REST API all tiers
The REST APIs have been around for a longer time compared to GraphQL APIs, which may make them more familiar to some developers. It is often a good choice for developers who are more comfortable with traditional API architecture.
Compatibility guidelines
The HTTP API is versioned with a single number, which is 4
. This number
symbolizes the major version number, as described by SemVer.
Because of this, backward-incompatible changes require this version number to
change.
The minor version isn’t explicit, which allows for a stable API endpoint. New features can be added to the API in the same version number.
New features and bug fixes are released in tandem with GitLab. Apart from incidental patch and security releases, GitLab is released on the 22nd of each month. Major API version changes, and removal of entire API versions, are done in tandem with major GitLab releases.
All deprecations and changes between versions are in the documentation.
Current status
Only API version v4 is available.
How to use the API
API requests must include 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
.
Valid API request
The following is a basic example of a request to the fictional gitlab.example.com
endpoint:
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 the API URL.
gitlab.example.com
with gitlab.com
to query GitLab.com (GitLab SaaS).
Access can be denied due to authentication. For more information, see Authentication.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 request 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 request.
Authentication
Most API requests require authentication, or only return public data when
authentication isn’t provided. When authentication is not required, the documentation
for each endpoint specifies this. For example, the
/projects/:id
endpoint does not require authentication.
You can authenticate with the GitLab API in several ways:
- OAuth 2.0 tokens
- Personal access tokens
- Project access tokens
- Group access tokens
- Session cookie
- GitLab CI/CD job token (Specific endpoints only)
Project access tokens are supported by:
- Self-managed GitLab Free and higher.
- GitLab SaaS Premium and higher.
If you are an administrator, you or your application can authenticate as a specific user. To do so, use:
If authentication information is not valid or is missing, GitLab returns an error
message with a status code of 401
:
{
"message": "401 Unauthorized"
}
OAuth 2.0 tokens
You can use an OAuth 2.0 token to authenticate with the API by passing
it in either the access_token
parameter or the Authorization
header.
Example of using the OAuth 2.0 token in a parameter:
curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?access_token=OAUTH-TOKEN"
Example of using the OAuth 2.0 token in a header:
curl --header "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH-TOKEN" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
Read more about GitLab as an OAuth 2.0 provider.
refresh_token
parameter
to refresh tokens. Integrations may need to be updated to use refresh tokens prior to
expiration, which is based on the expires_in
property in the token endpoint response. See OAuth 2.0 token documentation
for examples requesting a new access token using a refresh token.A default refresh setting of two hours is tracked in this issue.
Personal/project/group 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, project, or group access token in a parameter:
curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?private_token=<your_access_token>"
Example of using the personal, project, or group access token in a header:
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"
You can also use personal, project, or group 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. The web frontend can use the API as the authenticated user to get a list of projects without explicitly passing an access token.
Impersonation tokens
Impersonation tokens are a type of personal access token. They can be created only by an administrator, and are used to authenticate with the API as a specific user.
Use impersonation tokens as an alternative to:
- The user’s password or one of their personal access tokens.
- The Sudo feature. The user’s or administrator’s 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
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 request 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
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 request 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 request 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, you can 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 or 202 Accepted if the resource is scheduled to be deleted. |
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 itself is returned as JSON. |
201 Created |
The POST request was successful, and the resource is returned as JSON. |
202 Accepted |
The GET , PUT or DELETE request was successful, and the resource is scheduled for processing. |
204 No Content |
The server has successfully fulfilled the request, and there is no additional content to send in the response payload body. |
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, or the user isn’t authorized to access the resource. |
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 Precondition Failed |
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. The default method and available on all endpoints.
- Keyset-based pagination. Added to selected endpoints but being progressively rolled out.
For large collections, you should use keyset pagination (when available) instead of offset pagination, for performance reasons.
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 GET --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. order_by
and sort
are both mandatory.
