---
stage: Create
group: Source Code
info: "To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers"
type: reference
---

# Projects

In GitLab, you can create projects for hosting
your codebase, use it as an issue tracker, collaborate on code, and continuously
build, test, and deploy your app with built-in GitLab CI/CD.

Your projects can be [available](../../public_access/public_access.md)
publicly, internally, or privately, at your choice. GitLab does not limit
the number of private projects you create.

## Project features

When you create a project in GitLab, you'll have access to a large number of
[features](https://about.gitlab.com/features/):

**Repositories:**

- [Issue tracker](issues/index.md): Discuss implementations with your team within issues
  - [Issue Boards](issue_board.md): Organize and prioritize your workflow
  - [Multiple Issue Boards](issue_board.md#multiple-issue-boards): Allow your teams to create their own workflows (Issue Boards) for the same project
- [Repositories](repository/index.md): Host your code in a fully
  integrated platform
  - [Branches](repository/branches/index.md): use Git branching strategies to
  collaborate on code
  - [Protected branches](protected_branches.md): Prevent collaborators
  from messing with history or pushing code without review
  - [Protected tags](protected_tags.md): Control over who has
  permission to create tags, and prevent accidental update or deletion
  - [Repository mirroring](repository/repository_mirroring.md)
  - [Signing commits](repository/gpg_signed_commits/index.md): use GPG to sign your commits
  - [Deploy tokens](deploy_tokens/index.md): Manage project-based deploy tokens that allow permanent access to the repository and Container Registry.
- [Web IDE](web_ide/index.md)
- [CVE ID Requests](../application_security/cve_id_request.md): Request a CVE identifier to track a
  vulnerability in your project.

**Issues and merge requests:**

- [Issue tracker](issues/index.md): Discuss implementations with your team within issues
  - [Issue Boards](issue_board.md): Organize and prioritize your workflow
  - [Multiple Issue Boards](issue_board.md#multiple-issue-boards): Allow your teams to create their own workflows (Issue Boards) for the same project
- [Merge Requests](merge_requests/index.md): Apply your branching
  strategy and get reviewed by your team
  - [Merge Request Approvals](merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.md): Ask for approval before
  implementing a change **(STARTER)**
  - [Fix merge conflicts from the UI](merge_requests/resolve_conflicts.md):
  Your Git diff tool right from GitLab's UI
  - [Review Apps](../../ci/review_apps/index.md): Live preview the results
  of the changes proposed in a merge request in a per-branch basis
- [Labels](labels.md): Organize issues and merge requests by labels
- [Time Tracking](time_tracking.md): Track estimate time
  and time spent on
  the conclusion of an issue or merge request
- [Milestones](milestones/index.md): Work towards a target date
- [Description templates](description_templates.md): Define context-specific
  templates for issue and merge request description fields for your project
- [Slash commands (quick actions)](quick_actions.md): Textual shortcuts for
  common actions on issues or merge requests
- [Autocomplete characters](autocomplete_characters.md): Autocomplete
  references to users, groups, issues, merge requests, and other GitLab
  elements.
- [Web IDE](web_ide/index.md)

**GitLab CI/CD:**

- [GitLab CI/CD](../../ci/README.md): GitLab's built-in [Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/08/05/continuous-integration-delivery-and-deployment-with-gitlab/) tool
  - [Container Registry](../packages/container_registry/index.md): Build and push Docker
  images out-of-the-box
  - [Auto Deploy](../../topics/autodevops/stages.md#auto-deploy): Configure GitLab CI/CD
  to automatically set up your app's deployment
  - [Enable and disable GitLab CI/CD](../../ci/enable_or_disable_ci.md)
  - [Pipelines](../../ci/pipelines/index.md): Configure and visualize
    your GitLab CI/CD pipelines from the UI
    - [Scheduled Pipelines](../../ci/pipelines/schedules.md): Schedule a pipeline
      to start at a chosen time
    - [Pipeline Graphs](../../ci/pipelines/index.md#visualize-pipelines): View your
      entire pipeline from the UI
    - [Job artifacts](../../ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.md): Define,
      browse, and download job artifacts
    - [Pipeline settings](../../ci/pipelines/settings.md): Set up Git strategy (choose the default way your repository is fetched from GitLab in a job),
      timeout (defines the maximum amount of time in minutes that a job is able run), custom path for `.gitlab-ci.yml`, test coverage parsing, pipeline's visibility, and much more
  - [Kubernetes cluster integration](clusters/index.md): Connecting your GitLab project
    with a Kubernetes cluster
  - [Feature Flags](../../operations/feature_flags.md): Feature flags allow you to ship a project in
    different flavors by dynamically toggling certain functionality **(PREMIUM)**
- [GitLab Pages](pages/index.md): Build, test, and deploy your static
  website with GitLab Pages

