Permissions and roles

When you add a user to a project or group, you assign them a role. The role determines which actions they can take in GitLab.

If you add a user to both a project’s group and the project itself, the higher role is used.

GitLab administrators have all permissions.

Roles

The available roles are:

  • Guest (This role applies to private and internal projects only.)
  • Reporter
  • Developer
  • Maintainer
  • Owner
  • Minimal Access (available for the top-level group only)

A user assigned the Guest role has the least permissions, and the Owner has the most.

By default, all users can create top-level groups and change their usernames. A GitLab administrator can change this behavior for the GitLab instance.

Project members permissions

Version history
  • Introduced in GitLab 14.8, personal namespace owners appear with Owner role in new projects in their namespace. Introduced with a flag named personal_project_owner_with_owner_access. Disabled by default.
  • Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag personal_project_owner_with_owner_access removed.

A user’s role determines what permissions they have on a project. The Owner role provides all permissions but is available only:

  • For group and project Owners. In GitLab 14.8 and earlier, the role is inherited for a group’s projects.
  • For Administrators.

Personal namespace owners:

  • Are displayed as having the Maintainer role on projects in the namespace, but have the same permissions as a user with the Owner role.
  • In GitLab 14.9 and later, for new projects in the namespace, are displayed as having the Owner role.

For more information about how to manage project members, see members of a project.

The following table lists project permissions available for each role:

Action Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
Analytics:
View issue analytics
Analytics:
View merge request analytics
Analytics:
View value stream analytics
Analytics:
View DORA metrics
 
Analytics:
View CI/CD analytics
 
Analytics:
View code review analytics
 
Analytics:
View repository analytics
 
Application security:
View licenses in dependency list
   
Application security:
Create and run on-demand DAST scans
   
Application security:
Manage security policy
   
Application security:
View dependency list
   
Application security:
Create a CVE ID Request
     
Application security:
Create or assign security policy project
       
GitLab Agent for Kubernetes:
View agents
   
GitLab Agent for Kubernetes:
Manage agents
     
Container Registry:
Create, edit, delete cleanup policies
     
Container Registry:
Push an image to the Container Registry
   
Container Registry:
Pull an image from the Container Registry
✓ (19) ✓ (19)
Container Registry:
Remove a Container Registry image
   
GitLab Pages:
View Pages protected by access control
GitLab Pages:
Manage
     
GitLab Pages:
Manage GitLab Pages domains and certificates
     
GitLab Pages:
Remove GitLab Pages
     
Incident Management:
Assign an alert
Incident Management:
Participate in on-call rotation
Incident Management:
View incident
Incident Management:
Change alert status
 
Incident Management:
Change incident severity
 
Incident Management:
Create incident
 
Incident Management:
View alerts
 
Incident Management:
View escalation policies
 
Incident Management:
View on-call schedules
 
Incident Management:
Change incident escalation status
   
Incident Management:
Change incident escalation policy
   
Incident Management:
Manage on-call schedules
     
Incident Management:
Manage escalation policies
     
Issue boards:
Create or delete lists
 
Issue boards:
Move issues between lists
 
Issues:
Add Labels
✓ (15)
Issues:
Add to epic
  ✓ (22) ✓ (22) ✓ (22) ✓ (22)
Issues:
Assign
✓ (15)
Issues:
Create (17)
Issues:
Create confidential issues
Issues:
View Design Management pages
Issues:
View related issues
Issues:
Set weight
✓ (15)
Issues:
Set parent epic
 
Issues:
View confidential issues
(2)
Issues:
Close / reopen (18)
 
Issues:
Lock threads
 
Issues:
Manage related issues
 
Issues:
Manage tracker
 
Issues:
Move issues (14)
 
Issues:
Set issue time tracking estimate and time spent
 
Issues:
Archive Design Management files
   
Issues:
Upload Design Management files
   
Issues:
Delete
       
License Compliance:
View allowed and denied licenses
✓ (1)
License Compliance:
View License Compliance reports
✓ (1)
License Compliance:
View License list
 
