Permissions and roles

When you add a user to a project or group, you assign them a role. The role determines which actions they can take in GitLab.

If you add a user to both a project’s group and the project itself, the higher role is used.

GitLab administrators have all permissions.

Roles

The available roles are:

A user assigned the Guest role has the least permissions, and the Owner has the most.

By default, all users can create top-level groups and change their usernames. A GitLab administrator can change this behavior for the GitLab instance.

Project members permissions

Version history
  • Introduced in GitLab 14.8, personal namespace owners appear with Owner role in new projects in their namespace. Introduced with a flag named personal_project_owner_with_owner_access. Disabled by default.
  • Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag personal_project_owner_with_owner_access removed.

A user’s role determines what permissions they have on a project. The Owner role provides all permissions but is available only:

  • For group and project Owners. In GitLab 14.8 and earlier, the role is inherited for a group’s projects.
  • For Administrators.

Personal namespace owners:

  • Are displayed as having the Maintainer role on projects in the namespace, but have the same permissions as a user with the Owner role.
  • In GitLab 14.9 and later, for new projects in the namespace, are displayed as having the Owner role.

For more information about how to manage project members, see members of a project.

The following table lists project permissions available for each role:

Action Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
Analytics:
View issue analytics 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View merge request analytics 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View value stream analytics 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View DORA metrics 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View CI/CD analytics 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View code review analytics 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Analytics:
View repository analytics 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Application security:
View licenses in dependency list 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Application security:
Create and run on-demand DAST scans 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Application security:
Manage security policy 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Application security:
View dependency list 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Application security:
Create a CVE ID Request 		      ✓ ✓
Application security:
Create or assign security policy project 		        ✓
Clusters:
View clusters 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Clusters:
Manage clusters 		      ✓ ✓
Container Registry:
Create, edit, delete cleanup policies 		      ✓ ✓
Container Registry:
Push an image to the Container Registry 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Container Registry:
Pull an image from the Container Registry 		✓ (19) ✓ (19) ✓ ✓ ✓
Container Registry:
Remove a Container Registry image 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
GitLab Pages:
View Pages protected by access control 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
GitLab Pages:
Manage 		      ✓ ✓
GitLab Pages:
Manage GitLab Pages domains and certificates 		      ✓ ✓
GitLab Pages:
Remove GitLab Pages 		      ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Assign an alert 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Participate in on-call rotation 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
View incident 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Change alert status 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Change incident severity 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Create incident 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
View alerts 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
View escalation policies 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
View on-call schedules 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Change incident escalation status 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Change incident escalation policy 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Manage on-call schedules 		      ✓ ✓
Incident Management:
Manage escalation policies 		      ✓ ✓
Issue boards:
Create or delete lists 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issue boards:
Move issues between lists 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Add Labels 		✓ (15) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Add to epic 		  ✓ (22) ✓ (22) ✓ (22) ✓ (22)
Issues:
Assign 		✓ (15) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Create (17) 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Create confidential issues 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
View Design Management pages 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
View related issues 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Set weight 		✓ (15) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Set parent epic 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
View confidential issues 		(2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Close / reopen (18) 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Lock threads 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Manage related issues 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Manage tracker 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Move issues (14) 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Set issue time tracking estimate and time spent 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Archive Design Management files 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Upload Design Management files 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Issues:
Delete 		        ✓
License Compliance:
View allowed and denied licenses 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
License Compliance:
View License Compliance reports 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
License Compliance:
View License list 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
License Compliance:
Manage license policy 		      ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Assign reviewer 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
See list 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Apply code change suggestions 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Approve (8) 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Assign 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Create (16) 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Add labels 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Lock threads 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Manage or accept 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Resolve a thread 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Manage merge approval rules (project settings) 		      ✓ ✓
Merge requests:
Delete 		        ✓
Metrics dashboards:
Manage user-starred metrics dashboards (6) 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Metrics dashboards:
View metrics dashboard annotations 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Metrics dashboards:
Create/edit/delete metrics dashboard annotations 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Package registry:
Pull a package 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Package registry:
Publish a package 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Package registry:
Delete a package 		      ✓ ✓
Package registry:
Delete a file associated with a package 		      ✓ ✓
Project operations:
View Error Tracking list 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Project operations:
Manage Feature Flags 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Project operations:
Manage Error Tracking 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Download project 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Leave comments 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Reposition comments on images (posted by any user) 		✓ (9) ✓ (9) ✓ (9) ✓ ✓
Projects:
View Insights 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View releases 		✓ (5) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View Requirements 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View time tracking reports 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View wiki pages 		✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Create snippets 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Manage labels 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View project traffic statistics 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Create, edit, delete milestones. 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Create, edit, delete releases 		    ✓ (12) ✓ (12) ✓ (12)
Projects:
Create, edit wiki pages 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Enable Review Apps 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
View project Audit Events 		    ✓ (10) ✓ ✓
Projects:
Add deploy keys 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Add new team members 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Manage team members 		      ✓ (20) ✓
Projects:
Change project features visibility level 		      ✓ (13) ✓
Projects:
Configure webhooks 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Delete wiki pages 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Projects:
Edit comments (posted by any user) 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Edit project badges 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Edit project settings 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Export project 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Manage project access tokens (11) 		      ✓ (20) ✓
Projects:
Manage Project Operations 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Rename project 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Share (invite) projects with groups 		      ✓ (7) ✓ (7)
Projects:
View 2FA status of members 		      ✓ ✓
Projects:
Assign project to a compliance framework 		        ✓
Projects:
Archive project 		        ✓
Projects:
Change project visibility level 		        ✓
Projects:
Delete project 		        ✓
Projects:
Disable notification emails 		        ✓
Projects:
Transfer project to another namespace 		        ✓
Projects: View Usage Quotas page       ✓ ✓
Repository:
Pull project code 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
View project code 		✓ (1) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
View a commit status 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Add tags 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Create new branches 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Create or update commit status 		    ✓ (4) ✓ ✓
Repository:
Force push to non-protected branches 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Push to non-protected branches 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Remove non-protected branches 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Rewrite or remove Git tags 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Repository:
Enable or disable branch protection 		      ✓ ✓
Repository:
Enable or disable tag protection 		      ✓ ✓
Repository:
Manage push rules 		      ✓ ✓
Repository:
Push to protected branches (4) 		      ✓ ✓
Repository:
Turn on or off protected branch push for developers 		      ✓ ✓
Repository:
Remove fork relationship 		        ✓
Repository:
Force push to protected branches (3) 		         
Repository:
Remove protected branches (3) 		         
Requirements Management:
Archive / reopen 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Requirements Management:
Create / edit 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Requirements Management:
Import / export 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Create issue from vulnerability finding 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Create vulnerability from vulnerability finding 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Dismiss vulnerability 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Dismiss vulnerability finding 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Resolve vulnerability 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Revert vulnerability to detected state 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
Use security dashboard 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
View vulnerability 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Security dashboard:
View vulnerability findings in dependency list 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Tasks:
Create (17) 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Tasks:
Edit 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Tasks:
Remove from issue 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Tasks:
Delete (21) 		        ✓
Terraform:
Read Terraform state 		    ✓ ✓ ✓
Terraform:
Manage Terraform state 		      ✓ ✓
Test cases:
Archive 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Test cases:
Create 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Test cases:
Move 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Test cases:
Reopen 		  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
  1. On self-managed GitLab instances, guest users are able to perform this action only on public and internal projects (not on private projects). External users must be given explicit access even if the project is internal. Users with the Guest role on GitLab.com are only able to perform this action on public projects because internal visibility is not available.
  2. Guest users can only view the confidential issues they created themselves or are assigned to.
  3. Not allowed for Guest, Reporter, Developer, Maintainer, or Owner. See protected branches.
  4. If the branch is protected, this depends on the access given to Developers and Maintainers.
  5. Guest users can access GitLab Releases for downloading assets but are not allowed to download the source code nor see repository information like commits and release evidence.
  6. Actions are limited only to records owned (referenced) by user.
  7. When Share Group Lock is enabled the project can’t be shared with other groups. It does not affect group with group sharing.
  8. For information on eligible approvers for merge requests, see Eligible approvers.
  9. Applies only to comments on Design Management designs.
  10. Users can only view events based on their individual actions.
  11. Project access tokens are supported for self-managed instances on Free and above. They are also supported on GitLab SaaS Premium and above (excluding trial licenses).
  12. If the tag is protected, this depends on the access given to Developers and Maintainers.
  13. A Maintainer or Owner can’t change project features visibility level if project visibility is set to private.
  14. Attached design files are moved together with the issue even if the user doesn’t have the Developer role.
  15. Guest users can only set metadata (for example, labels, assignees, or milestones) when creating an issue. They cannot change the metadata on existing issues.
  16. In projects that accept contributions from external members, users can create, edit, and close their own merge requests.
  17. Authors and assignees can modify the title and description even if they don’t have the Reporter role.
  18. Authors and assignees can close and reopen issues even if they don’t have the Reporter role.
  19. The ability to view the Container Registry and pull images is controlled by the Container Registry’s visibility permissions.
  20. Maintainers cannot create, demote, or remove Owners, and they cannot promote users to the Owner role. They also cannot approve Owner role access requests.
  21. Authors of tasks can delete them even if they don’t have the Owner role, but they have to have at least the Guest role for the project.
  22. You must have permission to view the epic.

