Install and set up the GitLab for Visual Studio extension

To get the extension, use any of these methods:

• Inside Visual Studio, select Extensions from the activity bar, and search for GitLab for Visual Studio.
• From the Visual Studio Marketplace.
• From GitLab, either from the list of releases, or by downloading the latest version directly.

The extension requires:

• Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6 or later (AMD64 or Arm64).
• The IntelliCode component for Visual Studio.
• GitLab version 16.1 or later.
  • GitLab Duo Code Suggestions requires GitLab version 16.8 or later.
• You are not using Visual Studio for Mac, as it is unsupported.

No new additional data is collected to enable this feature. Private non-public GitLab customer data is not used as training data. Learn more about Google Vertex AI Codey APIs Data Governance.

Connect to GitLab

After you install the extension, connect it to your GitLab account by creating a personal access token and authenticating with GitLab.

Create a personal access token

If you are on GitLab Self-Managed, create a personal access token.

1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar.
2. Select Edit profile.
3. In the left sidebar, select Access > Personal access tokens.
4. Select Add new token.
5. Enter a name, description, and expiration date.
6. Select the api and read_user scopes.
7. Select Create personal access token.

Authenticate with GitLab

To authenticate with GitLab:

1. In Visual Studio, in the top bar, go to Tools > Options > GitLab.
2. In the Access Token text box, paste your token. The token is not displayed, nor is it accessible to others.
3. In the GitLab URL text box, enter the URL of your GitLab instance. For GitLab.com, use https://gitlab.com.

Enable telemetry

The GitLab extension uses the telemetry settings in Visual Studio to send usage and error information to GitLab. To enable telemetry in GitLab for Visual Studio:

1. In Visual Studio, in the top bar, go to Tools > Options.
2. In the left sidebar, expand GitLab and select General.
3. In the Enable telemetry dropdown list, select True.
4. Select OK.

Configure the extension

This extension provides custom commands that you can use with GitLab. Most commands don't have default keyboard shortcuts to avoid conflicts with your existing Visual Studio configuration.

Command name	Default keyboard shortcut	Description
GitLab.ToggleCodeSuggestions	None	Turn on or turn off Code Suggestions.
GitLab.OpenDuoChat	None	Open GitLab Duo Chat.
GitLab.GitLabDuoNextSuggestions	<kbd>Control</kbd>+<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>N</kbd>	Switch to the next code suggestion.
GitLab.GitLabDuoPreviousSuggestions	None	Switch to the previous code suggestion.
GitLab.GitLabExplainTerminalWithDuo	<kbd>Control</kbd>+<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>E</kbd>	Explain selected text in the terminal.
GitLabDuoChat.ExplainCode	None	Explain selected code.
GitLabDuoChat.Fix	None	Fix issues for the selected code.
GitLabDuoChat.GenerateTests	None	Generate tests for the selected code.
GitLabDuoChat.Refactor	None	Refactor selected code.

You can access the extension's custom commands with keyboard shortcuts, which you can customize:

1. In the top bar, go to Tools > Options.
2. Go to Environment > Keyboard. Search for GitLab..
3. Select a command, and assign it a keyboard shortcut.

Configure GitLab Duo

GitLab Duo features are enabled by default when you meet the prerequisites:

• For agentic features, you meet the prerequisites for GitLab Duo Agent Platform.
• You have GitLab Duo turned on.
• For flows, you have foundational flows turned on.
• You have a default GitLab Duo namespace set or have a project open that has GitLab Duo access.
• For GitLab Duo Code Suggestions, you meet the additional prerequisites.