**Other features:**

- [Wiki](wiki/index.md): document your GitLab project in an integrated Wiki.
- [Snippets](../snippets.md): store, share and collaborate on code snippets.
- [Value Stream Analytics](../analytics/value_stream_analytics.md): review your development lifecycle.
- [Insights](insights/index.md): configure the Insights that matter for your projects. **(ULTIMATE)**
- [Security Dashboard](../application_security/security_dashboard/index.md): Security Dashboard. **(ULTIMATE)**
- [Syntax highlighting](highlighting.md): an alternative to customize
  your code blocks, overriding GitLab's default choice of language.
- [Badges](badges.md): badges for the project overview.
- [Releases](releases/index.md): a way to track deliverables in your project as snapshot in time of
  the source, build output, other metadata, and other artifacts
  associated with a released version of your code.
- [Conan packages](../packages/conan_repository/index.md): your private Conan repository in GitLab.
- [Maven packages](../packages/maven_repository/index.md): your private Maven repository in GitLab.
- [NPM packages](../packages/npm_registry/index.md): your private NPM package registry in GitLab.
- [Code owners](code_owners.md): specify code owners for certain files **(STARTER)**
- [License Compliance](../compliance/license_compliance/index.md): approve and deny licenses for projects. **(ULTIMATE)**
- [Dependency List](../application_security/dependency_list/index.md): view project dependencies. **(ULTIMATE)**
- [Requirements](requirements/index.md): Requirements allow you to create criteria to check your products against. **(ULTIMATE)**
- [Static Site Editor](static_site_editor/index.md): quickly edit content on static websites without prior knowledge of the codebase or Git commands.
- [Code Intelligence](code_intelligence.md): code navigation features.

### Project integrations

[Integrate your project](integrations/index.md) with Jira, Mattermost,
Kubernetes, Slack, and a lot more.

## New project

Learn how to [create a new project](../../gitlab-basics/create-project.md) in GitLab.

### Fork a project

You can [fork a project](repository/forking_workflow.md) in order to:

- Collaborate on code by forking a project and creating a merge request
  from your fork to the upstream project
- Fork a sample project to work on the top of that

### Star a project

You can star a project to make it easier to find projects you frequently use.
The number of stars a project has can indicate its popularity.

To star a project:

1. Go to the home page of the project you want to star.
1. In the upper right corner of the page, click **Star**.

To view your starred projects:

1. Click **Projects** in the navigation bar.
1. Click **Starred Projects**.
1. GitLab displays information about your starred projects, including:

   - Project description, including name, description, and icon
   - Number of times this project has been starred
   - Number of times this project has been forked
   - Number of open merge requests
   - Number of open issues

### Explore projects

You can explore other popular projects available on GitLab. To explore projects:

1. Click **Projects** in the navigation bar.
1. Click **Explore Projects**.

GitLab displays a list of projects, sorted by last updated date. To view
projects with the most [stars](#star-a-project), click **Most stars**. To view
projects with the largest number of comments in the past month, click **Trending**.

## Project settings

Set the project's visibility level and the access levels to its various pages
and perform actions like archiving, renaming or transferring a project.

Read through the documentation on [project settings](settings/index.md).

## Import or export a project

- [Import a project](import/index.md) from:
  - [GitHub to GitLab](import/github.md)
  - [Bitbucket to GitLab](import/bitbucket.md)
  - [Gitea to GitLab](import/gitea.md)
  - [FogBugz to GitLab](import/fogbugz.md)
- [Export a project from GitLab](settings/import_export.md#exporting-a-project-and-its-data)
- [Importing and exporting projects between GitLab instances](settings/import_export.md)

## Delete a project

To delete a project, first navigate to the home page for that project.

