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GitLab

Manage projects (FREE)

Most work in GitLab is done in a project. Files and code are saved in projects, and most features are in the scope of projects.

View projects

To explore projects:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects.
  2. Select Explore projects.

The Projects page shows a list of projects, sorted by last updated date.

  • To view projects with the most stars, select Most stars.
  • To view projects with the largest number of comments in the past month, select Trending.

NOTE: The Explore projects tab is visible to unauthenticated users unless the Public visibility level is restricted. Then the tab is visible only to signed-in users.

Who can view the Projects page

When you select a project, the project landing page shows the project contents.

For public projects, and members of internal and private projects with permissions to view the project's code, the project landing page shows:

For users without permission to view the project's code, the landing page shows:

  • The wiki homepage.
  • The list of issues in the project.

Access a project page with the project ID

Introduced in GitLab 11.8.

To access a project from the GitLab UI using the project ID, visit the /projects/:id URL in your browser or other tool accessing the project.

Explore topics

To explore project topics:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects.
  2. Select Explore topics.

The Projects page shows list of topics sorted by the number of associated projects. To view projects associated with a topic, select a topic from the list.

You can assign topics to a project on the Project Settings page.

If you're an instance administrator, you can administer all project topics from the Admin Area's Topics page.

Create a project

To create a project in GitLab:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Create new project.
  3. On the New project page, choose if you want to:

NOTE: For a list of words that can't be used as project names see reserved project and group names.

Create a blank project

To create a blank project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Create new project.
  3. Select Create blank project.
  4. Enter the project details:
    • In the Project name field, enter the name of your project. You can use spaces, hyphens, underscores, and emoji. You cannot use special characters. After you enter the name, the Project slug populates.
    • In the Project slug field, enter the path to your project. The GitLab instance uses the slug as the URL path to the project. To change the slug, first enter the project name, then change the slug.
    • In the Project description (optional) field, enter the description of your project's dashboard.
    • In the Project target (optional) field, select your project's deployment target. This information helps GitLab better understand its users and their deployment requirements.
    • To modify the project's viewing and access rights for users, change the Visibility Level.
    • To create README file so that the Git repository is initialized, has a default branch, and can be cloned, select Initialize repository with a README.
    • To analyze the source code in the project for known security vulnerabilities, select Enable Static Application Security Testing (SAST).
  5. Select Create project.

Create a project from a built-in template

A built-in project template populates a new project with files to get you started. Built-in templates are sourced from the following groups:

Anyone can contribute a built-in template by following these steps.

To create a project from a built-in template:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Create new project.
  3. Select Create from template.
  4. Select the Built-in tab.
  5. From the list of templates:
    • To view a preview of the template, select Preview.
    • To use a template for the project, select Use template.
  6. Enter the project details:
    • In the Project name field, enter the name of your project. You can use spaces, hyphens, underscores, and emoji. You cannot use special characters. After you enter the name, the Project slug populates.
    • In the Project slug field, enter the path to your project. The GitLab instance uses the slug as the URL path to the project. To change the slug, first enter the project name, then change the slug.
    • In the Project description (optional) field, enter the description of your project's dashboard.
    • To modify the project's viewing and access rights for users, change the Visibility Level.
  7. Select Create project.

Create a project from a custom template (PREMIUM)

Introduced in GitLab Premium 11.2.

Custom project templates are available at:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Create new project.
  3. Select Create from template.
  4. Select the Instance or Group tab.
  5. From the list of templates:
    • To view a preview of the template, select Preview.
    • To use a template for the project, select Use template.
  6. Enter the project details:
    • In the Project name field, enter the name of your project. You can use spaces, hyphens, underscores, and emoji. You cannot use special characters. After you enter the name, the Project slug populates.
    • In the Project slug field, enter the path to your project. The GitLab instance uses the slug as the URL path to the project. To change the slug, first enter the project name, then change the slug.
    • The description of your project's dashboard in the Project description (optional) field.
    • To modify the project's viewing and access rights for users, change the Visibility Level.
  7. Select Create project.

