- Improve your project’s security
- Customize emails sent to the requester
- Use a custom template for Service Desk tickets
- Support Bot user
- Custom email address
- Use an additional Service Desk alias email
- Configure email ingestion in multi-node environments
Configure Service Desk
By default, Service Desk is active in new projects. If it’s not active, you can do it in the project’s settings.
Prerequisites:
- You must have at least the Maintainer role for the project.
- On GitLab self-managed, you must set up incoming email for the GitLab instance. You should use email sub-addressing, but you can also use catch-all mailboxes. To do this, you must have administrator access.
- You must have enabled issue tracker for the project.
To enable Service Desk in your project:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
- Turn on the Activate Service Desk toggle.
- Optional. Complete the fields.
- Add a suffix to your Service Desk email address.
- If the list below Template to append to all Service Desk issues is empty, create a description template in your repository.
- Select Save changes.
Service Desk is now enabled for this project. If anyone sends an email to the address available below Email address to use for Service Desk, GitLab creates a confidential issue with the email’s content.
Improve your project’s security
To improve your Service Desk project’s security, you should:
- Put the Service Desk email address behind an alias on your email system so you can change it later.
- Enable Akismet on your GitLab instance to add spam checking to this service. Unblocked email spam can result in many spam issues being created.
Customize emails sent to the requester
- Moved from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in 13.2.
-
UNSUBSCRIBE_URL
,SYSTEM_HEADER
,SYSTEM_FOOTER
, andADDITIONAL_TEXT
placeholders introduced in GitLab 15.9. -
%{ISSUE_DESCRIPTION}
introduced in GitLab 16.0. -
%{ISSUE_URL}
introduced in GitLab 16.1.
An email is sent to the requester when:
- A requester submits a new ticket by emailing Service Desk.
- A new public comment is added on a Service Desk ticket.
- Editing a comment does not trigger a new email to be sent.
You can customize the body of these email messages with Service Desk email templates. The templates can include GitLab Flavored Markdown and some HTML tags. For example, you can format the emails to include a header and footer in accordance with your organization’s brand guidelines. You can also include the following placeholders to display dynamic content specific to the Service Desk ticket or your GitLab instance.
Placeholder | thank_you.md | new_note.md | Description |
---|---|---|---|
%{ISSUE_ID} | Yes | Yes | Ticket IID. |
%{ISSUE_PATH} | Yes | Yes | Project path appended with the ticket IID. |
%{ISSUE_URL} | Yes | Yes | URL of the ticket. External participants can only view the ticket if the project is public and ticket is not confidential (Service Desk tickets are confidential by default). |
%{ISSUE_DESCRIPTION} | Yes | Yes | Ticket description. If a user has edited the description, it may contain sensitive information that is not intended to be delivered to external participants. Use this placeholder with care and ideally only if you never modify descriptions or your team is aware of the template design. |
%{UNSUBSCRIBE_URL} | Yes | Yes | Unsubscribe URL. |
%{NOTE_TEXT} | No | Yes | The new comment added to the ticket by a user. Take care to include this placeholder in new_note.md . Otherwise, the requesters may never see the updates on their Service Desk ticket. |
Thank you email
When a requester submits an issue through Service Desk, GitLab sends a thank you email. Without additional configuration, GitLab sends the default thank you email.
To create a custom thank you email template:
- In the
.gitlab/service_desk_templates/
directory of your repository, create a file namedthank_you.md
. - Populate the Markdown file with text, GitLab Flavored Markdown, some selected HTML tags, and placeholders to customize the reply to Service Desk requesters.
New note email
When a Service Desk ticket has a new public comment, GitLab sends a new note email. Without additional configuration, GitLab sends the content of the comment.
To keep your emails on brand, you can create a custom new note email template. To do so:
- In the
.gitlab/service_desk_templates/
directory in your repository, create a file namednew_note.md
. - Populate the Markdown file with text, GitLab Flavored Markdown,
some selected HTML tags, and placeholders to customize the new note
email. Be sure to include the
%{NOTE_TEXT}
in the template to make sure the email recipient can read the contents of the comment.
Instance-level email header, footer, and additional text
Introduced in GitLab 15.9.
