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Manage issues (FREE)

GitLab Issues are the fundamental medium for collaborating on ideas and planning work in GitLab.

Create an issue

When you create an issue, you are prompted to enter the fields of the issue. If you know the values you want to assign to an issue, you can use quick actions to enter them.

You can create an issue in many ways in GitLab:

From a project

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Guest role for the project.

To create an issue:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects and find your project.

  2. Either:

    • On the left sidebar, select Issues, and then, in the top right corner, select New issue.
    • On the top bar, select the plus sign ({plus-square}) and then, under This project, select New issue.

  3. Complete the fields.

  4. Select Create issue.

The newly created issue opens.

From a group

Issues belong to projects, but when you're in a group, you can access and create issues that belong to the projects in the group.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Guest role for the project in the group.

To create an issue from a group:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Groups and find your group.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Issues.
  3. In the top right corner, select Select project to create issue.
  4. Select the project you'd like to create an issue for. The button now reflects the selected project.
  5. Select New issue in <project name>.
  6. Complete the fields.
  7. Select Create issue.

The newly created issue opens.

The project you selected most recently becomes the default for your next visit. This can save you a lot of time and clicks, if you mostly create issues for the same project.

From another issue or incident

  • New issue becoming linked to the issue of origin introduced in GitLab 14.3.
  • Relate to… checkbox introduced in GitLab 14.9.

You can create a new issue from an existing one. The two issues can then be marked as related.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Guest role for the project.

To create an issue from another issue:

  1. In an existing issue, select the vertical ellipsis ({ellipsis_v}).
  2. Select New related issue.
  3. Complete the fields. The new issue form has a Relate to issue #123 checkbox, where 123 is the ID of the issue of origin. If you keep this checkbox checked, the two issues become linked.
  4. Select Create issue.

The newly created issue opens.

From an issue board

You can create a new issue from an issue board.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Guest role for the project.

To create an issue from a project issue board:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects and find your project.
  2. Select Issues > Boards.
  3. At the top of a board list, select New issue ({plus-square}).
  4. Enter the issue's title.
  5. Select Create issue.

To create an issue from a group issue board:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Groups and find your group.
  2. Select Issues > Boards.
  3. At the top of a board list, select New issue ({plus-square}).
  4. Enter the issue's title.
  5. Under Projects, select the project in the group that the issue should belong to.
  6. Select Create issue.

The issue is created and shows up in the board list. It shares the list's characteristic, so, for example, if the list is scoped to a label Frontend, the new issue also has this label.

By sending an email

Generated email address format changed in GitLab 11.7. The older format is still supported, so existing aliases and contacts still work.

You can send an email to create an issue in a project on the project's Issues List page.

Prerequisites:

  • Your GitLab instance must have incoming email configured.
  • There must be at least one issue in the issue list.
  • You must have at least the Guest role for the project.

To email an issue to a project:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects and find your project.
  2. Select Issues.
  3. At the bottom of the page, select Email a new issue to this project.
  4. To copy the email address, select Copy ({copy-to-clipboard}).
  5. From your email client, send an email to this address. The subject is used as the title of the new issue, and the email body becomes the description. You can use Markdown and quick actions.

A new issue is created, with your user as the author. You can save this address as a contact in your email client to use it again.

WARNING: The email address you see is a private email address, generated just for you. Keep it to yourself, because anyone who knows it can create issues or merge requests as if they were you.

To regenerate the email address:

  1. On the issues list, select Email a new issue to this project.
  2. Select reset this token.

Using a URL with prefilled values

  • Ability to use both issuable_template and issue[description] in the same URL introduced in GitLab 14.9.
  • Ability to specify add_related_issue introduced in GitLab 14.9.

To link directly to the new issue page with prefilled fields, use query string parameters in a URL. You can embed a URL in an external HTML page to create issues with certain fields prefilled.

