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Repositories API

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

Use this API to manage your GitLab repository.

List repository tree

Get a list of repository files and directories in a project. This endpoint can be accessed without authentication if the repository is publicly accessible.

This command provides essentially the same features as the git ls-tree command. For more information, refer to the section Tree Objects in the Git internals documentation.

GitLab version 17.7 changes the error handling behavior when a requested path is not found. The endpoint now returns a status code 404 Not Found. Previously, the status code was 200 OK.

If your implementation relies on receiving a 200 status code with an empty array for missing paths, you must update your error handling to handle the new 404 responses.

GET /projects/:id/repository/tree

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
page_token string No Tree record ID at which to fetch the next page. Used only with keyset pagination.
pagination string No If keyset, use the keyset-based pagination method.
path string No Path inside the repository. Used to get content of subdirectories.
per_page integer No Number of results to show per page. If not specified, defaults to 20. For more information, see Pagination.
recursive boolean No If true, get a recursive tree. Default is false.
ref string No Name of a repository branch or tag. If not specified, uses the default branch.

If successful, returns 200 OK and an array of tree objects.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/13083/repository/tree"

Example response:

[
  {
    "id": "a1e8f8d745cc87e3a9248358d9352bb7f9a0aeba",
    "name": "html",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/html",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "4535904260b1082e14f867f7a24fd8c21495bde3",
    "name": "images",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/images",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "31405c5ddef582c5a9b7a85230413ff90e2fe720",
    "name": "js",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/js",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "cc71111cfad871212dc99572599a568bfe1e7e00",
    "name": "lfs",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/lfs",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "fd581c619bf59cfdfa9c8282377bb09c2f897520",
    "name": "markdown",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/markdown",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "23ea4d11a4bdd960ee5320c5cb65b5b3fdbc60db",
    "name": "ruby",
    "type": "tree",
    "path": "files/ruby",
    "mode": "040000"
  },
  {
    "id": "7d70e02340bac451f281cecf0a980907974bd8be",
    "name": "whitespace",
    "type": "blob",
    "path": "files/whitespace",
    "mode": "100644"
  }
]

Get a blob from repository

Allows you to receive information, such as size and content, about blobs in a repository. Blob content is Base64 encoded. This endpoint can be accessed without authentication, if the repository is publicly accessible.

For blobs larger than 10 MB, this endpoint has a rate limit of 5 requests per minute.

GET /projects/:id/repository/blobs/:sha

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
sha string Yes Blob SHA.

If successful, returns 200 OK and the following response attributes:

Attribute Type Description
content string Base64 encoded blob content.
encoding string Encoding used for the blob content.
sha string Blob SHA.
size integer Size of the blob in bytes.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/13083/repository/blobs/79f7bbd25901e8334750839545a9bd021f0e4c83"

Example response:

{
  "size": 1476,
  "encoding": "base64",
  "content": "VGhpcyBpcyBhIGJpbmFyeSBmaWxl",
  "sha": "79f7bbd25901e8334750839545a9bd021f0e4c83"
}

Get raw blob content

Get the raw file contents for a blob, by blob SHA. This endpoint can be accessed without authentication if the repository is publicly accessible.

GET /projects/:id/repository/blobs/:sha/raw

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
sha string Yes Blob SHA.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/13083/repository/blobs/79f7bbd25901e8334750839545a9bd021f0e4c83/raw"

Get file archive

Get an archive of the repository. This endpoint can be accessed without authentication if the repository is publicly accessible.

For GitLab.com users, this endpoint has a rate limit threshold of 5 requests per minute.

GET /projects/:id/repository/archive[.format]

format is an optional suffix for the archive format, and defaults to tar.gz. For example, specifying archive.zip sends an archive in ZIP format. Available options are:

  • bz2
  • tar
  • tar.bz2
  • tar.gz
  • tb2
  • tbz
  • tbz2
  • zip

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
exclude_paths string No Comma-separated list of paths to exclude from the archive.
include_lfs_blobs boolean No If true, LFS objects are included in the archive. When set to false, LFS objects are excluded. Default is true.
path string No Subpath of the repository to download. If an empty string, defaults to the whole repository.
sha string No Commit SHA to download. Accepts a tag, branch reference, or SHA. If not specified, defaults to the tip of the default branch.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<project_id>/repository/archive?sha=<commit_sha>&path=<path>&exclude_paths=<path1,path2>"

Compare branches, tags, or commits

Version history

  • collapsed and too_large response attributes introduced in GitLab 18.4.