Instance administrators can add a header, footer or additional text to the GitLab instance and apply
them to all emails sent from GitLab. If you’re using a custom thank_you.md
or new_note.md
, to include
this content, add %{SYSTEM_HEADER}
, %{SYSTEM_FOOTER}
, or %{ADDITIONAL_TEXT}
to your templates.
For more information, see System header and footer messages and custom additional text.
Use a custom template for Service Desk tickets
You can select one description template per project to be appended to every new Service Desk ticket’s description.
You can set description templates at various levels:
- The entire instance.
- A specific group or subgroup.
- A specific project.
The templates are inherited. For example, in a project, you can also access templates set for the instance, or the project’s parent groups.
Prerequisite:
- You must have created a description template.
To use a custom description template with Service Desk:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
- From the dropdown list Template to append to all Service Desk issues, search or select your template.
Support Bot user
Behind the scenes, Service Desk works by the special Support Bot user creating issues. This user isn’t a billable user, so it does not count toward the license limit count.
In GitLab 16.0 and earlier, comments generated from Service Desk emails show GitLab Support Bot
as the author. In GitLab 16.1 and later,
these comments show the email of the user who sent the email.
This feature only applies to comments made in GitLab 16.1 and later.
Change the Support Bot’s display name
You can change the display name of the Support Bot user. Emails sent from Service Desk have
this name in the From
header. The default display name is GitLab Support Bot
.
To edit the custom email display name:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
- Below Email display name, enter a new name.
- Select Save changes.
Custom email address
-
Introduced in GitLab 16.3 with a flag named
service_desk_custom_email
. Disabled by default. - Enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 16.4.
service_desk_custom_email
. On GitLab.com, this feature is available.Configure a custom email address to show as the sender of your support communication. Maintain brand identity and instill confidence among support requesters with a domain they recognize.
For an overview, see a short showcase video.
This feature is in Beta. A Beta feature is not production-ready, but is unlikely to change drastically before it’s released. We encourage users to try Beta features and provide feedback in the feedback issue.
Prerequisites
You can use one custom email address for Service Desk per project and it must be unique across the instance.
The custom email address you want to use must meet all of the following requirements:
- You can set up email forwarding.
- Forwarded emails preserve the original
From
header. -
Your service provider must support sub-addressing. An email address consists of a local part (everything before
@
) and a domain part.With email sub-addressing you can create unique variations of an email address by adding a
+
symbol followed by any text to the local part. Given the email addresssupport@example.com
, check whether sub-addressing is supported by sending an email tosupport+1@example.com
. This email should appear in your mailbox. - You have SMTP credentials (ideally, you should use an app password).
- You must have at least the Maintainer role for the project.
- Service Desk must be configured for the project.
Configure a custom email address
Configure and verify a custom email address when you want to send Service Desk emails using your own email address.
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk and find the Custom email settings.
- Note the presented Service Desk address of this project, and with your email provider (for example, Gmail), set up email forwarding from the custom email address to the Service Desk address.
- Back in GitLab, complete the fields. SMTP host must be resolvable from the network of your GitLab instance (on GitLab self-managed) or the public internet (on GitLab SaaS).
- Select Save & test settings.
The configuration has been saved and the verification of the custom email address is triggered.
Verification
- After completing the configuration, all project owners and the administrator that saved the custom email configuration receive a notification email.
- A verification email is sent using the provided SMTP credentials to the custom email address (with a sub-addressing part).
The email contains a verification token. When email forwarding is set up correctly and all prerequisites are met,
the email is forwarded to your Service Desk address and ingested by GitLab. GitLab checks the following conditions:
- GitLab can send an email using the SMTP credentials.
- Sub-addressing is supported (with the
+verify
sub-addressing part). -
From
header is preserved after forwarding. - Verification token is correct.
- Email is received in 30 minutes.
Typically the process takes only a few minutes.
To cancel verification at any time or if it fails, select Reset custom email. The settings page updates accordingly and reflects the current state of the verification. The SMTP credentials are deleted and you can start the configuration again.
On failure and success all project owners and the user who triggered the verification process receive a notification email with the verification result. If the verification failed, the email also contains details of the reason.
If the verification was successful, the custom email address is ready to be used. You can now enable sending Service Desk emails via the custom email address.
Enable or disable the custom email address
After the custom email address has been verified, administrators can enable or disable sending Service Desk emails via the custom email address.
