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Manage projects

doc/user/project/working_with_projects.md

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  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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Most work in GitLab is done in a project. Files and code are saved in projects, and most features are in the scope of projects.

Project overview

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  • Project creation date introduced in GitLab 16.10.

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When you select a project, the Project overview page shows the project contents:

  • Files in the repository
  • Project information (description)
  • Topics
  • Badges
  • Number of stars, forks, commits, branches, tags, releases, and environments in the project
    • The commit count is calculated from the project’s default branch, not from all branches
  • Project storage size
  • Optional files and configurations
  • README or index file
    • Wiki page
    • License
    • Changelog
    • Contributing guidelines
    • Kubernetes cluster
    • CI/CD configuration
    • Integrations
    • GitLab Pages
  • Creation date

For public projects, and members of internal and private projects with permissions to view the project's code, the project overview page shows:

For users without permission to view the project's code, the overview page shows:

  • The wiki homepage.
  • The list of issues in the project.

You can access a project by using its ID instead of its name at https://gitlab.example.com/projects/<id>. For example, if in your personal namespace alex you have a project my-project with the ID 123456, you can access the project either at https://gitlab.example.com/alex/my-project or https://gitlab.example.com/projects/123456.

[!note] In GitLab 17.5 and later, you can also use https://gitlab.example.com/-/p/<id> for this endpoint.

Find the Project ID

You might need the project ID if you want to interact with the project using the GitLab API.

To find the project ID:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Copy project ID.

View projects

Use the Projects list to view:

  • All the projects on an instance
  • The projects you work with or own
  • Inactive projects, including archived projects and projects pending deletion

Explore all projects on an instance

View all projects on your GitLab instance. Filter the list by active, inactive, and trending projects:

  • Active projects are projects with recent activity or ongoing development.
  • Inactive projects are projects that are archived or scheduled for deletion.
  • Trending projects are public projects that are considered popular based on the amount of comments they received in the previous 30 days.

If you are not authenticated, the list shows public projects only.

To view the projects on your GitLab instance:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. Select Explore.
  3. Optional. Select a tab to filter which projects are displayed.

View projects you work with

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To view the projects you have interacted with:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. Select View all my projects.
  3. Optional. Select a tab to filter which projects are displayed:
    • Contributed: Projects where you have:
      • Created issues, merge requests, or epics
      • Commented on issues, merge requests, or epics
      • Closed issues, merge requests, or epics
      • Pushed commits
      • Approved merge requests
      • Merged merge requests
    • Starred: Projects you have starred
    • Personal: Projects created under your personal namespace
    • Member: Projects you are a member of
    • Inactive: Archived projects and projects pending deletion

You can also view your starred and personal projects from your personal profile:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar and then your username.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Starred projects or Personal projects.

View inactive projects

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A project is inactive when it is either pending deletion or it has been archived.

To view all inactive projects:

  1. Select either:
    • View all my projects, to filter your projects.
    • Explore, to filter all projects you can access.
  2. Select the Inactive tab.

Each inactive project in the list displays a badge to indicate that the project is either archived or pending deletion.

If the project is pending deletion, the list also shows:

  • The time the project is scheduled for final deletion.
  • A Restore action. When you restore a project:
    • The Pending deletion label is removed. The project is no longer scheduled for deletion.
    • The project is removed from the Inactive tab.

View only projects you own

To view only the projects you are the owner of:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. Select either:
    • View all your projects, to filter your projects.
    • Explore, to filter all projects you can access.
  3. Above the list of projects, select Search or filter results.
  4. From the Role dropdown list, select Owner.

View project activity

To view the activity of a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.

  2. Select Manage > Activity.

  3. Optional. To filter activity by contribution type, select a tab:

    • All: All contributions by project members.
    • Push events: Push events in the project.
    • Merge events: Accepted merge requests in the project.
    • Issue events: Issues opened and closed in the project.
    • Comments: Comments posted by project members.
    • Designs: Designs added, updated, and removed in the project.
    • Team: Members who joined and left the project.

GitLab removes project activity events older than three years from the events table for performance reasons.

Filter projects by language

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You can filter projects by the programming language they use. To do this:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. Select either:
    • View all your projects, to filter your projects.
    • Explore, to filter all projects you can access.
  3. Above the list of projects, select Search or filter results.
  4. From the Language dropdown list, select the language you want to filter projects by.

A list of projects that use the selected language is displayed.

Star a project

You can star projects you use frequently to make them easier to find.

To star a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the upper-right corner of the page, select Star.

Leave a project

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  • The button to leave a project moved to the Actions menu in GitLab 16.7.

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When you leave a project:

  • You are no longer a project member and cannot contribute.
  • All the issues and merge requests that were assigned to you are unassigned.

