password or token may not be known, or may change over time.
For more information, see the users API documentation.
Impersonation tokens are used exactly like regular personal access tokens, and
can be passed in either the private_token
parameter or the PRIVATE-TOKEN
header.
Disable impersonation
Introduced in GitLab 11.6.
By default, impersonation is enabled. To disable impersonation:
For Omnibus installations
-
Edit the
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
file:gitlab_rails['impersonation_enabled'] = false
-
Save the file, and then reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
To re-enable impersonation, remove this configuration, and then reconfigure GitLab.
For installations from source
-
Edit the
config/gitlab.yml
file:gitlab: impersonation_enabled: false
-
Save the file, and then restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.
To re-enable impersonation, remove this configuration, and then restart GitLab.
Sudo
All API requests support performing an API call as if you were another user,
provided you're authenticated as an administrator with an OAuth or personal
access token that has the sudo
scope. The API requests are executed with the
permissions of the impersonated user.
As an administrator, pass the sudo
parameter either
by using query string or a header with an ID or username (case insensitive) of
the user you want to perform the operation as. If passed as a header, the header
name must be Sudo
.
If a non administrative access token is provided, GitLab returns an error
message with a status code of 403
:
{
"message": "403 Forbidden - Must be admin to use sudo"
}
If an access token without the sudo
scope is provided, an error message is
be returned with a status code of 403
:
{
"error": "insufficient_scope",
"error_description": "The request requires higher privileges than provided by the access token.",
"scope": "sudo"
}
If the sudo user ID or username cannot be found, an error message is
returned with a status code of 404
:
{
"message": "404 User with ID or username '123' Not Found"
}
Example of a valid API call and a request using cURL with sudo request, providing a username:
GET /projects?private_token=<your_access_token>&sudo=username
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" --header "Sudo: username" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
Example of a valid API call and a request using cURL with sudo request, providing an ID:
GET /projects?private_token=<your_access_token>&sudo=23
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" --header "Sudo: 23" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
Status codes
The API is designed to return different status codes according to context and action. This way, if a request results in an error, the caller is able to get insight into what went wrong.
The following table gives an overview of how the API functions generally behave.
Request type | Description |
---|---|
GET |
Access one or more resources and return the result as JSON. |
POST |
Return 201 Created if the resource is successfully created and return the newly created resource as JSON. |
GET / PUT |
Return 200 OK if the resource is accessed or modified successfully. The (modified) result is returned as JSON. |
DELETE |
Returns 204 No Content if the resource was deleted successfully. |
The following table shows the possible return codes for API requests.
Return values | Description |
---|---|
200 OK |
The GET , PUT or DELETE request was successful, and the resource(s) itself is returned as JSON. |
204 No Content |
The server has successfully fulfilled the request, and there is no additional content to send in the response payload body. |
201 Created |
The POST request was successful, and the resource is returned as JSON. |
304 Not Modified |
The resource hasn't been modified since the last request. |
400 Bad Request |
A required attribute of the API request is missing. For example, the title of an issue is not given. |
401 Unauthorized |
The user isn't authenticated. A valid user token is necessary. |
403 Forbidden |
The request isn't allowed. For example, the user isn't allowed to delete a project. |
404 Not Found |
A resource couldn't be accessed. For example, an ID for a resource couldn't be found. |
405 Method Not Allowed |
The request isn't supported. |
409 Conflict |
A conflicting resource already exists. For example, creating a project with a name that already exists. |
412 |
The request was denied. This can happen if the If-Unmodified-Since header is provided when trying to delete a resource, which was modified in between. |
422 Unprocessable |
The entity couldn't be processed. |
429 Too Many Requests |
The user exceeded the application rate limits. |
500 Server Error |
While handling the request, something went wrong on the server. |
Pagination
GitLab supports the following pagination methods:
- Offset-based pagination. This is the default method and is available on all endpoints.
- Keyset-based pagination. Added to selected endpoints but being progressively rolled out.
For large collections, for performance reasons we recommend keyset pagination (when available) instead of offset pagination.
Offset-based pagination
Sometimes, the returned result spans many pages. When listing resources, you can pass the following parameters:
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
page |
Page number (default: 1 ). |
per_page |
Number of items to list per page (default: 20 , max: 100 ). |
In the following example, we list 50 namespaces per page:
curl --request PUT --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/namespaces?per_page=50"
Pagination Link
header
Link
headers are returned with each
response. They have rel
set to prev
, next
, first
, or last
and contain
the relevant URL. Be sure to use these links instead of generating your own URLs.
