Searching in GitLab All tiers All offerings
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 All tiers Self-managed
Introduced in GitLab 14.3.
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.
Scope | Feature flag | Description |
---|---|---|
Code | global_search_code_tab
| When enabled, global search includes code. |
Commits | global_search_commits_tab
| When enabled, global search includes commits. |
Epics | global_search_epics_tab
| When enabled, global search includes epics. |
Issues | global_search_issues_tab
| When enabled, global search includes issues. |
Merge requests | global_search_merge_requests_tab
| When enabled, global search includes merge requests. |
Users | global_search_users_tab
| When enabled, global search includes users. |
Wiki | global_search_wiki_tab
| When enabled, global search includes project and group wikis. |
All global search scopes are enabled by default on self-managed instances.
Global search validation
- Support for partial matches in issue search removed in GitLab 14.9 with a flag named
issues_full_text_search
. Disabled by default. -
Generally available in GitLab 16.2. Feature flag
issues_full_text_search
removed.
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
, orif
) - An unknown
scope
-
group_id
orproject_id
that is not completely numeric -
repository_ref
orproject_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:
- On the left sidebar, at the top, select Search or go to.
- Type your search query. You must type at least two characters.
- 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:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Search or go to again and type the string you want to search for.
- 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
-
Introduced in GitLab 15.9 with a flag named
full_path_project_search
. Disabled by default. -
Generally available in GitLab 15.11. Feature flag
full_path_project_search
removed.
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 thegitlab
project in thegitlab-org
namespace. -
gitlab-org/
displays autocomplete suggestions for projects that belong to thegitlab-org
namespace.
Include archived projects in search results
-
Introduced in GitLab 16.1 with a flag named
search_projects_hide_archived
for project search. Disabled by default. - Generally available in GitLab 16.6 for all search scopes.
By default, archived projects are excluded from search results. To include archived projects in search results:
- On the search page, on the left sidebar, select the Include archived checkbox.
- On the left sidebar, select Apply.
Search for code
To search for code in a project:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Search or go to again and type the code you want to search for.
- 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
Introduced in GitLab 14.7.
After you find search results, you can view who made the last change to the line where the results were found.
- From the code search result, hover over the line number.
- On the left, select View blame.
Filter code search results by language
Introduced in GitLab 15.10.
To filter code search results by one or more languages:
- On the code search page, on the left sidebar, select one or more languages.
- On the left sidebar, select Apply.
Search for a commit SHA
To search for a commit SHA:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
- Select Search or go to again and type the commit SHA you want to search for.
- 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:
- On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
-
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.
- From the dropdown list, select a search.