Project features permissions

More details about the permissions for some project-level features follow.

GitLab CI/CD permissions

GitLab CI/CD permissions for some roles can be modified by these settings:

  • Public pipelines: When set to public, gives access to certain CI/CD features to Guest project members.
  • Pipeline visibility: When set to Everyone with Access, gives access to certain CI/CD “view” features to non-project members.
Action Non-member Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
See that artifacts exist ✓ (3) ✓ (3) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View a list of jobs ✓ (1) ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View and download artifacts ✓ (1) ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View environments ✓ (3) ✓ (3) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View job logs and job details page ✓ (1) ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View pipeline details page ✓ (1) ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View pipelines page ✓ (1) ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View pipelines tab in MR ✓ (3) ✓ (3) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View vulnerabilities in a pipeline   ✓ (2) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View and download project-level Secure Files       ✓ ✓ ✓
Cancel and retry jobs       ✓ ✓ ✓
Create new environments       ✓ ✓ ✓
Delete job logs or job artifacts       ✓ (4) ✓ ✓
Run CI/CD pipeline       ✓ ✓ ✓
Run CI/CD pipeline for a protected branch       ✓ (5) ✓ (5) ✓
Stop environments       ✓ ✓ ✓
View a job with debug logging       ✓ ✓ ✓
Use pipeline editor       ✓ ✓ ✓
Run interactive web terminals       ✓ ✓ ✓
Add project runners to project         ✓ ✓
Clear runner caches manually         ✓ ✓
Enable shared runners in project         ✓ ✓
Manage CI/CD settings         ✓ ✓
Manage job triggers         ✓ ✓
Manage project-level CI/CD variables         ✓ ✓
Manage project-level Secure Files         ✓ ✓
Use environment terminals         ✓ ✓
Delete pipelines           ✓
  1. If the project is public and Public pipelines is enabled in Project Settings > CI/CD.
  2. If Public pipelines is enabled in Project Settings > CI/CD.
  3. If the project is public.
  4. Only if the job was both:
    • Triggered by the user.
    • In GitLab 13.0 and later, run for a non-protected branch.
  5. If the user is allowed to merge or push to the protected branch.

Job permissions

This table shows granted privileges for jobs triggered by specific types of users:

Action Guest, Reporter Developer Maintainer Administrator
Run CI job   ✓ ✓ ✓
Clone source and LFS from current project   ✓ ✓ ✓
Clone source and LFS from public projects   ✓ ✓ ✓
Clone source and LFS from internal projects   ✓ (1) ✓ (1) ✓
Clone source and LFS from private projects   ✓ (2) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Pull container images from current project   ✓ ✓ ✓
Pull container images from public projects   ✓ ✓ ✓
Pull container images from internal projects   ✓ (1) ✓ (1) ✓
Pull container images from private projects   ✓ (2) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Push container images to current project   ✓ ✓ ✓
Push container images to other projects        
Push source and LFS        
  1. Only if the triggering user is not an external one.
  2. Only if the triggering user is a member of the project. See also Usage of private Docker images with if-not-present pull policy.

