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REST API authentication

Most API requests require authentication, or return only public data when authentication isn't provided. When authentication is not required, the documentation for each endpoint specifies this. For example, the /projects/:id endpoint does not require authentication.

You can authenticate with the GitLab REST API in several ways:

Project access tokens are supported by:

  • Self-managed: Free, Premium, and Ultimate.
  • GitLab.com: Premium and Ultimate.

If you are an administrator, you or your application can authenticate as a specific user, using either:

If authentication information is not valid or is missing, GitLab returns an error message with a status code of 401:

{
  "message": "401 Unauthorized"
}

NOTE: Deploy tokens can't be used with the GitLab public API. For details, see Deploy Tokens.

OAuth 2.0 tokens

You can use an OAuth 2.0 token to authenticate with the API by passing it in either the access_token parameter or the Authorization header.

Example of using the OAuth 2.0 token in a parameter:

curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?access_token=OAUTH-TOKEN"

Example of using the OAuth 2.0 token in a header:

curl --header "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH-TOKEN" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"

Read more about GitLab as an OAuth 2.0 provider.

NOTE: All OAuth access tokens are valid for two hours after they are created. You can use the refresh_token parameter to refresh tokens. See OAuth 2.0 token documentation for how to request a new access token using a refresh token.

Personal/project/group access tokens

You can use access tokens to authenticate with the API by passing it in either the private_token parameter or the PRIVATE-TOKEN header.

Example of using the personal, project, or group access token in a parameter:

curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects?private_token=<your_access_token>"

Example of using the personal, project, or group access token in a header:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"

You can also use personal, project, or group access tokens with OAuth-compliant headers:

curl --header "Authorization: Bearer <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"

Job tokens

You can use job tokens to authenticate with specific API endpoints by passing the token in the job_token parameter or the JOB-TOKEN header. To pass the token in GitLab CI/CD jobs, use the CI_JOB_TOKEN variable.

Example of using the job token in a parameter:

curl --location --output artifacts.zip "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/1/jobs/42/artifacts?job_token=$CI_JOB_TOKEN"

Example of using the job token in a header:

curl --header "JOB-TOKEN:$CI_JOB_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/1/releases"

Session cookie

Signing in to the main GitLab application sets a _gitlab_session cookie. The API uses this cookie for authentication if it's present. Using the API to generate a new session cookie isn't supported.

The primary user of this authentication method is the web frontend of GitLab itself. The web frontend can use the API as the authenticated user to get a list of projects without explicitly passing an access token.

Impersonation tokens

Impersonation tokens are a type of personal access token. They can be created only by an administrator, and are used to authenticate with the API as a specific user.

Use impersonation tokens as an alternative to:

  • The user's password or one of their personal access tokens.
  • The Sudo feature. The user's or administrator's password or token may not be known, or may change over time.

For more details, see the User tokens API documentation.

Impersonation tokens are used exactly like regular personal access tokens, and can be passed in either the private_token parameter or the PRIVATE-TOKEN header.

Disable impersonation

By default, impersonation is enabled. To disable impersonation:

::Tabs

:::TabTitle Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit the /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb file:

    gitlab_rails['impersonation_enabled'] = false

  2. Save the file, and then reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

:::TabTitle Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit the config/gitlab.yml file:

    gitlab:
  impersonation_enabled: false

  2. Save the file, and then restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

::EndTabs

To re-enable impersonation, remove this configuration and reconfigure GitLab (Linux package installations) or restart GitLab (self-compiled installations).

Sudo

All API requests support performing an API request as if you were another user, provided you're authenticated as an administrator with an OAuth or personal access token that has the sudo scope. The API requests are executed with the permissions of the impersonated user.

As an administrator, pass the sudo parameter either by using query string or a header with an ID or username (case insensitive) of the user you want to perform the operation as. If passed as a header, the header name must be Sudo.

If a non administrative access token is provided, GitLab returns an error message with a status code of 403:

{
  "message": "403 Forbidden - Must be admin to use sudo"
}

If an access token without the sudo scope is provided, an error message is returned with a status code of 403:

{
  "error": "insufficient_scope",
  "error_description": "The request requires higher privileges than provided by the access token.",
  "scope": "sudo"
}

If the sudo user ID or username cannot be found, an error message is returned with a status code of 404:

{
  "message": "404 User with ID or username '123' Not Found"
}

Example of a valid API request and a request using cURL with sudo request, providing a username:

GET /projects?private_token=<your_access_token>&sudo=username
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" --header "Sudo: username" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"

Example of a valid API request and a request using cURL with sudo request, providing an ID:

GET /projects?private_token=<your_access_token>&sudo=23
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" --header "Sudo: 23" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"