GitLab REST API

Name: GitLab REST API
Brand: GitLab REST API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentDeveloper ToolsSource Controlbearer, oauth2358 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Automate GitLab project management, merge request workflows, CI/CD pipeline triggering, and issue tracking across groups and projects. Covers 358 endpoints for the full DevOps lifecycle.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the GitLab REST API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the GitLab REST API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgitlab.com%2Fgitlab" | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgitlab.com%2Fgitlab" | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with GitLab REST API.

Open merge requests with source and target branch refs, assign reviewers, and set approval rules

Trigger CI/CD pipelines on specific branches and monitor job status through to deployment

Search and filter issues across projects with label, milestone, and assignee qualifiers

GET STARTED

Start building with GitLab REST API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use GitLab REST API for, with concrete tasks.

★ AI Agent Merge Request Automation

AI agents use the GitLab API through Jentic to automate merge request workflows - creating MRs, assigning reviewers, checking pipeline status, and posting comments. An agent searches Jentic for 'create a merge request', receives the schema for POST /v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests, and executes with source branch, target branch, and title. The entire flow from MR creation to approval tracking completes without manual context-switching.

Create a merge request from feature/auth to main in project ID 12345, assign two reviewers, and verify the pipeline passes before requesting approval

CI/CD Pipeline Management

Trigger pipelines on specific branches or tags, monitor job progress through stages, and download artifacts when builds complete. The API exposes pipeline status, individual job logs, and retry capabilities. Teams integrate this into larger deployment orchestration systems that coordinate across multiple GitLab projects and environments.

Trigger a pipeline on the release/v3.0 branch of project 12345, wait for the deploy stage to complete, and report whether all jobs succeeded

Project and Group Administration

Create projects, configure settings, manage group membership, and set access levels across nested subgroup hierarchies. The API supports bulk operations for onboarding new teams - creating project structures, assigning permissions, and configuring default branch protections in a single automated flow.

Create a new project under the engineering group, set the default branch to main with push protection requiring one approval, and add three team members with Developer access

Issue Tracking and Sprint Planning

Create, search, and update issues with labels, milestones, weights, and due dates. Filter across projects within a group or globally. Agents automate triage by labeling incoming issues based on content, assigning to appropriate milestones, and linking related issues for sprint planning.

Search for all open issues labeled 'severity::1' in the platform group created in the last 48 hours, and assign them to the current sprint milestone

Key Endpoints

358 endpoints — interact with gitlab projects, merge requests, issues, ci/cd pipelines, and container registries through 358 rest endpoints.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests

Create a merge request

GET

/v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests

List merge requests for a project

GET

/v3/projects

List all projects accessible to the user

GET

/v3/groups/{id}/issues

List issues for a group

POST

/v3/projects/{id}/issues

Create a new issue

GET

/v3/projects/{id}/runners

List project runners

GET

/v3/projects/{id}/builds

List project builds (CI jobs)

POST

/v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests

Create a merge request

GET

/v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests

List merge requests for a project

GET

/v3/projects

List all projects accessible to the user

GET

/v3/groups/{id}/issues

List issues for a group

POST

/v3/projects/{id}/issues

Create a new issue

Why Jentic?

What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.

Setup

Wiring GitLab by hand means handling both personal access tokens and OAuth2, minding token scopes like api and read_api, and mapping the 358-endpoint surface yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the GitLab REST API from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.

Permission scoping

GitLab puts the project id in the URL path (/v3/projects/{id}/...), so a rule can pin your agent to one project: it can open merge requests and issues there and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so destructive ones like deleting a project or removing a merge request are not included unless you add them.

Credential isolation

Your GitLab personal access token or OAuth token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create a merge request' or 'trigger a pipeline', and Jentic returns the matching GitLab operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the 358-endpoint reference docs.

FAQs

Specific to using GitLab REST API through Jentic.

What authentication does the GitLab REST API use?

The GitLab API supports personal access tokens passed via the PRIVATE-TOKEN header, OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens, and project/group deploy tokens for CI/CD. Through Jentic, tokens are stored encrypted in your Jentic One instance and injected automatically - agents never see raw credentials. Personal access tokens can be scoped to specific permissions like read_api, read_repository, or API (full access).

How do I create a merge request through the GitLab API via Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'create a merge request', load the operation schema for POST /v3/projects/{id}/merge_requests, and execute with source_branch, target_branch, and title fields. Jentic handles authentication automatically. The response includes the MR IID, web URL, and pipeline status. You can also assign reviewers and set labels in the same request.

What are the rate limits for the GitLab REST API?

GitLab.com applies 2000 requests per minute for authenticated users by default. Self-managed instances configure their own limits. The API returns RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-Reset headers. Unauthenticated requests are limited to 500 per minute on gitlab.com. Heavy endpoints like search have lower per-endpoint limits.

Can I trigger CI/CD pipelines via the GitLab API?

Yes. Use the pipeline trigger endpoint to start a new pipeline on a specified ref (branch or tag). You can pass variables as key-value pairs to customize the pipeline run. Monitor status by polling the pipelines list endpoint filtered by SHA or ref, and retrieve individual job logs for debugging.

How do I list all projects within a specific GitLab group?

Use GET /v3/groups/{id}/projects to list all projects under a group. Filter by visibility, archived status, or search term. Results include project metadata, default branch, last activity date, and access level. For nested subgroups, use the subgroups endpoint to traverse the hierarchy.

Is the GitLab REST API free to use?

The API is free for all GitLab.com tiers including Free. Rate limits differ by plan: Free tier gets 2000 requests/minute, Premium and Ultimate get higher limits. Self-managed GitLab instances have configurable limits. There is no per-request API cost.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the GitLab REST API?

Yes. Because your Jentic One instance is self-hosted, your own rules decide which GitLab operations and credentials the agent may use. Since GitLab puts the project id in the URL path (/v3/projects/{id}/...), a rule can pin the agent to a single project so it can open merge requests and issues there and nowhere else. You choose the operations it may call, so destructive actions like deleting a project or a merge request stay out of reach unless you add them.

GitLab REST API

Connect the GitLab REST API to your agent

Capabilities

Start building with GitLab REST API

Use Cases

Key Endpoints

Why Jentic?

Related APIs

FAQs