To enable the custom email address:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
- Turn on the Enable custom email toggle. Service Desk emails to external participants are sent using the SMTP credentials.
To disable the custom email address:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
-
Turn off the Enable custom email toggle. Because you set up email forwarding, emails to your custom email address continue to be processed and appear as Service Desk Tickets in your project.
Service Desk emails to external participants are now sent using the GitLab instance’s default outgoing email configuration.
Change or remove custom email configuration
To change the custom email configuration you must reset and remove it and configure custom email again.
To reset the configuration at any step in the process, select Reset custom email. The credentials are then removed from the database.
Custom email reply address
External participants can reply by email to Service Desk tickets. GitLab uses an email reply address with a 32-character reply key that corresponds to the ticket. When a custom email is configured, GitLab generates the reply address from that email.
Use Google Workspace with your own domain
Set up a custom email address for Service Desk when using Google Workspace with your own domain.
Prerequisites:
- You already have a Google Workspace account.
- You can create new accounts for your tenant.
To configure a custom Service Desk email address with Google Workspace:
Configure a Google Workspace account
First, you must create and configure a Google Workspace account.
In Google Workspace:
- Create a new account for the custom email address you’d like to use (for example,
support@example.com
). - Sign in to that account and activate two-factor authentication.
- Create an app password that you can use as your SMTP password. Store it in a secure place and remove spaces between the characters.
Next, you must configure email forwarding.
Configure email forwarding
The following steps require moving between GitLab and Google Workspace.
In GitLab:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General
- Expand Service Desk.
- Note the email address below Service Desk email address to forward emails to.
In Google Workspace:
- Sign in to the custom email account and open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings page.
- Select Add a forwarding address.
- Enter the Service Desk address from the custom email form.
- Select Next.
- Confirm your input and select Proceed. Google sends an email to the Service Desk address and requires a confirmation code.
In GitLab:
- Go to Issues of the project and wait for a new issue to be created from the confirmation email from Google.
- Open the issue and note the confirmation code.
- (Optional) Delete the issue.
In Google Workspace:
- Enter the confirmation code and select Verify.
- Select Forward a copy of incoming mail to and make sure the Service Desk address is selected from the dropdown list.
- At the bottom of the page, select Save Changes.
Next, configure a custom email address to use with Service Desk.
Configure custom email address
In GitLab:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General
- Expand Service Desk and find the custom email settings.
- Complete the fields:
- Custom email address: Your custom email address.
-
SMTP host:
smtp.gmail.com
. -
SMTP port:
587
. - SMTP username: Prefilled with the custom email address.
- SMTP password: The app password you previously created for the custom email account.
- Select Save and test connection
- After the verification process you should be able to enable the custom email address.
Known issues
- Some service providers don’t allow SMTP connections any more. Often you can enable them on a per user basis and create an app password.
- Microsoft Exchange doesn’t preserve the
From
header, so you cannot use a custom email from the same tenant. As a workaround:- On GitLab SaaS, use a transport rule to forward emails from the custom email address to the Service Desk email
from GitLab SaaS. Forwarding to an email address outside the current tenant preserves the original
From
header. - On GitLab self-managed, use a subdomain or a different domain from another service provider for the
custom email address or the GitLab instance
incoming_email
orservice_desk_email
.
- On GitLab SaaS, use a transport rule to forward emails from the custom email address to the Service Desk email
from GitLab SaaS. Forwarding to an email address outside the current tenant preserves the original
Use an additional Service Desk alias email
- Introduced in GitLab 13.0.
- Feature flag removed in GitLab 13.8.
You can use an additional alias email address for Service Desk on an instance level.
To do this, you must configure
a service_desk_email
in the instance configuration. You can also configure a
custom suffix that replaces the default -issue-
portion on the sub-addressing part.
Configure Service Desk alias email
contact-project+%{key}@incoming.gitlab.com
as the email address. You can still configure the
custom suffix in project settings.Service Desk uses the incoming email
configuration by default. However, to have a separate email address for Service Desk,
configure service_desk_email
with a custom suffix
in project settings.
Prerequisites:
- The
address
must include the+%{key}
placeholder in theuser
portion of the address, before the@
. The placeholder is used to identify the project where the issue should be created. - The
service_desk_email
andincoming_email
configurations must always use separate mailboxes to make sure Service Desk emails are processed correctly.