1. Navigate to **Settings > General**.
1. Expand the **Advanced** section.
1. Scroll down to the **Delete project** section.
1. Click **Delete project**
1. Confirm this action by typing in the expected text.

### Delayed deletion **(PREMIUM)**

By default, projects in a personal namespace are deleted after a seven day delay.

Admins can restore the project during this period of time.
This delay [may be changed by an admin](../admin_area/settings/visibility_and_access_controls.md#default-deletion-delay).

Admins can view all projects pending deletion. If you're an administrator, go to the top navigation bar, click **Projects > Your projects**, and then select the **Deleted projects** tab.
From this tab an admin can restore any project.

For information on delay deletion of projects within a group, please see [Enabling delayed Project removal](../group/index.md#enabling-delayed-project-removal)

## CI/CD for external repositories **(PREMIUM)**

Instead of importing a repository directly to GitLab, you can connect your repository
as a CI/CD project.

Read through the documentation on [CI/CD for external repositories](../../ci/ci_cd_for_external_repos/index.md).

## Project members

Learn how to [add members to your projects](members/index.md).

## Project activity

To view the activity of a project, navigate to **Project overview > Activity**.
From there, you can click on the tabs to see **All** the activity, or see it
filtered by **Push events**, **Merge events**, **Issue events**, **Comments**,
**Team**, and **Wiki**.

### Leave a project

**Leave project** will only display on the project's dashboard
when a project is part of a group (under a
[group namespace](../group/index.md#namespaces)).
If you choose to leave a project you will no longer be a project
member, therefore, unable to contribute.

## Project's landing page

The project's landing page shows different information depending on
the project's visibility settings and user permissions.

For public projects, and to members of internal and private projects
with [permissions to view the project's code](../permissions.md#project-members-permissions):

- The content of a
  [`README` or an index file](repository/#repository-readme-and-index-files)
  is displayed (if any), followed by the list of directories within the
  project's repository.
- If the project doesn't contain either of these files, the
  visitor will see the list of files and directories of the repository.

For users without permissions to view the project's code:

- The wiki homepage is displayed, if any.
- The list of issues within the project is displayed.

## Redirects when changing repository paths

When a repository path changes, it is essential to smoothly transition from the
old location to the new one. GitLab provides two kinds of redirects: the web UI
and Git push/pull redirects.

Depending on the situation, different things apply.

When [renaming a user](../profile/index.md#changing-your-username),
[changing a group path](../group/index.md#changing-a-groups-path) or [renaming a repository](settings/index.md#renaming-a-repository):

- Existing web URLs for the namespace and anything under it (e.g., projects) will
  redirect to the new URLs.
- Starting with GitLab 10.3, existing Git remote URLs for projects under the
  namespace will redirect to the new remote URL. Every time you push/pull to a
  repository that has changed its location, a warning message to update
  your remote will be displayed instead of rejecting your action.
  This means that any automation scripts, or Git clients will continue to
  work after a rename, making any transition a lot smoother.
- The redirects will be available as long as the original path is not claimed by
  another group, user or project.

## Use your project as a Go package

Any project can be used as a Go package. GitLab responds correctly to `go get`
and `godoc.org` discovery requests, including the
[`go-import`](https://golang.org/cmd/go/#hdr-Remote_import_paths) and
[`go-source`](https://github.com/golang/gddo/wiki/Source-Code-Links) meta tags.

Private projects, including projects in subgroups, can be used as a Go package,
but may require configuration to work correctly. GitLab will respond correctly
to `go get` discovery requests for projects that *are not* in subgroups,
regardless of authentication or authorization.
[Authentication](#authenticate-go-requests) is required to use a private project
in a subgroup as a Go package. Otherwise, GitLab will truncate the path for
private projects in subgroups to the first two segments, causing `go get` to
fail.

GitLab implements its own Go proxy. This feature must be enabled by an
administrator and requires additional configuration. See [GitLab Go
Proxy](../packages/go_proxy/index.md).