License Compliance:
Manage license policy
     
Merge requests:
Assign reviewer
 
Merge requests:
See list
 
Merge requests:
Apply code change suggestions
   
Merge requests:
Approve (8)
   
Merge requests:
Assign
   
Merge requests:
Create (16)
   
Merge requests:
Add labels
   
Merge requests:
Lock threads
   
Merge requests:
Manage or accept
   
Merge requests:
Resolve a thread
   
Merge requests:
Manage merge approval rules (project settings)
     
Merge requests:
Delete
       
Metrics dashboards:
Manage user-starred metrics dashboards (6)
Metrics dashboards:
View metrics dashboard annotations
 
Metrics dashboards:
Create/edit/delete metrics dashboard annotations
   
Package registry:
Pull a package
✓ (1)
Package registry:
Publish a package
   
Package registry:
Delete a package
     
Package registry:
Delete a file associated with a package
     
Project operations:
View Error Tracking list
 
Project operations:
Manage Feature flags
   
Project operations:
Manage Error Tracking
     
Projects:
Download project
✓ (1)
Projects:
Leave comments
Projects:
Reposition comments on images (posted by any user)
✓ (9) ✓ (9) ✓ (9)
Projects:
View Insights
Projects:
View releases
✓ (5)
Projects:
View Requirements
Projects:
View time tracking reports
✓ (1)
Projects:
View wiki pages
Projects:
Create snippets
 
Projects:
Manage labels
 
Projects:
View project traffic statistics
 
Projects:
Create, edit, delete milestones.
 
Projects:
Create, edit, delete releases
    ✓ (12) ✓ (12) ✓ (12)
Projects:
Create, edit wiki pages
   
Projects:
Enable Review Apps
   
Projects:
View project Audit Events
    ✓ (10)
Projects:
Add deploy keys
     
Projects:
Add new team members
     
Projects:
Manage team members
      ✓ (20)
Projects:
Change project features visibility level
      ✓ (13)
Projects:
Configure webhooks
     
Projects:
Delete wiki pages
   
Projects:
Edit comments (posted by any user)
     
Projects:
Edit project badges
     
Projects:
Edit project settings
     
Projects:
Export project
     
Projects:
Manage project access tokens (11)
      ✓ (20)
Projects:
Manage Project Operations
     
Projects:
Rename project
     
Projects:
Share (invite) projects with groups
      ✓ (7) ✓ (7)
Projects:
View 2FA status of members
     
Projects:
Assign project to a compliance framework
       
Projects:
Archive project
       
Projects:
Change project visibility level
       
Projects:
Delete project
       
Projects:
Disable notification emails
       
Projects:
Transfer project to another namespace
       
Projects: View Usage Quotas page      
Repository:
Pull project code
✓ (1)
Repository:
View project code
✓ (1) (23)
Repository:
View a commit status
 
Repository:
Add tags
   
Repository:
Create new branches
   
Repository:
Create or update commit status
    ✓ (4)
Repository:
Force push to non-protected branches
   
Repository:
Push to non-protected branches
   
Repository:
Remove non-protected branches
   
Repository:
Rewrite or remove Git tags
   
Repository:
Enable or disable branch protection
     
Repository:
Enable or disable tag protection
     
Repository:
Manage push rules
     
Repository:
Push to protected branches (4)
     
Repository:
Turn on or off protected branch push for developers
     
Repository:
Remove fork relationship
       
Repository:
Force push to protected branches (3)
         
Repository:
Remove protected branches (3)
         
Requirements Management:
Archive / reopen
 
Requirements Management:
Create / edit
 
Requirements Management:
Import / export
 
Security dashboard:
Create issue from vulnerability finding
   
Security dashboard:
Create vulnerability from vulnerability finding
   
Security dashboard:
Dismiss vulnerability
   
Security dashboard:
Dismiss vulnerability finding
   
Security dashboard:
Resolve vulnerability
   
Security dashboard:
Revert vulnerability to detected state
   
Security dashboard:
Use security dashboard
   
Security dashboard:
View vulnerability
   
Security dashboard:
View vulnerability findings in dependency list
   
Tasks:
Create (17)
 