To configure a custom mailbox for Service Desk with IMAP, add the following snippets to your configuration file in full:
webhook
(internal API call) by default instead of enqueuing a Sidekiq job.
To use webhook
on a Linux package installation running GitLab 15.3, you must generate a secret file.
For more information, see merge request 5927.
In GitLab 15.4, reconfiguring a Linux package installation generates this secret file automatically, so no
secret file configuration setting is needed.
For more information, see issue 1462.gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@gmail.com"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "project_contact@gmail.com"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_idle_timeout'] = 60
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_log_file'] = "/var/log/gitlab/mailroom/mail_room_json.log"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_host'] = "imap.gmail.com"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_port'] = 993
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_ssl'] = true
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_start_tls'] = false
service_desk_email:
enabled: true
address: "project_contact+%{key}@example.com"
user: "project_contact@example.com"
password: "[REDACTED]"
host: "imap.gmail.com"
delivery_method: webhook
secret_file: .gitlab-mailroom-secret
port: 993
ssl: true
start_tls: false
log_path: "log/mailroom.log"
mailbox: "inbox"
idle_timeout: 60
expunge_deleted: true
The configuration options are the same as for configuring incoming email.
Use encrypted credentials
Introduced in GitLab 15.9.
Instead of having the Service Desk email credentials stored in plaintext in the configuration files, you can optionally use an encrypted file for the incoming email credentials.
Prerequisites:
- To use encrypted credentials, you must first enable the encrypted configuration.
The supported configuration items for the encrypted file are:
user
password
-
If initially your Service Desk configuration in
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
looked like:gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "service-desk-email@mail.example.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_password'] = "examplepassword"
-
Edit the encrypted secret:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:service_desk_email:secret:edit EDITOR=vim
-
Enter the unencrypted contents of the Service Desk email secret:
user: 'service-desk-email@mail.example.com' password: 'examplepassword'
- Edit
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
and remove theservice_desk
settings foremail
andpassword
. -
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Use a Kubernetes secret to store the Service Desk email password. For more information, read about Helm IMAP secrets.
-
If initially your Service Desk configuration in
docker-compose.yml
looked like:version: "3.6" services: gitlab: image: 'gitlab/gitlab-ee:latest' restart: always hostname: 'gitlab.example.com' environment: GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: | gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "service-desk-email@mail.example.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_password'] = "examplepassword"
-
Get inside the container, and edit the encrypted secret:
sudo docker exec -t <container_name> bash gitlab-rake gitlab:service_desk_email:secret:edit EDITOR=editor
-
Enter the unencrypted contents of the Service Desk secret:
user: 'service-desk-email@mail.example.com' password: 'examplepassword'
- Edit
docker-compose.yml
and remove theservice_desk
settings foremail
andpassword
. -
Save the file and restart GitLab:
docker compose up -d
-
If initially your Service Desk configuration in
/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml
looked like:production: service_desk_email: user: 'service-desk-email@mail.example.com' password: 'examplepassword'
-
Edit the encrypted secret:
bundle exec rake gitlab:service_desk_email:secret:edit EDITOR=vim RAILS_ENVIRONMENT=production
-
Enter the unencrypted contents of the Service Desk secret:
user: 'service-desk-email@mail.example.com' password: 'examplepassword'
- Edit
/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml
and remove theservice_desk_email:
settings foruser
andpassword
. -
Save the file and restart GitLab and Mailroom
# For systems running systemd sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target # For systems running SysV init sudo service gitlab restart
Microsoft Graph
- Alternative Azure deployments introduced in GitLab 14.9.
- Introduced for self-compiled (source) installs in GitLab 15.11.
service_desk_email
can be configured to read Microsoft Exchange Online mailboxes with the Microsoft
Graph API instead of IMAP. Set up an OAuth 2.0 application for Microsoft Graph
the same way as for incoming email.