### Disable Go module features for private projects

In Go 1.12 and later, Go queries module proxies and checksum databases in the
process of [fetching a
module](../../development/go_guide/dependencies.md#fetching). This can be
selectively disabled with `GOPRIVATE` (disable both),
[`GONOPROXY`](../../development/go_guide/dependencies.md#proxies) (disable proxy
queries), and [`GONOSUMDB`](../../development/go_guide/dependencies.md#fetching)
(disable checksum queries).

`GOPRIVATE`, `GONOPROXY`, and `GONOSUMDB` are comma-separated lists of Go
modules and Go module prefixes. For example,
`GOPRIVATE=gitlab.example.com/my/private/project` will disable queries for that
one project, but `GOPRIVATE=gitlab.example.com` will disable queries for *all*
projects on GitLab.com. Go will not query module proxies if the module name or a
prefix of it appears in `GOPRIVATE` or `GONOPROXY`. Go will not query checksum
databases if the module name or a prefix of it appears in `GONOPRIVATE` or
`GONOSUMDB`.

### Authenticate Go requests

To authenticate requests to private projects made by Go, use a [`.netrc`
file](https://ec.haxx.se/usingcurl-netrc.html) and a [personal access
token](../profile/personal_access_tokens.md) in the password field. **This only
works if your GitLab instance can be accessed with HTTPS.** The `go` command
will not transmit credentials over insecure connections. This will authenticate
all HTTPS requests made directly by Go but will not authenticate requests made
through Git.

For example:

```plaintext
machine gitlab.example.com
login <gitlab_user_name>
password <personal_access_token>
```

NOTE: **Note:**
On Windows, Go reads `~/_netrc` instead of `~/.netrc`.

### Authenticate Git fetches

If a module cannot be fetched from a proxy, Go will fall back to using Git (for
GitLab projects). Git will use `.netrc` to authenticate requests. Alternatively,
Git can be configured to embed specific credentials in the request URL, or to
use SSH instead of HTTPS (as Go always uses HTTPS to fetch Git repositories):

```shell
# embed credentials in any request to GitLab.com:
git config --global url."https://${user}:${personal_access_token}@gitlab.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"

# use SSH instead of HTTPS:
git config --global url."git@gitlab.example.com".insteadOf "https://gitlab.example.com"
```

## Access project page with project ID

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/53671) in GitLab 11.8.

To quickly access a project from the GitLab UI using the project ID,
visit the `/projects/:id` URL in your browser or other tool accessing the project.

## Project aliases **(PREMIUM ONLY)**

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/3264) in [GitLab Premium](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 12.1.

When migrating repositories to GitLab and they are being accessed by other systems,
it's very useful to be able to access them using the same name especially when
they are a lot. It reduces the risk of changing significant number of Git URLs in
a large number of systems.

GitLab provides a functionality to help with this. In GitLab, repositories are
usually accessed with a namespace and project name. It is also possible to access
them via a project alias. This feature is only available on Git over SSH.

A project alias can be only created via API and only by GitLab administrators.
Follow the [Project Aliases API documentation](../../api/project_aliases.md) for
more details.

Once an alias has been created for a project (e.g., an alias `gitlab` for the
project `https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab`), the repository can be cloned
using the alias (e.g `git clone git@gitlab.com:gitlab.git` instead of
`git clone git@gitlab.com:gitlab-org/gitlab.git`).

## Project APIs

There are numerous [APIs](../../api/README.md) to use with your projects:

- [Badges](../../api/project_badges.md)
- [Clusters](../../api/project_clusters.md)
- [Threads](../../api/discussions.md)
- [General](../../api/projects.md)
- [Import/export](../../api/project_import_export.md)
- [Issue Board](../../api/boards.md)
- [Labels](../../api/labels.md)
- [Markdown](../../api/markdown.md)
- [Merge Requests](../../api/merge_requests.md)
- [Milestones](../../api/milestones.md)
- [Services](../../api/services.md)
- [Snippets](../../api/project_snippets.md)
- [Templates](../../api/project_templates.md)
- [Traffic](../../api/project_statistics.md)
- [Variables](../../api/project_level_variables.md)
- [Aliases](../../api/project_aliases.md)
