GitLab

Connect Code Search to GitLab.com to index your GitLab repositories.

Prerequisites

• A GitLab.com account
• Access to repositories you want to index
• A Personal Access Token

Creating a Personal Access Token

1. Go to GitLab.com → User Settings → Access Tokens

2. Create a new token:

   • Name: Code Search
   • Expiration date: Choose based on your needs
   • Scopes: Select read_api and read_repository

3. Click Create personal access token

4. Copy the token immediately - it won’t be shown again!

Adding the Connection

Via Web UI

1. Go to Connections → Add Connection
2. Fill in:
   • Name: GitLab
   • Type: GitLab
   • URL: https://gitlab.com
   • Token: Your Personal Access Token
3. Click Test Connection
4. Click Create

Via API

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/api/v1/connections" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "GitLab",
    "type": "gitlab",
    "url": "https://gitlab.com",
    "token": "glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
  }'

Via Configuration File

Add code hosts to your config.yaml:

codehosts:
  # The key is the connection name
  gitlab:
    type: gitlab
    url: "https://gitlab.com"
    token: "$CS_GITLAB_TOKEN"  # Environment variable reference
    exclude_archived: true     # Skip archived repos during sync

With environment variable:

export CS_GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Token Scopes

Minimum Required Scopes

Scope	Purpose
read_api	Read access to the API
read_repository	Clone repositories

Optional Scopes

Scope	Purpose
api	Full API access (for future MR creation)
read_user	Read user information

Note

For search and indexing, read_api and read_repository are sufficient. Add api scope if you plan to use the replace feature with MR creation.

Syncing Repositories

After adding the connection:

1. Click Sync on the connection card
2. Code Search discovers your repositories
3. Repositories are queued for indexing

Repository Discovery

Code Search discovers:

• Personal projects you own
• Projects you’re a member of
• Group projects you have access to

Filtering Repositories

You can exclude archived repositories:

codehosts:
  gitlab:
    type: gitlab
    url: "https://gitlab.com"
    token: "$CS_GITLAB_TOKEN"
    exclude_archived: true  # Skip archived repos during sync

GitLab Groups

Personal Namespace

Your personal projects are under your username:

• username/project-name

Group Projects

Group projects follow the group path:

• group-name/project-name
• group-name/subgroup/project-name

Visibility Levels

Level	Description
Private	Only visible to project members
Internal	Visible to logged-in GitLab users
Public	Visible to everyone

Code Search can index all projects your token has access to.

Rate Limits

GitLab.com rate limits:

Type	Limit
Authenticated requests	2,000 requests/minute
Git operations	300 operations/minute

Code Search respects these limits and will automatically throttle requests.

Troubleshooting

Authentication failed

401 Unauthorized

• Verify the token is correct
• Check the token hasn’t expired
• Ensure required scopes are selected

Repository not found

404 Project Not Found

• Verify you have access to the project
• Check the token has read_api scope
• Ensure the project exists and isn’t deleted

Clone failed

remote: HTTP Basic: Access denied

• Verify read_repository scope is selected
• For subgroups, ensure you have access to the parent group

Rate limit exceeded

429 Too Many Requests

• Wait for the rate limit to reset
• Check the RateLimit-Reset header for reset time
• Reduce sync frequency if this happens often

Next Steps

• GitLab Self-Hosted - For self-hosted GitLab
• Repositories - Managing synced repositories