Group members permissions

Any user can remove themselves from a group, unless they are the last Owner of the group.

The following table lists group permissions available for each role:

Action Guest Reporter Developer Maintainer Owner
Add/remove child epics ✓ (8) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Add an issue to an epic ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7) ✓ (7)
Browse group ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Pull a container image using the dependency proxy ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Contribution analytics ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View group epic ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View group wiki pages ✓ (5) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Insights ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Insights charts ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Issue analytics ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View value stream analytics ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Create/edit group epic   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Create/edit/delete epic boards   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Manage group labels   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Publish packages     ✓ ✓ ✓
Pull packages   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Delete packages       ✓ ✓
Create/edit/delete Maven and generic package duplicate settings       ✓ ✓
Enable/disable package request forwarding       ✓ ✓
Pull a Container Registry image ✓ (6) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Remove a Container Registry image     ✓ ✓ ✓
View Group DevOps Adoption   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View metrics dashboard annotations   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Productivity analytics   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Create and edit group wiki pages     ✓ ✓ ✓
Create project in group     ✓ (2)(4) ✓ (2) ✓ (2)
Create/edit/delete group milestones   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Create/edit/delete iterations   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Create/edit/delete metrics dashboard annotations     ✓ ✓ ✓
Enable/disable a dependency proxy       ✓ ✓
Purge the dependency proxy for a group         ✓
Create/edit/delete dependency proxy cleanup policies       ✓ ✓
Use security dashboard     ✓ ✓ ✓
View group Audit Events     ✓ (6) ✓ (6) ✓
Create subgroup       ✓ (1) ✓
Delete group wiki pages     ✓ ✓ ✓
Edit epic comments (posted by any user)       ✓ ✓
List group deploy tokens       ✓ ✓
Manage group push rules       ✓ ✓
View/manage group-level Kubernetes cluster       ✓ ✓
Create and manage compliance frameworks         ✓
Create/Delete group deploy tokens         ✓
Change group visibility level         ✓
Delete group         ✓
Delete group epic         ✓
Disable notification emails         ✓
Edit group settings         ✓
Edit SAML SSO         ✓ (3)
Filter members by 2FA status         ✓
Manage group level CI/CD variables         ✓
Manage group members         ✓
Share (invite) groups with groups         ✓
View 2FA status of members         ✓
View Billing         ✓ (3)
View group Usage Quotas page         ✓ (3)
Manage group runners         ✓
Migrate groups         ✓
Manage subscriptions, and purchase CI/CD minutes and storage         ✓
  1. Groups can be set to allow either Owners, or Owners and users with the Maintainer role, to create subgroups.
  2. Default project creation role can be changed at:
  3. Does not apply to subgroups.
  4. Developers can push commits to the default branch of a new project only if the default branch protection is set to “Partially protected” or “Not protected”.
  5. In addition, if your group is public or internal, all users who can see the group can also see group wiki pages.
  6. Users can only view events based on their individual actions.
  7. You must have permission to view the epic and edit the issue.
  8. You must have permission to view the parent and child epics.

Subgroup permissions

When you add a member to a subgroup, they inherit the membership and permission level from the parent groups. This model allows access to nested groups if you have membership in one of its parents.

To learn more, read through the documentation on subgroups memberships.

Users with minimal access

Introduced in GitLab 13.4.

Owners can add members with a “minimal access” role to a root group. Such users don’t automatically have access to projects and subgroups underneath. Owners must explicitly add these “minimal access” users to the specific subgroups and projects.

You can use minimal access to give the same member more than one role in a group:

  1. Add the member to the root group with a minimal access role.
  2. Invite the member as a direct member with a specific role in any subgroup or project in that group.

Because of an outstanding issue, when minimal access users:

  • Sign in with standard web authentication, they receive a 404 error when accessing the parent group.
  • Sign in with Group SSO, they receive a 404 error immediately because they are redirected to the parent group page.

To work around the issue, give these users the Guest role or higher to any project or subgroup within the parent group.

Minimal access users take license seats

Users with even a “minimal access” role are counted against your number of license seats. This requirement does not apply for GitLab Ultimate subscriptions.