Parameter | Required | Description |
---|---|---|
pagination |
yes |
keyset (to enable keyset pagination). |
per_page |
no | Number of items to list per page (default: 20 , max: 100 ). |
order_by |
yes | Column by which to order by. |
sort |
yes | Sort order (asc or desc ) |
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
...
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
...
The link to the next page contains an additional filter id_after=42
that
excludes already-retrieved records.
As another example, the following request lists 50 groups per page ordered
by name
ascending using keyset pagination:
curl --request GET --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups?pagination=keyset&per_page=50&order_by=name&sort=asc"
The response header includes a link to the next page:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
Link: <https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups?pagination=keyset&per_page=50&order_by=name&sort=asc&cursor=eyJuYW1lIjoiRmxpZ2h0anMiLCJpZCI6IjI2IiwiX2tkIjoibiJ9>; rel="next"
Status: 200 OK
...
The link to the next page contains an additional filter cursor=eyJuYW1lIjoiRmxpZ2h0anMiLCJpZCI6IjI2IiwiX2tkIjoibiJ9
that
excludes already-retrieved records.
The type of filter depends on the
order_by
option used, and we can have more than one additional filter.
Links
header was 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.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.
You should use 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.
Supported resources
Keyset-based pagination is supported only for selected resources and ordering options:
Resource | Options | Availability |
---|---|---|
Group audit events |
order_by=id , sort=desc only |
Authenticated users only (introduced in GitLab 15.2) |
Groups |
order_by=name , sort=asc only |
Unauthenticated users only |
Instance audit events |
order_by=id , sort=desc only |
Authenticated users only (introduced in GitLab 15.11) |
Jobs |
order_by=id , sort=desc only |
Authenticated users only (introduced in GitLab 15.9) |
Project audit events |
order_by=id , sort=desc only |
Authenticated users only (introduced in GitLab 15.10) |
Projects |
order_by=id only |
Authenticated and unauthenticated users |
Pagination response headers
For performance reasons, if a query returns more than 10,000 records, GitLab doesn’t return the following headers:
-
x-total
. -
x-total-pages
. -
rel="last"
link
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 request 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 requests, 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
You can request the API with array
and hash
types parameters:
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[0][key]=VAR1&variables[0][value]=hello&variables[1][key]=VAR2&variables[1][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 request to retrieve the issue is
GET /projects/42/issues/5
. - An invalid API request 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.
null
vs false
In API responses, some boolean fields can have null
values.
A null
boolean has no default value and is neither true
nor false
.
GitLab treats null
values in boolean fields the same as false
.
In boolean arguments, you should only set true
or false
values (not null
).
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
Many unofficial GitLab API Clients are available for most of the popular programming languages. For a complete list, see 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.
Resolve requests detected as spam
Introduced in GitLab 14.9.
REST API requests can be detected as spam. If a request is detected as spam and:
-
A CAPTCHA service is not configured, an error response is returned. For example:
{"message":{"error":"Your snippet has been recognized as spam and has been discarded."}}
- A CAPTCHA service is configured, you receive a response with:
-
needs_captcha_response
set totrue
. - The
spam_log_id
andcaptcha_site_key
fields set.
For example:
{"needs_captcha_response":true,"spam_log_id":42,"captcha_site_key":"REDACTED","message":{"error":"Your snippet has been recognized as spam. Please, change the content or solve the reCAPTCHA to proceed."}}
-
- Use the
captcha_site_key
to obtain a CAPTCHA response value using the appropriate CAPTCHA API. Only Google reCAPTCHA v2 is supported. - Resubmit the request with the
X-GitLab-Captcha-Response
andX-GitLab-Spam-Log-Id
headers set.
export CAPTCHA_RESPONSE="<CAPTCHA response obtained from CAPTCHA service>"
export SPAM_LOG_ID="<spam_log_id obtained from initial REST response>"
curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $PRIVATE_TOKEN" --header "X-GitLab-Captcha-Response: $CAPTCHA_RESPONSE" --header "X-GitLab-Spam-Log-Id: $SPAM_LOG_ID" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/snippets?title=Title&file_name=FileName&content=Content&visibility=public"