This endpoint can be accessed without authentication if the repository is publicly accessible. Diffs can have an empty diff string if diff limits are reached.

GET /projects/:id/repository/compare

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
from string Yes Commit SHA or branch name.
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
to string Yes Commit SHA or branch name.
from_project_id integer No ID to compare from.
straight boolean No If true, comparison method is direct comparison between from and to (from..to). If false, compare using merge base (from...to). Default is false.
unidiff boolean No If true, present diffs in the unified diff format. Default is false. Introduced in GitLab 16.5.

If successful, returns 200 OK and the following response attributes:

Attribute Type Description
commit object Details of the latest commit in the comparison.
commits object array List of commits included in the comparison.
commits[].author_email string Commit author's email address.
commits[].author_name string Commit author's name.
commits[].created_at datetime Commit creation timestamp.
commits[].id string Full commit SHA.
commits[].short_id string Short commit SHA.
commits[].title string Commit title.
compare_same_ref boolean If true, comparison uses the same reference for both from and to.
compare_timeout boolean If true, comparison operation timed out.
diffs object array List of file differences.
diffs[].a_mode string Old file mode.
diffs[].b_mode string New file mode.
diffs[].collapsed boolean If true, file diffs are excluded but can be fetched on request.
diffs[].deleted_file boolean If true, file has been removed.
diffs[].diff string Diff content showing changes made to the file.
diffs[].new_file boolean If true, file has been added.
diffs[].new_path string New path of the file.
diffs[].old_path string Old path of the file.
diffs[].renamed_file boolean If true, file has been renamed.
diffs[].too_large boolean If true, file diffs are excluded and cannot be retrieved.
web_url string Web URL for viewing the comparison.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/5/repository/compare?from=main&to=feature"

Example response:

{
  "commit": {
    "id": "12d65c8dd2b2676fa3ac47d955accc085a37a9c1",
    "short_id": "12d65c8dd2b",
    "title": "JS fix",
    "author_name": "Example User",
    "author_email": "user@example.com",
    "created_at": "2014-02-27T10:27:00+02:00"
  },
  "commits": [{
    "id": "12d65c8dd2b2676fa3ac47d955accc085a37a9c1",
    "short_id": "12d65c8dd2b",
    "title": "JS fix",
    "author_name": "Example User",
    "author_email": "user@example.com",
    "created_at": "2014-02-27T10:27:00+02:00"
  }],
  "diffs": [{
    "old_path": "files/js/application.js",
    "new_path": "files/js/application.js",
    "a_mode": null,
    "b_mode": "100644",
    "diff": "@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@\n //= require g.raphael-min\n //= require g.bar-min\n //= require branch-graph\n-//= require highlightjs.min\n-//= require ace/ace\n //= require_tree .\n //= require d3\n //= require underscore\n+\n+function fix() { \n+  alert(\"Fixed\")\n+}",
    "collapsed": false,
    "too_large": false,
    "new_file": false,
    "renamed_file": false,
    "deleted_file": false
  }],
  "compare_timeout": false,
  "compare_same_ref": false,
  "web_url": "https://gitlab.example.com/janedoe/gitlab-foss/-/compare/ae73cb07c9eeaf35924a10f713b364d32b2dd34f...0b4bc9a49b562e85de7cc9e834518ea6828729b9"
}

Get contributor list

Version history

Get repository contributors list. This endpoint can be accessed without authentication if the repository is publicly accessible.

The commit count returned does not include merge commits.

GET /projects/:id/repository/contributors

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
order_by string No Order contributors by name, email, or commits (number of commits). If not specified, contributors are ordered by commit date.
ref string No Name of a repository branch or tag. If not given, the default branch.
sort string No Return contributors sorted in asc or desc order. Default is asc.

If successful, returns 200 OK and the following response attributes:

Attribute Type Description
additions integer Number of line additions by the contributor.
commits integer Number of commits by the contributor.
deletions integer Number of line deletions by the contributor.
email string Email address of the contributor.
name string Name of the contributor.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/7/repository/contributors"

Example response:

[{
  "name": "Example User",
  "email": "example@example.com",
  "commits": 117,
  "additions": 0,
  "deletions": 0
}, {
  "name": "Sample User",
  "email": "sample@example.com",
  "commits": 33,
  "additions": 0,
  "deletions": 0
}]

Get merge base

Get the common ancestor for 2 or more refs, such as commit SHAs, branch names, or tags.