Tasks:
Edit
 
Tasks:
Remove from issue
 
Tasks:
Delete (21)
       
Terraform:
Read Terraform state
   
Terraform:
Manage Terraform state
     
Test cases:
Archive
 
Test cases:
Create
 
Test cases:
Move
 
Test cases:
Reopen
 
  1. On self-managed GitLab instances, users with the Guest role are able to perform this action only on public and internal projects (not on private projects). External users must be given explicit access even if the project is internal. Users with the Guest role on GitLab.com are only able to perform this action on public projects because internal visibility is not available.
  2. Guest users can only view the confidential issues they created themselves or are assigned to.
  3. Not allowed for Guest, Reporter, Developer, Maintainer, or Owner. See protected branches.
  4. If the branch is protected, this depends on the access given to Developers and Maintainers.
  5. Guest users can access GitLab Releases for downloading assets but are not allowed to download the source code nor see repository information like commits and release evidence.
  6. Actions are limited only to records owned (referenced) by user.
  7. When Share Group Lock is enabled the project can’t be shared with other groups. It does not affect group with group sharing.
  8. For information on eligible approvers for merge requests, see Eligible approvers.
  9. Applies only to comments on Design Management designs.
  10. Users can only view events based on their individual actions.
  11. Project access tokens are supported for self-managed instances on Free and above. They are also supported on GitLab SaaS Premium and above (excluding trial licenses).
  12. If the tag is protected, this depends on the access given to Developers and Maintainers.
  13. A Maintainer or Owner can’t change project features visibility level if project visibility is set to private.
  14. Attached design files are moved together with the issue even if the user doesn’t have the Developer role.
  15. Guest users can only set metadata (for example, labels, assignees, or milestones) when creating an issue. They cannot change the metadata on existing issues.
  16. In projects that accept contributions from external members, users can create, edit, and close their own merge requests.
  17. Authors and assignees can modify the title and description even if they don’t have the Reporter role.
  18. Authors and assignees can close and reopen issues even if they don’t have the Reporter role.
  19. The ability to view the Container Registry and pull images is controlled by the Container Registry’s visibility permissions.
  20. Maintainers cannot create, demote, or remove Owners, and they cannot promote users to the Owner role. They also cannot approve Owner role access requests.
  21. Authors of tasks can delete them even if they don’t have the Owner role, but they have to have at least the Guest role for the project.
  22. You must have permission to view the epic.
  23. In GitLab 15.9 and later, users with the Guest role and an Ultimate license can view private repository content if an administrator gives those users permission. The administrator can create a custom role through the API and assign that role to the users.

Project features permissions

More details about the permissions for some project-level features follow.

GitLab CI/CD permissions

GitLab CI/CD permissions for some roles can be modified by these settings:

  • Public pipelines: When set to public, gives access to certain CI/CD features to Guest project members.
  • Pipeline visibility: When set to Everyone with Access, gives access to certain CI/CD “view” features to non-project members.
Action Non-member Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
See that artifacts exist ✓ (3) ✓ (3)
View a list of jobs ✓ (1) ✓ (2)
View and download artifacts ✓ (1) ✓ (2)
View environments ✓ (3) ✓ (3)
View job logs and job details page ✓ (1) ✓ (2)
View pipelines and pipeline details pages ✓ (1) ✓ (2)
View pipelines tab in MR ✓ (3) ✓ (3)
View vulnerabilities in a pipeline   ✓ (2)
View and download project-level Secure Files      
Cancel and retry jobs      
Create new environments      
Delete job logs or job artifacts       ✓ (4)
Run CI/CD pipeline      
Run CI/CD pipeline for a protected branch       ✓ (5) ✓ (5)
Stop environments      
View a job with debug logging      
Use pipeline editor      
Run interactive web terminals      
Add project runners to project        
Clear runner caches manually        
Enable shared runners in project        
Manage CI/CD settings        
Manage job triggers        
Manage project-level CI/CD variables        
Manage project-level Secure Files        
Use environment terminals        
Delete pipelines          
  1. If the project is public and Public pipelines is enabled in Project Settings > CI/CD.
  2. If Public pipelines is enabled in Project Settings > CI/CD.
  3. If the project is public.
  4. Only if the job was both:
    • Triggered by the user.
    • In GitLab 13.0 and later, run for a non-protected branch.
  5. If the user is allowed to merge or push to the protected branch.

