Interactive API documentation

Introduces the interactive documentation tool for the GitLab API.

About the OpenAPI specification

The OpenAPI specification (formerly called Swagger) defines a standard, language-agnostic interface to RESTful APIs. OpenAPI definition files are written in the YAML format, which is automatically rendered by the GitLab browser into a more human-readable interface.

For general information about the GitLab APIs, see API Docs.

Overview

The interactive API documentation tool allows API testing directly on the GitLab.com website. Only a few of the available endpoints are documented with the OpenAPI spec, but the current list demonstrates the functionality of the tool.

Endpoint parameters

When you expand an endpoint listing, you see a description, input parameters (if required), and example server responses. Some parameters include a default or a list of allowed values.

Starting an interactive session

A Personal access token (PAT) is one way to start an interactive session. To do this, select Authorize from the main page, and a dialog box prompts you to enter your PAT, which is valid for the current web session.

To test the endpoint, first select Try it out on the endpoint definition page. Input the parameters as required, then select Execute. In the following example, we executed a request for the version endpoint (no parameters required). The tool shows the curl command and URL of the request, followed by the server responses that are returned. You can create new responses by editing the relevant parameters and then select Execute once again.