For GitLab.com users, some pagination headers may not be returned.
In the following cURL example, we limit the output to three items per page
(per_page=3
) and we request the second page (page=2
) of comments
of the issue with ID 8
which belongs to the project with ID 9
:
curl --head --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/9/issues/8/notes?per_page=3&page=2"
The response is:
HTTP/2 200 OK
cache-control: no-cache
content-length: 1103
content-type: application/json
date: Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:43:18 GMT
link: <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/8/issues/8/notes?page=1&per_page=3>; rel="prev", <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/8/issues/8/notes?page=3&per_page=3>; rel="next", <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/8/issues/8/notes?page=1&per_page=3>; rel="first", <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/8/issues/8/notes?page=3&per_page=3>; rel="last"
status: 200 OK
vary: Origin
x-next-page: 3
x-page: 2
x-per-page: 3
x-prev-page: 1
x-request-id: 732ad4ee-9870-4866-a199-a9db0cde3c86
x-runtime: 0.108688
x-total: 8
x-total-pages: 3
Other pagination headers
GitLab also returns the following additional pagination headers:
Header | Description |
---|---|
x-next-page |
The index of the next page. |
x-page |
The index of the current page (starting at 1). |
x-per-page |
The number of items per page. |
X-prev-page |
The index of the previous page. |
x-total |
The total number of items. |
x-total-pages |
The total number of pages. |
For GitLab.com users, some pagination headers may not be returned.
Keyset-based pagination
Keyset-pagination allows for more efficient retrieval of pages and - in contrast to offset-based pagination - runtime is independent of the size of the collection.
This method is controlled by the following parameters:
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
pagination |
keyset (to enable keyset pagination). |
per_page |
Number of items to list per page (default: 20 , max: 100 ). |
In the following example, we list 50 projects per page, ordered
by id
ascending.
curl --request GET --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?pagination=keyset&per_page=50&order_by=id&sort=asc"
The response header includes a link to the next page. For example:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
Links: <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?pagination=keyset&per_page=50&order_by=id&sort=asc&id_after=42>; rel="next"
Link: <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?pagination=keyset&per_page=50&order_by=id&sort=asc&id_after=42>; rel="next"
Status: 200 OK
...
WARNING:
The Links
header is scheduled to be removed in GitLab 14.0 to be aligned with the
W3C Link
specification. The Link
header was added in GitLab 13.1
and should be used instead.
The link to the next page contains an additional filter id_after=42
that
excludes already-retrieved records. The type of filter depends on the
order_by
option used, and we may have more than one additional filter.
When the end of the collection is reached and there are no additional
records to retrieve, the Link
header is absent and the resulting array is
empty.
We recommend using only the given link to retrieve the next page instead of building your own URL. Apart from the headers shown, we don't expose additional pagination headers.
Keyset-based pagination is supported only for selected resources and ordering options:
Resource | Order |
---|---|
Projects | order_by=id only. |
Path parameters
If an endpoint has path parameters, the documentation displays them with a preceding colon.
For example:
DELETE /projects/:id/share/:group_id
The :id
path parameter needs to be replaced with the project ID, and the
:group_id
needs to be replaced with the ID of the group. The colons :
shouldn't be included.
The resulting cURL call for a project with ID 5
and a group ID of 17
is then:
curl --request DELETE --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/5/share/17"
Path parameters that are required to be URL-encoded must be followed. If not, it doesn't match an API endpoint and responds with a 404. If there's something in front of the API (for example, Apache), ensure that it doesn't decode the URL-encoded path parameters.
Namespaced path encoding
If using namespaced API calls, make sure that the NAMESPACE/PROJECT_PATH
is
URL-encoded.
For example, /
is represented by %2F
:
GET /api/v4/projects/diaspora%2Fdiaspora
A project's path isn't necessarily the same as its name. A project's path is found in the project's URL or in the project's settings, under General > Advanced > Change path.
File path, branches, and tags name encoding
If a file path, branch or tag contains a /
, make sure it is URL-encoded.
