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 group variables

Get list of a group’s variables. 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 \
  --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
    }
]

Show variable details

Get the details of a group’s specific 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	The ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group
`key`	string	Yes	The `key` of a variable
`filter`	hash	No	Available filters: `[environment_scope]`. See the `filter` parameter details.

curl \
  --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
}

Create variable

Create a new 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; must have no more than 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; must have no more than 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 variable

Update a group’s variable. If there are multiple variables with the same key, use filter to select the correct environment_scope.

PUT /groups/:id/variables/:key

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
`value`	string	Yes	The `value` of a variable
`description`	string	No	The description of the variable. Default: `null`. Introduced in GitLab 16.2.
`environment_scope`	string	No	The environment scope of a variable. Premium and Ultimate only.
`filter`	hash	No	Available filters: `[environment_scope]`. See the `filter` parameter details.
`masked`	boolean	No	Whether the variable is masked
`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 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
}

Remove variable

Remove a group’s 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	The ID of a group or URL-encoded path of the group
`key`	string	Yes	The `key` of a variable
`filter`	hash	No	Available filters: `[environment_scope]`. See the `filter` parameter details.

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

The `filter` parameter

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

When multiple variables have the same key, GET, PUT, or DELETE requests might return:

There are multiple variables with provided parameters. Please use 'filter[environment_scope]'.

Use filter[environment_scope] to select the variable with the matching environment_scope attribute.

For example:

GET:

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

PUT:

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

DELETE:

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