Job permissions

This table shows granted privileges for jobs triggered by specific types of users:

Action Guest, Reporter Developer Maintainer Administrator
Run CI job  
Clone source and LFS from current project  
Clone source and LFS from public projects  
Clone source and LFS from internal projects   ✓ (1) ✓ (1)
Clone source and LFS from private projects   ✓ (2) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Pull container images from current project  
Pull container images from public projects  
Pull container images from internal projects   ✓ (1) ✓ (1)
Pull container images from private projects   ✓ (2) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Push container images to current project  
Push container images to other projects        
Push source and LFS        
  1. Only if the triggering user is not an external one.
  2. Only if the triggering user is a member of the project. See also Usage of private Docker images with if-not-present pull policy.

Group members permissions

Any user can remove themselves from a group, unless they are the last Owner of the group.

The following table lists group permissions available for each role:

Action Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
Add/remove child epics ✓ (8)
Add an issue to an epic ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7)
Browse group
Pull a container image using the dependency proxy
View Contribution analytics
View group epic
View group wiki pages ✓ (5)
View Insights
View Insights charts
View Issue analytics
View value stream analytics
Create/edit group epic  
Create/edit/delete epic boards  
Manage group labels  
Publish packages    
Pull packages  
Delete packages      
Create/edit/delete Maven and generic package duplicate settings      
Enable/disable package request forwarding      
Pull a Container Registry image ✓ (6)
Remove a Container Registry image    
View Group DevOps Adoption  
View metrics dashboard annotations  
View Productivity analytics  
Create and edit group wiki pages    
Create project in group     ✓ (2)(4) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Create/edit/delete group milestones  
Create/edit/delete iterations  
Create/edit/delete metrics dashboard annotations    
Enable/disable a dependency proxy      
Purge the dependency proxy for a group        
Create/edit/delete dependency proxy cleanup policies      
Use security dashboard    
View group Audit Events     ✓ (6) ✓ (6)
Create subgroup       ✓ (1)
Delete group wiki pages    
Edit epic comments (posted by any user)      
List group deploy tokens      
Manage group push rules      
View/manage group-level Kubernetes cluster      
Create and manage compliance frameworks        
Create/Delete group deploy tokens        
Change group visibility level        
Delete group        
Delete group epic        
Disable notification emails        
Edit group settings        
Edit SAML SSO         ✓ (3)
Filter members by 2FA status        
Manage group level CI/CD variables        
Manage group members        
Share (invite) groups with groups        
View 2FA status of members        
View Billing         ✓ (3)
View group Usage Quotas page         ✓ (3)
Manage group runners        
Migrate groups        
Manage subscriptions, and purchase CI/CD minutes and storage        
  1. Groups can be set to allow either Owners, or Owners and users with the Maintainer role, to create subgroups.
  2. Default project creation role can be changed at:
  3. Does not apply to subgroups.
  4. Developers can push commits to the default branch of a new project only if the default branch protection is set to “Partially protected” or “Not protected”.
  5. In addition, if your group is public or internal, all users who can see the group can also see group wiki pages.
  6. Users can only view events based on their individual actions.
  7. You must have permission to view the epic and edit the issue.
  8. You must have permission to view the parent and child epics.

