• Global search scopes
• Global search validation
• Autocomplete suggestions
• Search in all GitLab
• Search in a project
• Search for a project by full path
• Include archived projects in search results
• Exclude issues in archived projects from search results
• Search for code
  • View Git blame from code search
  • Filter code search results by language
• Search for a commit SHA
• Run a search from history

Searching in GitLab

GitLab has two types of searches available: basic and advanced.

Both types of search are the same, except when you are searching through code.

• When you use basic search to search code, your search includes one project at a time.
• When you use advanced search to search code, your search includes all projects at once.

Global search scopes

To improve the performance of your instance’s global search, an administrator can limit the search scope by disabling one or more ops feature flags.

All global search scopes are enabled by default on self-managed instances.

Global search validation

Global search ignores and logs as abusive any search that includes:

• Fewer than two characters
• A term longer than 100 characters (URL search terms must not exceed 200 characters)
• A stop word only (for example, the, and, or if)
• An unknown scope
• group_id or project_id that is not completely numeric
• repository_ref or project_ref with special characters not allowed by Git refname

Global search only flags with an error any search that includes more than:

• 4096 characters
• 64 terms

Partial matches are not supported in issue search. For example, when you search issues for play, the query does not return issues that contain display. However, the query matches all possible variations of the string (for example, plays).

Autocomplete suggestions

As you type in the search box, autocomplete suggestions are displayed for:

• Projects and groups
• Users
• Help pages
• Project features (for example, milestones)
• Settings (for example, user settings)
• Recently viewed merge requests
• Recently viewed issues and epics
• GitLab Flavored Markdown references for issues in a project

Search in all GitLab

To search in all GitLab:

1. On the left sidebar, at the top, select Search or go to.
2. Type your search query. You must type at least two characters.
3. Press Enter to search, or select from the list.

The results are displayed. To filter the results, on the left sidebar, select a filter.

Search in a project

To search in a project:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Search or go to again and type the string you want to search for.
3. Press Enter to search, or select from the list.

The results are displayed. To filter the results, on the left sidebar, select a filter.

Search for a project by full path

You can search for a project by entering its full path (including the namespace it belongs to) in the search box. As you type the project path, autocomplete suggestions are displayed.

For example:

• gitlab-org/gitlab searches for the gitlab project in the gitlab-org namespace.
• gitlab-org/ displays autocomplete suggestions for projects that belong to the gitlab-org namespace.

Include archived projects in search results

By default, archived projects are excluded from search results. To include archived projects:

1. On the project search page, on the left sidebar, select the Include archived checkbox.
2. On the left sidebar, select Apply.

Exclude issues in archived projects from search results

By default, issues in archived projects are included in search results. To exclude issues in archived projects, ensure the search_issues_hide_archived_projects flag is enabled.

To include issues in archived projects with search_issues_hide_archived_projects enabled, you must add the parameter include_archived=true to the URL.

Search for code

To search for code in a project:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Search or go to again and type the code you want to search for.
3. Press Enter to search, or select from the list.

Code search shows only the first result in the file. To search for code in all GitLab, ask your administrator to enable advanced search.

View Git blame from code search

After you find search results, you can view who made the last change to the line where the results were found.

1. From the code search result, hover over the line number.
2. On the left, select View blame.

Filter code search results by language

To filter code search results by one or more languages:

1. On the code search page, on the left sidebar, select one or more languages.
2. On the left sidebar, select Apply.

Search for a commit SHA

To search for a commit SHA:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Search or go to again and type the commit SHA you want to search for.
3. Press Enter to search, or select from the list.

If a single result is returned, GitLab redirects to the commit result and gives you the option to return to the search results page.

Run a search from history

You can run a search from history for issues and merge requests. Search history is stored locally in your browser. To run a search from history:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.

2. To view recent searches:

   • For issues, on the left sidebar, select Plan > Issues. Above the list, to the left of the search box, select ().
   • For merge requests, on the left sidebar, select Code > Merge requests. Above the list, to the left of the search box, select Recent searches.
3. From the dropdown list, select a search.