GET /projects/:id/repository/merge_base

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string Yes ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
refs array Yes Refs to find the common ancestor of. Accepts multiple refs.

If successful, returns 200 OK and the following response attributes:

Attribute Type Description
author_email string Author's email address.
author_name string Author's name.
authored_date datetime Date when the commit was authored.
committed_date datetime Date when the commit was committed.
committer_email string Committer's email address.
committer_name string Committer's name.
created_at datetime Commit creation timestamp.
extended_trailers object Extended information about Git trailers.
id string Full commit SHA.
message string Full commit message.
parent_ids array List of parent commit SHAs.
short_id string Short commit SHA.
title string Commit title.
trailers object Git trailers parsed from the commit message.
web_url string URL to view the commit in the GitLab web interface.

Example request, with the refs truncated for readability:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/5/repository/merge_base?refs[]=304d257d&refs[]=0031876f"

Example response:

{
  "id": "1a0b36b3cdad1d2ee32457c102a8c0b7056fa863",
  "short_id": "1a0b36b3",
  "title": "Initial commit",
  "created_at": "2014-02-27T08:03:18.000Z",
  "parent_ids": [],
  "message": "Initial commit\n",
  "author_name": "Example User",
  "author_email": "user@example.com",
  "authored_date": "2014-02-27T08:03:18.000Z",
  "committer_name": "Example User",
  "committer_email": "user@example.com",
  "committed_date": "2014-02-27T08:03:18.000Z",
  "trailers": {},
  "extended_trailers": {},
  "web_url": "https://gitlab.example.com/example-group/example-project/-/commit/1a0b36b3cdad1d2ee32457c102a8c0b7056fa863"
}

Generate changelog data

Version history

Generate changelog data based on commits in a repository, without committing them to a changelog file.

Works exactly like POST /projects/:id/repository/changelog, except the changelog data isn't committed to any changelog file.

GET /projects/:id/repository/changelog

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
version string Yes Version to generate the changelog for. Format must follow semantic versioning.
config_file string No Path of changelog configuration file in the project's Git repository. Defaults to .gitlab/changelog_config.yml.
config_file_ref string No Git reference (for example, branch) where the changelog configuration file is defined. Defaults to the default repository branch.
date datetime No Date and time of the release. Uses ISO 8601 format. Example: 2016-03-11T03:45:40Z. Defaults to the current time.
from string No Start of the range of commits (as a SHA) to use for generating the changelog. This commit itself isn't included in the list.
to string No End of the range of commits (as a SHA) to use for the changelog. This commit is included in the list. Defaults to the HEAD of the default project branch.
trailer string No Git trailer to use for including commits. Defaults to Changelog.

If successful, returns 200 OK and the following response attributes:

Attribute Type Description
notes string Generated changelog data in Markdown format.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog?version=1.0.0"

Example response, with line breaks added for readability:

{
  "notes": "## 1.0.0 (2021-11-17)\n\n### feature (2 changes)\n\n-
    [Title 2](namespace13/project13@ad608eb642124f5b3944ac0ac772fecaf570a6bf)
    ([merge request](namespace13/project13!2))\n-
    [Title 1](namespace13/project13@3c6b80ff7034fa0d585314e1571cc780596ce3c8)
    ([merge request](namespace13/project13!1))\n"
}

Add changelog data to file

Version history

Generate changelog data based on commits in a repository and commit them to a changelog file.

Given a semantic version and a range of commits, GitLab generates a changelog for all commits that use a particular Git trailer. GitLab adds a new Markdown-formatted section to a changelog file in the Git repository of the project. The output format can be customized.

For performance and security reasons, parsing the changelog configuration is limited to 2 seconds. This limitation helps prevent potential DoS attacks from malformed changelog templates. If the request times out, consider reducing the size of your changelog_config.yml file.

For user-facing documentation, see Changelogs.