Field URL parameter Notes
Title issue[title] Must be URL-encoded.
Issue type issue[issue_type] Either incident or issue.
Description template issuable_template Must be URL-encoded.
Description issue[description] Must be URL-encoded. If used in combination with issuable_template or a default issue template, the issue[description] value is appended to the template.
Confidential issue[confidential] If true, the issue is marked as confidential.
Relate to… add_related_issue A numeric issue ID. If present, the issue form shows a Relate to… checkbox to optionally link the new issue to the specified existing issue.

Adapt these examples to form your new issue URL with prefilled fields. To create an issue in the GitLab project:

  • With a prefilled title and description:

    https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issue[title]=Whoa%2C%20we%27re%20half-way%20there&issue[description]=Whoa%2C%20livin%27%20in%20a%20URL

  • With a prefilled title and description template:

    https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issue[title]=Validate%20new%20concept&issuable_template=Feature%20Proposal%20-%20basic

  • With a prefilled title, description, and marked as confidential:

    https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issue[title]=Validate%20new%20concept&issue[description]=Research%20idea&issue[confidential]=true

Using Service Desk

To offer email support, enable Service Desk for your project.

Now, when your customer sends a new email, a new issue can be created in the appropriate project and followed up from there.

Fields in the new issue form

Adding the new issue to an epic introduced in GitLab 13.1.

When you're creating a new issue, you can complete the following fields:

Edit an issue

You can edit an issue's title and description.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project, be the author of the issue, or be assigned to the issue.

To edit an issue:

  1. To the right of the title, select Edit title and description ({pencil}).
  2. Edit the available fields.
  3. Select Save changes.

Bulk edit issues from a project

You can edit multiple issues at a time when you're in a project.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.

To edit multiple issues at the same time:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects and find your project.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Issues.
  3. Select Edit issues. A sidebar on the right of your screen appears.
  4. Select the checkboxes next to each issue you want to edit.
  5. From the sidebar, edit the available fields.
  6. Select Update all.

When bulk editing issues in a project, you can edit the following attributes:

Bulk edit issues from a group (PREMIUM)

You can edit multiple issues across multiple projects when you're in a group.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for a group.

To edit multiple issues at the same time:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Groups and find your group.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Issues.
  3. Select Edit issues. A sidebar on the right of your screen appears.
  4. Select the checkboxes next to each issue you want to edit.
  5. From the sidebar, edit the available fields.
  6. Select Update all.

When bulk editing issues in a group, you can edit the following attributes:

Move an issue

When you move an issue, it's closed and copied to the target project. The original issue is not deleted. A system note, which indicates where it came from and went to, is added to both issues.

Be careful when moving an issue to a project with different access rules. Before moving the issue, make sure it does not contain sensitive data.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.

To move an issue:

  1. Go to the issue.
  2. On the right sidebar, select Move issue.
  3. Search for a project to move the issue to.
  4. Select Move.

Bulk move issues (FREE SELF)

You can move all open issues from one project to another.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have access to the Rails console of the GitLab instance.

To do it:

  1. Optional (but recommended). Create a backup before attempting any changes in the console.

  2. Open the Rails console.

  3. Run the following script. Make sure to change project, admin_user, and target_project to your values.

    project = Project.find_by_full_path('full path of the project where issues are moved from')
issues = project.issues
admin_user = User.find_by_username('username of admin user') # make sure user has permissions to move the issues
target_project = Project.find_by_full_path('full path of target project where issues moved to')

issues.each do |issue|
   if issue.state != "closed" && issue.moved_to.nil?
      Issues::MoveService.new(project: project, current_user: admin_user).execute(issue, target_project)
   else
      puts "issue with id: #{issue.id} and title: #{issue.title} was not moved"
   end
end; nil

  4. To exit the Rails console, enter quit.

Close an issue

When you decide that an issue is resolved or no longer needed, you can close it. The issue is marked as closed but is not deleted.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project, be the author of the issue, or be assigned to the issue.

To close an issue, you can do the following:

  • At the top of the issue, select Close issue.

  • In an issue board, drag an issue card from its list into the Closed list.

    close issue from the issue board

Reopen a closed issue

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project, be the author of the issue, or be assigned to the issue.

