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Repositories API

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List repository tree

  • Iterating pages of results with a number (?page=2) deprecated in GitLab 14.3.

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.

WARNING: This endpoint changed to keyset-based pagination in GitLab 15.0. Iterating pages of results with a number (?page=2) is unsupported.

GET /projects/:id/repository/tree

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string yes The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
page_token string no The 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 The 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 Boolean value used to get a recursive tree. Default is false.
ref string no The name of a repository branch or tag or, if not given, the default branch. 
[
  {
    "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.

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

Supported attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
id integer or string yes The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
sha string yes The blob SHA.

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 The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
sha string yes The blob SHA.

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 The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
path string no The subpath of the repository to download. If an empty string, defaults to the whole repository.
sha string no The commit SHA to download. A tag, branch reference, or SHA can be used. 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>"

Compare branches, tags or commits

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
id integer or string yes The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
from string yes The commit SHA or branch name.
to string yes The commit SHA or branch name.
from_project_id integer no The ID to compare from.
straight boolean no Comparison method: true for direct comparison between from and to (from..to), false to compare using merge base (from...to)'. Default is false.
unidiff boolean No Present diffs in the unified diff format. Default is false. Introduced in GitLab 16.5. 
GET /projects/:id/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+}",
    "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"
}

Contributors

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 The ID or URL-encoded path of the project owned by the authenticated user.
order_by string no Return contributors ordered by name, email, or commits (orders by commit date) fields. Default is commits.
sort string no Return contributors sorted in asc or desc order. Default is asc.

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
}]

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

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"
}

Add changelog data to a changelog file

Generate changelog data based on commits in a repository.

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 user-facing documentation, see Changelogs.

POST /projects/:id/repository/changelog

Supported attributes

Changelogs support these attributes:

Attribute Type Required Description
version string yes The version to generate the changelog for. The format must follow semantic versioning.
branch string no The 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.
date datetime no The date and time of the release. Defaults to the current time.
file string no The file to commit the changes to. Defaults to CHANGELOG.md.
from string no The 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 The 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 The 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 The Git trailer to use for including commits. Defaults to Changelog. Case-sensitive: Example does not match example or eXaMpLE.

Requirements for from attribute

If the from attribute is unspecified, GitLab uses the Git tag of the last stable version that came before the version specified in the version attribute. For GitLab to extract version numbers from tag names, Git tag names must follow a specific format. By default, GitLab considers tags using these formats:

  • vX.Y.Z
  • X.Y.Z

Where X.Y.Z is a version that follows semantic versioning. For example, consider a project with the following tags:

  • v1.0.0-pre1
  • v1.0.0
  • v1.1.0
  • v2.0.0

If the version attribute is 2.1.0, GitLab uses tag v2.0.0. And when the version is 1.1.1, or 1.2.0, GitLab uses tag v1.1.0. The tag v1.0.0-pre1 is never used, because pre-release tags are ignored.

The version attribute can start with v. For example: v1.0.0. The response is the same as for version value 1.0.0. Introduced in GitLab 17.0.

If from is unspecified and no tag to use is found, the API produces an error. To solve such an error, you must explicitly specify a value for the from attribute.

Migrating from a manually-managed changelog file to Git trailers

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.

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"

Generate changelog data

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 The version to generate the changelog for. The format must follow semantic versioning.
config_file string no The path of changelog configuration file in the project's Git repository. Defaults to .gitlab/changelog_config.yml.
date datetime no The date and time of the release. Uses ISO 8601 format. Example: 2016-03-11T03:45:40Z. Defaults to the current time.
from string no The 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 The 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 The Git trailer to use for including commits. Defaults to Changelog. 
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"
}

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