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GitLab

Authentication

You can authenticate Renovate to GitLab, with one of these methods:

Three ways to authenticate, choose one

To start, create either:

  • a Personal Access Token for the bot account
  • or a Project Access Token if Renovate only needs to check and update one project. We do not recommend Project Access Tokens, as you need to configure Renovate, and the token, for each project
  • or a Group Access Token to the group Renovate will be working on

Bot or token must have at least developer role

The bot account, or token, must have at least the Developer role. The developer role allows Renovate to create issues and merge requests.

If you want Renovate to automerge, give appropriate permissions

If you are using automerge, the bot account, or token, must have the appropriate "Allowed to merge" permission on the protected branch of your projects.

If only maintainers are allowed to merge, give Maintainer role

If merging is restricted to Maintainers, the bot account or token must have the Maintainer role.

Setting up Project Access Tokens or Group Access Tokens

If you are using a project access token, or a group access token, GitLab creates an internal bot user for you. This bot user is the one that will be used to create merge requests and issues.

Use the name and email of this bot user to configure Renovate when verifing users using push rules. For group access tokens, an expiration date is required, unlike project access tokens where it is optional.

To keep using the same GitLab-generated bot account you must rotate/refresh the Group Access Token before the token's expiry date.

We refer to personal access tokens, project access tokens and group access tokens as access tokens in the instructions that follow.

Permissions for access tokens on real runs

For real runs, give the access token these scopes:

Permissions for access tokens on dry runs

For dry runs, give the access token these scopes:

Letting Renovate use your access token

Let Renovate use your access token by doing one of the following:

  • Set your access token as a token in your config.js file
  • Set your access token as an environment variable RENOVATE_TOKEN
  • Set your access token when you run Renovate in the CLI with --token=

Set platform=gitlab in your Renovate config file

Remember to set platform=gitlab somewhere in your Renovate config file.

Setting up Renovate for a Private Gitlab container registry

If you use a private GitLab container registry, you must:

  • Set the RENOVATE_HOST_RULES CI variable to [{"matchHost": "${CI_REGISTRY}","username": "${GITLAB_USER_NAME}","password": "${RENOVATE_TOKEN}", "hostType": "docker"}].

Alternatively, if detectHostRulesFromEnv is enabled, you can set the CI variables DOCKER_REGISTRY_GITLAB_COM_USERNAME=${GITLAB_USER_NAME} and DOCKER_REGISTRY_GITLAB_COM_PASSWORD=${RENOVATE_TOKEN}.

  • Make sure the user that owns the access token is a member of the corresponding GitLab projects/groups with the right permissions.
  • Make sure the access token has the read_registry scope.

You may also use a dedicated Deploy Token instead of using RENOVATE_TOKEN as the password in the above host rule example.

Get colored output

You may want to set FORCE_COLOR: 3 or TERM: ansi to the job, in order to get colored output. GitLab Runner runs the container’s shell in non-interactive mode, so the shell’s TERM environment variable is set to dumb.

Features awaiting implementation

  • The automergeStrategy configuration option has not been implemented for this platform, and all values behave as if the value auto was used. Renovate will accept the Merge Request without further configuration, and respect the strategy defined in the Merge Request, and this cannot be overridden yet

Server version dependent features

We use the GitLab version API to fetch the server version. You can use the experimental feature flag RENOVATE_X_PLATFORM_VERSION to set a specific server version. By setting the server version yourself, you save a API call that fetches the server version.

  • Use Draft: MR prefix instead of WIP: prefix since v13.2.0
  • Do not truncate Markdown body to 25K chars since v13.4.0
  • Allow configure reviewers since v13.9.0

Multiple merge request assignees

Multiple assignees are only available on GitLab Premium and Ultimate tiers. Because of a safeguard in GitLab's API if multiple assignees are set, but not available to the project, only the first assignee will be applied.

Verifying users using push rules

When verifying users using push rules, you must use the name and email of the bot user for gitAuthor.

Open items

The below list of features and bugs were current when this page was generated on December 21, 2024.

Feature requests

  • Support GitLab milestones #30281
  • Release notes: Massage !123 markdown-links for GitLab platform - like Github #29934
  • GitLab CODEOWNERS: support for default section owner #29202
  • GitLab: Skip author filtering when group or project tokens are in use #28997
  • Use GitLab platform token for container registry #17940
  • Set assignees on PR creation for better Gitlab webhook events #17620
  • Warning as thread instead of regular note for GitLab #15985
  • Implement the explicit automergeStrategy for the Gitlab platform. #10870
  • Assign GitLab MRs on creation and not as update #9252
  • Conflict between Gitlab @ mentions feature and Fix Renovate Configuration issue #8030
  • Support GitLab "merge trains" #5573
  • Feature request: GitLab forkMode #840

Bug reports

  • GitLab Dependency dashboard does not link to Config Migration MR #32178
  • Renovate removes GitLab approval rules independently of automerge option #31354
  • platform(gitlab): comment length not truncated #30551
  • Package lookup fails with Golang submodules In Gitlab.com #28540
  • Wrong changelog API query when using self-hosted GitLab server with host prefix #24512