Group-level Variables API

Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

Use this API to interact with CI/CD variables for a group.

List all group variables

Lists all variables for a specified group. Use the page and per_page pagination parameters to control the pagination of results.

GET /groups/:id/variables

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer or string	Yes	The ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group

curl --request GET \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables"

[
    {
        "key": "TEST_VARIABLE_1",
        "variable_type": "env_var",
        "value": "TEST_1",
        "protected": false,
        "masked": false,
        "hidden": false,
        "raw": false,
        "environment_scope": "*",
        "description": null
    },
    {
        "key": "TEST_VARIABLE_2",
        "variable_type": "env_var",
        "value": "TEST_2",
        "protected": false,
        "masked": false,
        "hidden": false,
        "raw": false,
        "environment_scope": "*",
        "description": null
    }
]

Retrieve details of a group variable

Retrieves details of a specified group variable. If there are multiple variables with the same key, use filter to select the correct environment_scope.

GET /groups/:id/variables/:key

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer or string	Yes	ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group.
`key`	string	Yes	Key of a variable.
`filter`	hash	No	Filters results when multiple variables share the same key. Possible values: `[environment_scope]`. Premium and Ultimate only.

Example request:

curl --request GET \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/TEST_VARIABLE_1"

{
    "key": "TEST_VARIABLE_1",
    "variable_type": "env_var",
    "value": "TEST_1",
    "protected": false,
    "masked": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "raw": false,
    "environment_scope": "*",
    "description": null
}

Example request with filter:

curl --request GET \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/SCOPED_VARIABLE_1" \
  --form "filter[environment_scope]=production"

Create a group variable

Creates a group variable.

POST /groups/:id/variables

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer or string	Yes	The ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group.
`key`	string	Yes	The `key` of a variable. Maximum 255 characters. Only `A-Z`, `a-z`, `0-9`, and `_` are allowed.
`value`	string	Yes	The `value` of a variable.
`description`	string	No	The `description` of the variable. Maximum 255 characters. Default: `null`.
`environment_scope`	string	No	The environment scope of a variable. Premium and Ultimate only.
`masked`	boolean	No	Whether the variable is masked.
`masked_and_hidden`	boolean	No	Whether the variable is masked and hidden. Default: `false`
`protected`	boolean	No	Whether the variable is protected.
`raw`	boolean	No	Whether the variable is treated as a raw string. Default: `true`. When `false`, variables in the value are expanded.
`variable_type`	string	No	The type of a variable. Available types are: `env_var` (default) and `file`.

curl --request POST \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables" \
  --form "key=NEW_VARIABLE" \
  --form "value=new value"

{
    "key": "NEW_VARIABLE",
    "value": "new value",
    "variable_type": "env_var",
    "protected": false,
    "masked": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "raw": false,
    "environment_scope": "*",
    "description": null
}

Update a group variable

Updates the specified group variable. If there are multiple variables with the same key, use filter to select the correct environment_scope.

When filtering for an environment_scope that does not exist, the endpoint falls back to updating a variable with the same name but different environment scope. Verify the existence of a scope for a given variable using the retrieve details of a group variable endpoint.

PUT /groups/:id/variables/:key

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer or string	Yes	ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group.
`key`	string	Yes	Key of a variable.
`value`	string	Yes	Value of a variable.
`description`	string	No	Description of the variable. Introduced in GitLab 16.2. Default: `null`.
`environment_scope`	string	No	Environment scope of a variable. Premium and Ultimate only.
`filter`	hash	No	Filters results when multiple variables share the same key. Possible values: `[environment_scope]`. Premium and Ultimate only.
`masked`	boolean	No	If `true`, indicates the variable is masked.
`protected`	boolean	No	If `true`, indicates the variable is protected.
`raw`	boolean	No	If `true`, indicates the variable is treated as a raw string. When `false`, the variable value is expanded. Default: `true`.
`variable_type`	string	No	Type of a variable. Available types are: `env_var` (default) and `file`.

Example request:

curl --request PUT \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/NEW_VARIABLE" \
  --form "value=updated value"

{
    "key": "NEW_VARIABLE",
    "value": "updated value",
    "variable_type": "env_var",
    "protected": true,
    "masked": true,
    "hidden": false,
    "raw": true,
    "environment_scope": "*",
    "description": null
}

Example request with filter:

curl --request PUT \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/SCOPED_VARIABLE_1" \
  --form "value=updated value" \
  --form "environment_scope=production" \
  --form "filter[environment_scope]=production"

Delete a group variable

Deletes the specified group variable. If there are multiple variables with the same key, use filter to select the correct environment_scope.

DELETE /groups/:id/variables/:key

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer or string	Yes	ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group.
`key`	string	Yes	Key of a variable.
`filter`	hash	No	Filters results when multiple variables share the same key. Possible values: `[environment_scope]`. Premium and Ultimate only.

Example request:

curl --request DELETE \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/VARIABLE_1"

Example request with filter:

curl --request DELETE \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/groups/1/variables/SCOPED_VARIABLE_1" \
  --form "filter[environment_scope]=production"