Create a project from the HIPAA Audit Protocol template (ULTIMATE)

Introduced in GitLab 12.10

The HIPAA Audit Protocol template contains issues for audit inquiries in the HIPAA Audit Protocol published by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

To create a project from the HIPAA Audit Protocol template:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Create new project.
  3. Select Create from template.
  4. Select the Built-in tab.
  5. Locate the HIPAA Audit Protocol template:
    • To view a preview of the template, select Preview.
    • To use the template for the project, select Use template.
  6. Enter the project details:
    • In the Project name field, enter the name of your project. You can use spaces, hyphens, underscores, and emoji. You cannot use special characters. After you enter the name, the Project slug populates.
    • In the Project slug field, enter the path to your project. The GitLab instance uses the slug as the URL path to the project. To change the slug, first enter the project name, then change the slug.
    • In the Project description (optional) field, enter the description of your project's dashboard.
    • To modify the project's viewing and access rights for users, change the Visibility Level.
  7. Select Create project.

Push to create a new project

Introduced in GitLab 10.5.

Use git push to push a local project repository to GitLab. After you push a repository, GitLab creates your project in your chosen namespace.

You cannot use git push to create projects with project paths that:

  • Have previously been used.
  • Have been renamed.

Previously used project paths have a redirect. The redirect causes push attempts to redirect requests to the renamed project location, instead of creating a new project. To create a new project for a previously used or renamed project, use the UI or the Projects API.

Prerequisites:

  • To push with SSH, you must have an SSH key that is added to your GitLab account.

  • You must have permission to add new projects to a namespace. To check if you have permission:

    1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
    2. Select Groups.
    3. Select a group.
    4. Confirm that New project is visible in the upper right corner. Contact your GitLab administrator if you require permission.

To push your repository and create a project:

  1. Push with SSH or HTTPS:

    • To push with SSH:

      git push --set-upstream git@gitlab.example.com:namespace/myproject.git master

    • To push with HTTPS:

      git push --set-upstream https://gitlab.example.com/namespace/myproject.git master

    • For gitlab.example.com, use the domain name of the machine that hosts your Git repository.

    • For namespace, use the name of your namespace.

    • For myproject, use the name of your project.

    • Optional. To export existing repository tags, append the --tags flag to your git push command.

  2. Optional. To configure the remote:

    git remote add origin https://gitlab.example.com/namespace/myproject.git

When the push completes, GitLab displays the message:

remote: The private project namespace/myproject was created.

To view your new project, go to https://gitlab.example.com/namespace/myproject. Your project's visibility is set to Private by default. To change project visibility, adjust your project's settings.

Star a project

You can add a star to projects you use frequently to make them easier to find.

To add a star to a project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Your projects or Explore projects.
  3. Select a project.
  4. In the upper right corner of the page, select Star.

View starred projects

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.

  2. Select Starred projects.

  3. GitLab displays information about your starred projects, including:

    • Project description, including name, description, and icon.
    • Number of times this project has been starred.
    • Number of times this project has been forked.
    • Number of open merge requests.
    • Number of open issues.

Delete a project

After you delete a project, projects in personal namespaces are deleted immediately. To delay deletion of projects in a group you can enable delayed project removal.

To delete a project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Your projects or Explore projects.
  3. Select a project.
  4. Select Settings > General.
  5. Expand the Advanced section.
  6. Scroll down to the Delete project section.
  7. Select Delete project
  8. Confirm this action by completing the field.

Projects pending deletion (PREMIUM)

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is available to all users. To make it available for administrators only, ask an administrator to disable the feature flag named project_owners_list_project_pending_deletion. On GitLab.com, this feature is available to all users.

When delayed project deletion is enabled for a group, projects within that group are not deleted immediately, but only after a delay. To access a list of all projects that are pending deletion:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects > Explore projects.
  2. Select the Pending deletion tab (in GitLab 14.6 and later) or the Deleted projects tab (GitLab 14.5 and earlier).

Listed for each project is:

  • The time the project was marked for deletion.
  • The time the project is scheduled for final deletion.
  • A Restore link to stop the project being eventually deleted.