- Edit
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
and add the following lines, substituting the values you want:
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_log_file'] = "/var/log/gitlab/mailroom/mail_room_json.log"
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_method'] = 'microsoft_graph'
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_options'] = {
'tenant_id': '<YOUR-TENANT-ID>',
'client_id': '<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>',
'client_secret': '<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>',
'poll_interval': 60 # Optional
}
For Microsoft Cloud for US Government or other Azure deployments,
configure the azure_ad_endpoint
and graph_endpoint
settings. For example:
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_options'] = {
'azure_ad_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.us',
'graph_endpoint': 'https://graph.microsoft.us',
'tenant_id': '<YOUR-TENANT-ID>',
'client_id': '<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>',
'client_secret': '<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>',
'poll_interval': 60 # Optional
}
-
Create the Kubernetes Secret containing the OAuth 2.0 application client secret:
kubectl create secret generic service-desk-email-client-secret --from-literal=secret=<YOUR-CLIENT_SECRET>
-
Create the Kubernetes Secret for the GitLab Service Desk email auth token. Replace
<name>
with the name of the Helm release name for the GitLab installation:kubectl create secret generic <name>-service-desk-email-auth-token --from-literal=authToken=$(head -c 512 /dev/urandom | LC_CTYPE=C tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9' | head -c 32 | base64)
-
Export the Helm values:
helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml
-
Edit
gitlab_values.yaml
:global: appConfig: serviceDeskEmail: enabled: true address: "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com" user: "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com" mailbox: inbox inboxMethod: microsoft_graph azureAdEndpoint: https://login.microsoftonline.com graphEndpoint: https://graph.microsoft.com tenantId: "YOUR-TENANT-ID" clientId: "YOUR-CLIENT-ID" clientSecret: secret: service-desk-email-client-secret key: secret deliveryMethod: webhook authToken: secret: <name>-service-desk-email-auth-token key: authToken
For Microsoft Cloud for US Government or other Azure deployments, configure the
azureAdEndpoint
andgraphEndpoint
settings. These fields are case-sensitive:global: appConfig: serviceDeskEmail: [..] azureAdEndpoint: https://login.microsoftonline.us graphEndpoint: https://graph.microsoft.us [..]
-
Save the file and apply the new values:
helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
-
Edit
docker-compose.yml
:version: "3.6" services: gitlab: environment: GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: | gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_log_file'] = "/var/log/gitlab/mailroom/mail_room_json.log" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_method'] = 'microsoft_graph' gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_options'] = { 'tenant_id': '<YOUR-TENANT-ID>', 'client_id': '<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>', 'client_secret': '<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>', 'poll_interval': 60 # Optional }
-
Save the file and restart GitLab:
docker compose up -d
For Microsoft Cloud for US Government or other Azure deployments,
configure the azure_ad_endpoint
and graph_endpoint
settings:
-
Edit
docker-compose.yml
:version: "3.6" services: gitlab: environment: GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: | gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_log_file'] = "/var/log/gitlab/mailroom/mail_room_json.log" gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_method'] = 'microsoft_graph' gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_inbox_options'] = { 'azure_ad_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.us', 'graph_endpoint': 'https://graph.microsoft.us', 'tenant_id': '<YOUR-TENANT-ID>', 'client_id': '<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>', 'client_secret': '<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>', 'poll_interval': 60 # Optional }
-
Save the file and restart GitLab:
docker compose up -d
-
Edit
/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml
:service_desk_email: enabled: true address: "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com" user: "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com" mailbox: "inbox" delivery_method: webhook log_path: "log/mailroom.log" secret_file: .gitlab-mailroom-secret inbox_method: "microsoft_graph" inbox_options: tenant_id: "<YOUR-TENANT-ID>" client_id: "<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>" client_secret: "<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>" poll_interval: 60 # Optional
For Microsoft Cloud for US Government or other Azure deployments,
configure the azure_ad_endpoint
and graph_endpoint
settings. For example:
service_desk_email:
enabled: true
address: "project_contact+%{key}@example.onmicrosoft.com"
user: "project_contact@example.onmicrosoft.com"
mailbox: "inbox"
delivery_method: webhook
log_path: "log/mailroom.log"
secret_file: .gitlab-mailroom-secret
inbox_method: "microsoft_graph"
inbox_options:
azure_ad_endpoint: "https://login.microsoftonline.us"
graph_endpoint: "https://graph.microsoft.us"
tenant_id: "<YOUR-TENANT-ID>"
client_id: "<YOUR-CLIENT-ID>"
client_secret: "<YOUR-CLIENT-SECRET>"
poll_interval: 60 # Optional
Configure a suffix for Service Desk alias email
You can set a custom suffix in your project’s Service Desk settings.