For example, /
is represented by %2F
:
GET /api/v4/projects/1/repository/files/src%2FREADME.md?ref=master
GET /api/v4/projects/1/branches/my%2Fbranch/commits
GET /api/v4/projects/1/repository/tags/my%2Ftag
Request Payload
API Requests can use parameters sent as query strings or as a payload body. GET requests usually send a query string, while PUT or POST requests usually send the payload body:
-
Query string:
curl --request POST "https://gitlab/api/v4/projects?name=<example-name>&description=<example-description>"
-
Request payload (JSON):
curl --request POST --header "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"name":"<example-name>", "description":"<example-description"}' "https://gitlab/api/v4/projects"
URL encoded query strings have a length limitation. Requests that are too large
result in a 414 Request-URI Too Large
error message. This can be resolved by
using a payload body instead.
Encoding API parameters of array
and hash
types
We can call the API with array
and hash
types parameters as follows:
array
import_sources
is a parameter of type array
:
curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
-d "import_sources[]=github" \
-d "import_sources[]=bitbucket" \
"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/some_endpoint"
hash
override_params
is a parameter of type hash
:
curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
--form "namespace=email" \
--form "path=impapi" \
--form "file=@/path/to/somefile.txt"
--form "override_params[visibility]=private" \
--form "override_params[some_other_param]=some_value" \
"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/import"
Array of hashes
variables
is a parameter of type array
containing hash key/value pairs
[{ 'key': 'UPLOAD_TO_S3', 'value': 'true' }]
:
curl --globoff --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/169/pipeline?ref=master&variables[][key]=VAR1&variables[][value]=hello&variables[][key]=VAR2&variables[][value]=world"
curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{ "ref": "master", "variables": [ {"key": "VAR1", "value": "hello"}, {"key": "VAR2", "value": "world"} ] }' \
"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/169/pipeline"
id
vs iid
Some resources have two similarly-named fields. For example, issues, merge requests, and project milestones. The fields are:
id
: ID that is unique across all projects.iid
: Additional, internal ID (displayed in the web UI) that's unique in the scope of a single project.
If a resource has both the iid
field and the id
field, the iid
field is
usually used instead of id
to fetch the resource.
For example, suppose a project with id: 42
has an issue with id: 46
and
iid: 5
. In this case:
- A valid API call to retrieve the issue is
GET /projects/42/issues/5
. - An invalid API call to retrieve the issue is
GET /projects/42/issues/46
.
Not all resources with the iid
field are fetched by iid
. For guidance
regarding which field to use, see the documentation for the specific resource.
Data validation and error reporting
When working with the API you may encounter validation errors, in which case
the API returns an HTTP 400
error.
Such errors appear in the following cases:
- A required attribute of the API request is missing (for example, the title of an issue isn't given).
- An attribute did not pass the validation (for example, the user bio is too long).
When an attribute is missing, you receive something like:
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/json
{
"message":"400 (Bad request) \"title\" not given"
}
When a validation error occurs, error messages are different. They hold all details of validation errors:
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/json
{
"message": {
"bio": [
"is too long (maximum is 255 characters)"
]
}
}
This makes error messages more machine-readable. The format can be described as follows:
{
"message": {
"<property-name>": [
"<error-message>",
"<error-message>",
...
],
"<embed-entity>": {
"<property-name>": [
"<error-message>",
"<error-message>",
...
],
}
}
}
Unknown route
When you attempt to access an API URL that doesn't exist, you receive a 404 Not Found message.
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Content-Type: application/json
{
"error": "404 Not Found"
}
Encoding +
in ISO 8601 dates
If you need to include a +
in a query parameter, you may need to use %2B
instead, due to a W3 recommendation
that causes a +
to be interpreted as a space. For example, in an ISO 8601 date,
you may want to include a specific time in ISO 8601 format, such as:
2017-10-17T23:11:13.000+05:30
The correct encoding for the query parameter would be:
2017-10-17T23:11:13.000%2B05:30
Clients
There are many unofficial GitLab API Clients for most of the popular programming languages. For a complete list, visit the GitLab website.
Rate limits
For administrator documentation on rate limit settings, see Rate limits. To find the settings that are specifically used by GitLab.com, see GitLab.com-specific rate limits.
Content type
The GitLab API supports the application/json
content type by default, though
some API endpoints also support text/plain
.
In GitLab 13.10 and later,
API endpoints do not support text/plain
by default, unless it's explicitly documented.
This change is deployed behind the :api_always_use_application_json
feature flag,
enabled by default. On GitLab self-managed instances, GitLab administrators can choose
to disable it. (FREE SELF)