View project activity

To view the activity of a project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Your projects or Explore projects.
  3. Select a project.
  4. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Activity.
  5. Select a tab to view the type of project activity.

Leave a project

If you leave a project you are no longer a project member and cannot contribute.

To leave a project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Project.
  2. Select Your projects or Explore projects.
  3. Select a project.
  4. Select Leave project. The Leave project option only displays on the project dashboard when a project is part of a group under a group namespace.

Use a project as a Go package

Prerequisites:

  • Contact your administrator to enable the GitLab Go Proxy.
  • To use a private project in a subgroup as a Go package, you must authenticate Go requests. Go requests that are not authenticated cause go get to fail. You don't need to authenticate Go requests for projects that are not in subgroups.

To use a project as a Go package, use the go get and godoc.org discovery requests. You can use the meta tags:

Authenticate Go requests to private projects

Prerequisites:

To authenticate Go requests, create a .netrc file with the following information:

machine gitlab.example.com
login <gitlab_user_name>
password <personal_access_token>

On Windows, Go reads ~/_netrc instead of ~/.netrc.

The go command does not transmit credentials over insecure connections. It authenticates HTTPS requests made by Go, but does not authenticate requests made through Git.

Authenticate Git requests

If Go cannot fetch a module from a proxy, it uses Git. Git uses a .netrc file to authenticate requests, but you can configure other authentication methods.

Configure Git to either:

  • Embed credentials in the request URL:

    git config --global url."https://${user}:${personal_access_token}@gitlab.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"

  • Use SSH instead of HTTPS:

    git config --global url."git@gitlab.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"

Disable Go module fetching for private projects

To fetch modules or packages, Go uses the environment variables:

  • GOPRIVATE
  • GONOPROXY
  • GONOSUMDB

To disable fetching:

  1. Disable GOPRIVATE:
    • To disable queries for one project, disable GOPRIVATE=gitlab.example.com/my/private/project.
    • To disable queries for all projects on GitLab.com, disable GOPRIVATE=gitlab.example.com.
  2. Disable proxy queries in GONOPROXY.
  3. Disable checksum queries in GONOSUMDB.
  • If the module name or its prefix is in GOPRIVATE or GONOPROXY, Go does not query module proxies.
  • If the module name or its prefix is in GONOPRIVATE or GONOSUMDB, Go does not query Checksum databases.

Fetch Go modules from Geo secondary sites

Use Geo to access Git repositories that contain Go modules on secondary Geo servers.

You can use SSH or HTTP to access the Geo secondary server.

Use SSH to access the Geo secondary server

To access the Geo secondary server with SSH:

  1. Reconfigure Git on the client to send traffic for the primary to the secondary:

    git config --global url."git@gitlab-secondary.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"
git config --global url."git@gitlab-secondary.example.com".insteadOf "http://gitlab.example.com"
    • For gitlab.example.com, use the primary site domain name.
    • For gitlab-secondary.example.com, use the secondary site domain name.

  2. Ensure the client is set up for SSH access to GitLab repositories. You can test this on the primary, and GitLab replicates the public key to the secondary.

The go get request generates HTTP traffic to the primary Geo server. When the module download starts, the insteadOf configuration sends the traffic to the secondary Geo server.

Use HTTP to access the Geo secondary

You must use persistent access tokens that replicate to the secondary server. You cannot use CI/CD job tokens to fetch Go modules with HTTP.

To access the Geo secondary server with HTTP:

  1. Add a Git insteadOf redirect on the client:

    git config --global url."https://gitlab-secondary.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"
    • For gitlab.example.com, use the primary site domain name.
    • For gitlab-secondary.example.com, use the secondary site domain name.

  2. Generate a personal access token and add the credentials in the client's ~/.netrc file:

    machine gitlab.example.com login USERNAME password TOKEN
machine gitlab-secondary.example.com login USERNAME password TOKEN

The go get request generates HTTP traffic to the primary Geo server. When the module download starts, the insteadOf configuration sends the traffic to the secondary Geo server.

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