A suffix can contain only lowercase letters (a-z
), numbers (0-9
), or underscores (_
).
When configured, the custom suffix creates a new Service Desk email address, consisting of the
service_desk_email_address
setting and a key of the format: <project_full_path>-<custom_suffix>
Prerequisites:
- You must have configured a Service Desk alias email.
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Settings > General.
- Expand Service Desk.
- Below Email address suffix, enter the suffix to use.
- Select Save changes.
For example, suppose the mygroup/myproject
project Service Desk settings has the following configured:
- Email address suffix is set to
support
. - Service Desk email address is configured to
contact+%{key}@example.com
.
The Service Desk email address for this project is: contact+mygroup-myproject-support@example.com
.
The incoming email address still works.
If you don’t configure a custom suffix, the default project identification is used for identifying the project.
Configure email ingestion in multi-node environments
A multi-node environment is a setup where GitLab is run across multiple servers for scalability, fault tolerance, and performance reasons.
GitLab uses a separate process called mail_room
to ingest new unread emails
from the incoming_email
and service_desk_email
mailboxes.
Helm chart (Kubernetes)
The GitLab Helm chart is made up of multiple subcharts, and one of them is
the Mailroom subchart. Configure the
common settings for incoming_email
and the common settings for service_desk_email
.
Linux package (Omnibus)
In multi-node Linux package installation environments, run mail_room
only on one node. Run it either on a single
rails
node (for example, application_role
)
or completely separately.
Set up all nodes
-
Add basic configuration for
incoming_email
andservice_desk_email
on every node to render email addresses in the web UI and in generated emails.Find the
incoming_email
orservice_desk_email
section in/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:incoming_email
gitlab_rails['incoming_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['incoming_email_address'] = "incoming+%{key}@example.com"
service_desk_email
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@example.com"
- GitLab offers two methods to transport emails from
mail_room
to the GitLab application. You can configure thedelivery_method
for each email setting individually:-
Recommended:
webhook
(default in GitLab 15.3 and later) sends the email payload via an API POST request to your GitLab application. It uses a shared token to authenticate. If you choose this method, make sure themail_room
process can access the API endpoint and distribute the shared token across all application nodes.incoming_email
gitlab_rails['incoming_email_delivery_method'] = "webhook" # The URL that mail_room can contact. You can also use an internal URL or IP, # just make sure mail_room can access the GitLab API via that address. # Do not end with "/". gitlab_rails['incoming_email_gitlab_url'] = "https://gitlab.example.com" # The shared secret file that should contain a random token. Make sure it's the same on every node. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_secret_file'] = ".gitlab_mailroom_secret"
service_desk_email
gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_delivery_method'] = "webhook" # The URL that mail_room can contact. You can also use an internal URL or IP, # just make sure mail_room can access the GitLab API via that address. # Do not end with "/". gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_gitlab_url'] = "https://gitlab.example.com" # The shared secret file that should contain a random token. Make sure it's the same on every node. gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_secret_file'] = ".gitlab_mailroom_secret"
-
Deprecated in GitLab 16.0 and planned for removal in 17.0): If you experience issues with the
webhook
setup, usesidekiq
to deliver the email payload directly to GitLab Sidekiq using Redis.incoming_email
# It uses the Redis configuration to directly add Sidekiq jobs gitlab_rails['incoming_email_delivery_method'] = "sidekiq"
service_desk_email
# It uses the Redis configuration to directly add Sidekiq jobs gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_delivery_method'] = "sidekiq"
-
-
Disable
mail_room
on all nodes that should not run email ingestion. For example, in/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:mailroom['enabled'] = false
- Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
Set up a single email ingestion node
After setting up all nodes and disabling the mail_room
process, enable mail_room
on a single node.
This node polls the mailboxes for incoming_email
and service_desk_email
on a regular basis and
move new unread emails to GitLab.
- Choose an existing node that additionally handles email ingestion.
- Add full configuration and credentials
for
incoming_email
andservice_desk_email
. -
Enable
mail_room
on this node. For example, in/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:mailroom['enabled'] = true
- Reconfigure GitLab on this node for the changes to take effect.