Prerequisites:

  • You can leave a project this way only when a project is part of a group under a group namespace.
  • You must be a direct member of the project.

To leave a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Leave project, then Leave project again.

To leave a project from the Your work list view directly:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. Select View all my projects.
  3. In the Member tab, find the project you want to leave and select the vertical ellipsis ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  4. Select Leave project.

This action is also available on other list pages.

Edit a project

Use the project general settings to edit your project details.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Maintainer or Owner role for the project.
  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. In the Project name text box, enter your project name. See the limitations on project names.
  4. Optional. In the Project description text box, enter your project description. The description is limited to 2,000 characters. Components published in the CI/CD catalog require a project description.
  5. Select Save changes.

Rename a repository

A project's repository name defines its URL.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be an administrator or have the Maintainer or Owner role for the project.

[!note] When you change the repository path, users may experience issues if they push to, or pull from, the old URL. For more information on redirect duration and its side-effects, see redirects when renaming repositories.

To rename a repository:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Advanced.
  4. In the Change path text box, edit the path.
  5. Select Change path.

Add a project avatar

Add a project avatar to help visually identify your project. If you do not add an avatar, GitLab displays the first letter of your project name as the default project avatar.

To add a project avatar, use one of the following methods:

  • Add a logo to your repository.
  • Upload an avatar in your project settings.

Add a logo to your repository

If you haven't uploaded an avatar to your project settings, GitLab looks for a file named logo in your repository to use as the default project avatar.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Maintainer or Owner role for the project.
  • Your file must be 200 KB or smaller. The ideal image size is 192 x 192 pixels.
  • The file must be named logo with the extension .png, .jpg, or .gif. For example, logo.gif.

To add a logo file to use as your project avatar:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. In the root of your project repository, upload the logo file.

Upload an avatar in project settings

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Maintainer or Owner role for the project.
  • Your file must be 200 KB or smaller. The ideal image size is 192 x 192 pixels.
  • The image must be one of the following file types:
    • .bmp
    • .gif
    • .ico
    • .jpeg
    • .png
    • .tiff

To upload an avatar in your project settings:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. In the Project avatar section, select Choose file.
  4. Select your avatar file.
  5. Select Save changes.

Delete a project

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By default, when you delete a project for the first time, it enters a pending deletion state. Delete a project again to remove it immediately.

Prerequisites:

To delete a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Delete.
  4. On the confirmation dialog, enter the project name and select Yes, delete project.

This action adds a background job to mark a project for deletion. On GitLab.com, the project is deleted after 30 days. On GitLab Self-Managed, you can modify the retention period through the instance settings.

If the user who scheduled the project deletion loses access to the project before the deletion occurs (for example, by leaving the project, having their role downgraded, or being banned from the project), the deletion job instead restores the project, and the project is no longer scheduled for deletion.

When a project is marked for deletion, scheduled CI/CD pipelines stop running.

[!warning] If the user who scheduled the project deletion regains Owner role or administrator access before the job runs, then the job removes the project permanently.

You can also delete projects using the Rails console.

Delete a project immediately

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  • Generally available in GitLab 16.0. Premium and Ultimate only.
  • Moved from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in GitLab 18.0.

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If you do not want to wait for the configured retention period to delete a project, you can delete the project immediately.

Prerequisites:

To permanently delete a project scheduled for deletion:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Delete permanently.
  4. On the confirmation dialog, enter the project name and select Yes, delete project.

This action deletes the project and all related resources, including issues and merge requests.

Restore a project

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Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for the project.

To restore a project pending deletion:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Restore.

Archive a project

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Archive a project to make it read-only and preserve its data for future reference.

When you archive a project:

  • The project becomes inactive and displays an Archived badge
  • Most features become read-only, including repositories, issues, merge requests, and packages
  • Fork relationships are removed and open merge requests from forks are closed
  • Deployed Pages are removed along with custom domains
  • Scheduled CI/CD pipelines stop running
  • Pull mirroring stops

Prerequisites:

  • You must be an administrator or have the Owner role for the project.

To archive a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Archive.

To archive a project from the Your work list view directly:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. From the dropdown, select View all my projects.
  3. In the Member tab, find the project you want to archive and select the vertical ellipsis ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  4. Select Archive.

This action is also available on other list pages.

Unarchive a project

When you unarchive a project:

  • Read-only restrictions are removed
  • The project is no longer marked as inactive
  • Scheduled CI/CD pipelines resume automatically
  • Pull mirroring resumes automatically

Projects that were archived as part of group archiving cannot be unarchived individually. You must unarchive the parent group to unarchive all its projects and subgroups.

[!note] Deployed Pages are not automatically restored. You must rerun the pipeline to restore Pages.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be an administrator or have the Owner role for the project.