Subgroup permissions

When you add a member to a subgroup, they inherit the membership and permission level from the parent groups. This model allows access to nested groups if you have membership in one of its parents.

For more information, see subgroup memberships.

Users with Minimal Access

Version history
  • Introduced in GitLab 13.4.
  • Support for inviting users with Minimal Access role introduced in GitLab 15.9.

Users with the Minimal Access role do not:

  • Count as licensed seats on self-managed Ultimate subscriptions or any GitLab.com subscriptions.
  • Automatically have access to projects and subgroups in that root group.

Owners must explicitly add these users to the specific subgroups and projects.

You can use the Minimal Access role to give the same member more than one role in a group:

  1. Add the member to the root group with a Minimal Access role.
  2. Invite the member as a direct member with a specific role in any subgroup or project in that group.

Because of an outstanding issue, when a user with the Minimal Access role:

  • Signs in with standard web authentication, they receive a 404 error when accessing the parent group.
  • Signs in with Group SSO, they receive a 404 error immediately because they are redirected to the parent group page.

To work around the issue, give these users the Guest role or higher to any project or subgroup within the parent group.

Custom roles

Version history

Custom roles allow group members who are assigned the Owner role to create roles specific to the needs of their organization.

For a demo of the custom roles feature, see [Demo] Ultimate Guest can view code on private repositories via custom role.

Create a custom role

To enable custom roles for your group, a group member with the Owner role:

  1. Makes sure that there is at least one private project in this group or one of its subgroups, so that you can see the effect of giving a Guest a custom role.
  2. Creates a personal access token with the API scope.
  3. Uses the API to create the Guest+1 role for the root group.

Associate a custom role with an existing group member

To associate a custom role with an existing group member, a group member with the Owner role:

  1. Invites a user to the root group or any subgroup or project in the root group’s hierarchy as a Guest. At this point, this Guest user cannot see any code on the projects in the group or subgroup.
  2. Optional. If the Owner does not know the ID of the Guest user receiving a custom role, finds that ID by making an API request.

  3. Associates the member with the Guest+1 role using the Group and Project Members API endpoint

    # to update a project membership
    curl --request PUT --header "Content-Type: application/json" --header "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" --data '{"member_role_id": '$MEMBER_ROLE_ID', "access_level": 10}' "https://example.gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/$ID/members/$GUEST_USER_ID"
    
    # to update a group membership
    curl --request PUT --header "Content-Type: application/json" --header "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" --data '{"member_role_id": '$MEMBER_ROLE_ID', "access_level": 10}' "https://example.gitlab.com/api/v4/groups/$ID/members/$GUEST_USER_ID"
    

    Where:

    • $ID: The ID or URL-encoded path of the project or group associated with the membership receiving the custom role.
    • $MEMBER_ROLE_ID: The ID of the member role created in the previous section.
    • $GUEST_USER_ID: The ID of the Guest user receiving a custom role.

    Now the Guest+1 user can view code on all projects associated with this membership.

Remove a custom role from a group member

To remove a custom role from a group member, use the Group and Project Members API endpoint and pass an empty member_role_id value.

curl --request PUT --header "Content-Type: application/json" --header "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" --data '{"member_role_id": "", "access_level": 10}' "https://example.gitlab.com/api/v4/groups/$GROUP_PATH/members/$GUEST_USER_ID"

Now the user is a regular Guest.

Remove a custom role

Removing a custom role also removes all members with that custom role from the group. If you decide to delete a custom role, you must re-add any users with that custom role to the group.

To remove a custom role from a group, a group member with the Owner role:

  1. Optional. If the Owner does not know the ID of a custom role, finds that ID by making an API request.
  2. Uses the API to delete the custom role.

Known issues

  • Additional permissions can only be applied to users with the Guest role.
  • If a user with a custom role is shared with a group or project, their custom role is not transferred over with them. The user has the regular Guest role in the new group or project.
  • You cannot use an Auditor user as a template for a custom role.