POST /projects/:id/repository/changelog

Changelogs support the following attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
version 1 string Yes Version to generate the changelog for. Format must follow semantic versioning.
branch string No Branch to commit the changelog changes to. Defaults to the project's default branch.
config_file string No Path to the changelog configuration file in the project's Git repository. Defaults to .gitlab/changelog_config.yml.
config_file_ref string No Git reference (for example, branch) where the changelog configuration file is defined. Defaults to the default repository branch.
date datetime No Date and time of the release. Defaults to the current time.
file string No File to commit the changes to. Defaults to CHANGELOG.md.
from 2 string No SHA of the commit that marks the beginning of the range of commits to include in the changelog. This commit isn't included in the changelog.
message string No Commit message to use when committing the changes. Defaults to Add changelog for version X, where X is the value of the version argument.
to string No SHA of the commit that marks the end of the range of commits to include in the changelog. This commit is included in the changelog. Defaults to the branch specified in the branch attribute. Limited to 15000 commits.
trailer string No Git trailer to use for including commits. Defaults to Changelog. Case-sensitive: Example does not match example or eXaMpLE.

Footnotes:

  1. The version attribute can include or omit the v prefix. Both 1.0.0 and v1.0.0 produce identical results. Introduced in GitLab 17.0.

  2. When from is unspecified, GitLab automatically finds the last stable version tag that precedes your specified version. GitLab recognizes tags in X.Y.Z or vX.Y.Z format, following semantic versioning.

    For example, if version is 2.1.0, GitLab uses tag v2.0.0. When version is 1.1.1 or 1.2.0, GitLab uses tag v1.1.0. Pre-release tags like v1.0.0-pre1 are ignored.

    If no suitable tag is found, the API returns an error and you must explicitly specify the from attribute.

Examples

These examples use cURL to perform HTTP requests. The example commands use these values:

  • Project ID: 42
  • Location: hosted on GitLab.com
  • Example API token: token

This command generates a changelog for version 1.0.0.

The commit range:

  • Starts with the tag of the last release.
  • Ends with the last commit on the target branch. The default target branch is the project's default branch.

If the last tag is v0.9.0 and the default branch is main, the range of commits included in this example is v0.9.0..main:

curl --request POST \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --data "version=1.0.0" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog"

To generate the data on a different branch, specify the branch parameter. This command generates data from the foo branch:

curl --request POST \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --data "version=1.0.0&branch=foo" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog"

To use a different trailer, use the trailer parameter:

curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --data "version=1.0.0&trailer=Type" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog"

To store the results in a different file, use the file parameter:

curl --request POST \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --data "version=1.0.0&file=NEWS" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog"

To specify a branch as a parameter, use the to attribute:

curl --request GET \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/changelog?version=1.0.0&to=release/x.x.x"

Migrate from manual changelog files

When you migrate from an existing manually-managed changelog file to one that uses Git trailers, make sure that the changelog file matches the expected format. Otherwise, new changelog entries added by the API might be inserted in an unexpected position. For example, if the version values in the manually-managed changelog file are specified as vX.Y.Z instead of X.Y.Z, then new changelog entries added using Git trailers are appended to the end of the changelog file.

Issue 444183 proposes customizing the version header format in changelog files. However, until that issue has been completed, the expected version header format in changelog files is X.Y.Z.

Health

Version history

Get statistics related to the health of a project repository. This endpoint is rate-limited to 5 requests/hour per project.

GET /projects/:id/repository/health

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
generate boolean No If true, a new health report should be generated. Set this if the endpoint returns 404.

If successful, returns 200 OK and repository health statistics.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: token" \
  --url "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/42/repository/health"

Example response:

{
  "size": 2619748827,
  "references": {
    "loose_count": 13,
    "packed_size": 333978,
    "reference_backend": "REFERENCE_BACKEND_FILES"
  },
  "objects": {
    "size": 2180475409,
    "recent_size": 2180453999,
    "stale_size": 21410,
    "keep_size": 0,
    "packfile_count": 1,
    "reverse_index_count": 1,
    "cruft_count": 0,
    "keep_count": 0,
    "loose_objects_count": 36,
    "stale_loose_objects_count": 36,
    "loose_objects_garbage_count": 0
  },
  "commit_graph": {
    "commit_graph_chain_length": 1,
    "has_bloom_filters": true,
    "has_generation_data": true,
    "has_generation_data_overflow": false
  },
  "bitmap": null,
  "multi_pack_index": {
    "packfile_count": 1,
    "version": 1
  },
  "multi_pack_index_bitmap": {
    "has_hash_cache": true,
    "has_lookup_table": true,
    "version": 1
  },
  "alternates": null,
  "is_object_pool": false,
  "last_full_repack": {
    "seconds": 1745892013,
    "nanos": 0
  },
  "updated_at": "2025-05-14T02:31:08.022Z"
}

For a description of each field in the response, see the RepositoryInfoResponse protobuf message.

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