To unarchive a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. On the project overview page, in the upper-right corner, select Actions ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  3. Select Unarchive.

To unarchive a project from the Your work list view directly:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. From the dropdown, select View all my projects.
  3. In the Inactive tab, find the project you want to unarchive and select the vertical ellipsis ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  4. Select Unarchive.

This action is also available on other list pages.

Transfer a project

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Transfer a project to move it to a different group. Project transfers move individual projects between any namespace in the same GitLab instance.

You can transfer a project from:

  • A personal namespace to a group
  • A group to another group
  • A group to a personal namespace

Prerequisites:

  • The Maintainer or Owner role for the target group.
  • The Owner role of the project you want to transfer.
  • Enable project creation for the target group.

[!note] You cannot transfer a project if it's archived or pending deletion.

To transfer a project:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Advanced.
  4. Under Transfer project, choose the namespace to transfer the project to.
  5. Select Transfer project.
  6. Enter the project's name and select Confirm.

You are directed to the new project page and the previous URL is redirected to the new project URL.

After you transfer a project, make sure you:

  • Update local repository remotes to the new URLs.
  • Verify project member access and permissions.
  • Update package configurations and republish if necessary.
  • Test CI/CD pipelines and integrations.
  • Review and reassign security policies if necessary.

Administrators can transfer projects from the Admin area.

What data gets transferred

A project transfer includes:

  • Project components:
    • Issues, merge requests, and issue threads
    • CI/CD pipelines and configurations
    • Dashboards and wikis
    • Repository code and Git history
    • Project access tokens
  • Project members:
    • Direct project members and their roles
    • Pending membership invitations
  • Automated adjustments:
    • New project labels are created if matching group labels do not exist
    • Epic copies are created in the target group if necessary, with separate copies per project
      • When you transfer multiple projects with issues assigned to the same epic, separate copies of that epic are created in the target group for each project.

[!warning] Errors during the transfer process might cause data loss of project components or dependencies of end users.

Known issues

When transferring a project, keep the following restrictions in mind.

For projects with inherited memberships:

  • Members with inherited membership in the project lose access unless they are also members of the target group.
  • The project inherits new member permissions from the target group.

For projects where the container registry is enabled:

For projects that use the package registry:

  • If the root namespace changes, you must remove npm packages that follow the naming convention from the project. After you transfer the project, you can either:
    • Update the package scope with the new root namespace path, and publish it again to the project.
    • Republish the package to the project without updating the root namespace path, which causes the package to no longer follow the naming convention. If you republish the package without updating the root namespace path, it is not available for the instance endpoint.

For projects with a security policy:

  • The project must not have a security policy. If a security policy is assigned to the project, it is automatically unassigned during the transfer.

When you transfer a project:

  • The project path changes. Make sure you change the URLs to the project components where necessary.

Transfer a GitLab.com project to a different subscription tier

When you transfer a project from a namespace licensed for GitLab.com Premium or Ultimate to GitLab Free:

Manage projects with the Actions menu

You can view a list of all your projects and manage them with the Actions menu.

Prerequisites:

To manage projects with the Actions menu:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
  2. From the dropdown, select View all my projects.
  3. On the Projects page, find your project and select the vertical ellipsis ({{< icon name="ellipsis_v" >}}).
  4. Select an action.

The following actions are available depending on the state of your project:

Project stateActions available
ActiveCopy project ID, Edit, Archive, Transfer, Leave project, Delete
ArchivedCopy project ID, Unarchive, Leave project, Delete
Pending deletionCopy project ID, Restore, Leave project, Delete permanently

Add a compliance framework to a project

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  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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You can add compliance frameworks to projects in a group that has a compliance framework.

Manage project access through LDAP groups

You can use LDAP to manage group membership.

You cannot use LDAP groups to manage project access, but you can use the following workaround.

Prerequisites:

  1. Create a group to track membership of your project.
  2. Set up LDAP synchronization for that group.
  3. To use LDAP groups to manage access to a project, add the LDAP-synchronized group as a member to the project.

Project aliases

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  • Tier: Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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GitLab repositories are usually accessed with a namespace and a project name. When migrating frequently accessed repositories to GitLab, however, you can use project aliases to access those repositories with the original name. Accessing repositories through a project alias reduces the risk associated with migrating such repositories.

This feature is only available on Git over SSH. Also, only GitLab administrators can create project aliases, and they can only do so through the API. For more information, see the Project Aliases API documentation.

After an administrator creates an alias for a project, you can use the alias to clone the repository. For example, if an administrator creates the alias gitlab for the project https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab, you can clone the project with git clone [email protected]:gitlab.git instead of git clone [email protected]:gitlab-org/gitlab.git.