To reopen a closed issue, at the top of the issue, select Reopen issue. A reopened issue is no different from any other open issue.

Closing issues automatically

You can close issues automatically by using certain words in the commit message or MR description.

If a commit message or merge request description contains text matching the defined pattern, all issues referenced in the matched text are closed when either:

  • The commit is pushed to a project's default branch.
  • The commit or merge request is merged into the default branch.

For example, if you include Closes #4, #6, Related to #5 in a merge request description:

  • Issues #4 and #6 are closed automatically when the MR is merged.
  • Issue #5 is marked as a related issue, but it's not closed automatically.

Alternatively, when you create a merge request from an issue, it inherits the issue's milestone and labels.

For performance reasons, automatic issue closing is disabled for the very first push from an existing repository.

Default closing pattern

To automatically close an issue, use the following keywords followed by the issue reference.

Available keywords:

  • Close, Closes, Closed, Closing, close, closes, closed, closing
  • Fix, Fixes, Fixed, Fixing, fix, fixes, fixed, fixing
  • Resolve, Resolves, Resolved, Resolving, resolve, resolves, resolved, resolving
  • Implement, Implements, Implemented, Implementing, implement, implements, implemented, implementing

Available issue reference formats:

  • A local issue (#123).
  • A cross-project issue (group/project#123).
  • The full URL of an issue (https://gitlab.example.com/group/project/issues/123).

For example:

Awesome commit message

Fix #20, Fixes #21 and Closes group/otherproject#22.
This commit is also related to #17 and fixes #18, #19
and https://gitlab.example.com/group/otherproject/issues/23.

The previous commit message closes #18, #19, #20, and #21 in the project this commit is pushed to, as well as #22 and #23 in group/otherproject. #17 is not closed as it does not match the pattern.

You can use the closing patterns in multi-line commit messages or one-liners done from the command line with git commit -m.

The default issue closing pattern regex:

\b((?:[Cc]los(?:e[sd]?|ing)|\b[Ff]ix(?:e[sd]|ing)?|\b[Rr]esolv(?:e[sd]?|ing)|\b[Ii]mplement(?:s|ed|ing)?)(:?) +(?:(?:issues? +)?%{issue_ref}(?:(?: *,? +and +| *,? *)?)|([A-Z][A-Z0-9_]+-\d+))+)

Disable automatic issue closing

Introduced in GitLab 12.7.

You can disable the automatic issue closing feature on a per-project basis in the project's settings.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Maintainer role for the project.

To disable automatic issue closing:

  1. On the top bar, select Menu > Projects and find your project.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > Repository.
  3. Expand Default branch.
  4. Select Auto-close referenced issues on default branch.
  5. Select Save changes.

Referenced issues are still displayed, but are not closed automatically.

The automatic issue closing is disabled by default in a project if the project has the issue tracker disabled. If you want to enable automatic issue closing, make sure to enable GitLab Issues.

Changing this setting applies only to new merge requests or commits. Already closed issues remain as they are. If issue tracking is enabled, disabling automatic issue closing only applies to merge requests attempting to automatically close issues in the same project. Merge requests in other projects can still close another project's issues.

Customize the issue closing pattern (FREE SELF)

Prerequisites:

To change the default issue closing pattern, edit the gitlab.rb or gitlab.yml file of your installation.

Change the issue type

Prerequisites:

  • You must be the issue author or have at least the Reporter role for the project, be the author of the issue, or be assigned to the issue.

To change issue type:

  1. To the right of the title, select Edit title and description ({pencil}).

  2. Edit the issue and select an issue type from the Issue type dropdown list:

  3. Select Save changes.

Delete an issue

Deleting from the vertical ellipsis menu introduced in GitLab 14.6.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for a project.

To delete an issue:

  1. In an issue, select the vertical ellipsis ({ellipsis_v}).
  2. Select Delete issue.

Alternatively:

  1. In an issue, select Edit title and description ({pencil}).
  2. Select Delete issue.

Promote an issue to an epic (PREMIUM)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.6.
  • Moved from GitLab Ultimate to GitLab Premium in 12.8.
  • Promoting issues to epics via the UI introduced in GitLab 13.6.

You can promote an issue to an epic in the immediate parent group.

To promote an issue to an epic:

  1. In an issue, select the vertical ellipsis ({ellipsis_v}).
  2. Select Promote to epic.

Alternatively, you can use the /promote quick action.

Read more about promoting an issues to epics.

Add an issue to an iteration (PREMIUM)

  • Introduced in GitLab 13.2.
  • Moved to GitLab Premium in 13.9.

To add an issue to an iteration:

  1. Go to the issue.
  2. On the right sidebar, in the Iteration section, select Edit.
  3. From the dropdown list, select the iteration to associate this issue with.
  4. Select any area outside the dropdown list.

Alternatively, you can use the /iteration quick action.

Copy issue reference

To refer to an issue elsewhere in GitLab, you can use its full URL or a short reference, which looks like namespace/project-name#123, where namespace is either a group or a username.

To copy the issue reference to your clipboard:

  1. Go to the issue.
  2. On the right sidebar, next to Reference, select Copy Reference ({copy-to-clipboard}).

You can now paste the reference into another description or comment.

Read more about issue references in GitLab-Flavored Markdown.

Copy issue email address

Introduced in GitLab 13.8.

You can create a comment in an issue by sending an email. Sending an email to this address creates a comment that contains the email body.

To learn more about creating comments by sending an email and the necessary configuration, see Reply to a comment by sending email.

To copy the issue's email address:

  1. Go to the issue.
  2. On the right sidebar, next to Issue email, select Copy Reference ({copy-to-clipboard}).

Real-time sidebar

Assignees in the sidebar are updated in real time. When you're viewing an issue and somebody changes its assignee, you can see the change without having to refresh the page.

Assignee

An issue can be assigned to one or more users.

The assignees can be changed as often as needed. The idea is that the assignees are people responsible for an issue. When an issue is assigned to someone, it appears in their assigned issues list.

If a user is not a member of a project, an issue can only be assigned to them if they create it themselves or another project member assigns them.

To change the assignee on an issue:

  1. Go to your issue.
  2. On the right sidebar, in the Assignee section, select Edit.
  3. From the dropdown list, select the user to add as an assignee.
  4. Select any area outside the dropdown list.

Similar issues

To prevent duplication of issues on the same topic, GitLab searches for similar issues when you create a new issue.

Prerequisites:

As you type in the title text box of the New issue page, GitLab searches titles and descriptions across all issues in the current project. Only issues you have access to are returned. Up to five similar issues, sorted by most recently updated, are displayed below the title text box.

Health status (ULTIMATE)

To help you track issue statuses, you can assign a status to each issue. This status marks issues as progressing as planned or needing attention to keep on schedule.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.

To edit health status of an issue:

  1. Go to the issue.

  2. On the right sidebar, in the Health status section, select Edit.

  3. From the dropdown list, select the status to add to this issue:

    • On track (green)
    • Needs attention (amber)
    • At risk (red)

You can then see the issue's status in the issues list and the epic tree.

After an issue is closed, its health status can't be edited and the Edit button becomes disabled until the issue is reopened.

You can also set and clear health statuses using the /health_status and /clear_health_status quick actions.

Publish an issue (ULTIMATE)

Introduced in GitLab 13.1.

If a status page application is associated with the project, you can use the /publish quick action to publish the issue.

For more information, see GitLab Status Page.

Issue-related quick actions

You can also use quick actions to manage issues.

Some actions don't have corresponding UI buttons yet. You can do the following only by using quick actions:

  • Add or remove a Zoom meeting (/zoom and /remove_zoom).
  • Publish an issue (/publish).
  • Clone an issue to the same or another project (/clone).
  • Close an issue and mark as a duplicate of another issue (/duplicate).
  • Copy labels and milestone from another merge request in the project (/copy_metadata).