Import API

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

Use the Import API to import repositories from GitHub or Bitbucket Server.

Import repository from GitHub

History

Introduced in GitLab 15.8, GitLab no longer automatically creates namespaces or groups if the namespace or group name specified in target_namespace doesn’t exist. GitLab also no longer falls back to using the user’s personal namespace if the namespace or group name is taken or target_namespace is blank.
Requirement for Maintainer role instead of Developer role introduced in GitLab 16.0 and backported to GitLab 15.11.1 and GitLab 15.10.5.
collaborators_import key in optional_stages was introduced in GitLab 16.0.
Feature flag github_import_extended_events was introduced in GitLab 16.8. Disabled by default. This flag improves the performance of imports but disables the single_endpoint_issue_events_import optional stage.
Feature flag github_import_extended_events was enabled on GitLab.com and GitLab Self-Managed in GitLab 16.9.
Improved import performance made generally available in GitLab 16.11. Feature flag github_import_extended_events removed.

Import your projects from GitHub to GitLab using the API.

Prerequisites:

Prerequisites for GitHub importer.
The namespace set in target_namespace must exist.
The namespace can be your user namespace or an existing group that you have at least the Maintainer role for.

POST /import/github

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`personal_access_token`	string	yes	GitHub personal access token
`repo_id`	integer	yes	GitHub repository ID
`new_name`	string	no	Name of the new project. Also used as the new path so must not start or end with a special character and must not contain consecutive special characters.
`target_namespace`	string	yes	Namespace to import repository into. Supports subgroups like `/namespace/subgroup`. In GitLab 15.8 and later, must not be blank
`github_hostname`	string	no	Custom GitHub Enterprise hostname. Do not set for GitHub.com. From GitLab 16.5 to GitLab 17.1, you must include the path `/api/v3`.
`optional_stages`	object	no	Additional items to import. Introduced in GitLab 15.5
`timeout_strategy`	string	no	Strategy for handling import timeouts. Valid values are `optimistic` (continue to next stage of import) or `pessimistic` (fail immediately). Defaults to `pessimistic`. Introduced in GitLab 16.5.
`pagination_limit`	integer	no	Number of items retrieved per API request to GitHub. The default value is 100 items per page. For project imports from large repositories, reducing this to a lower number can reduce the risk of GitHub API endpoints returning `500` or `502` errors. However, decreasing the page size will result in longer migration times.

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/import/github" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <your_access_token>" \
  --data '{
    "personal_access_token": "aBc123abC12aBc123abC12abC123+_A/c123",
    "repo_id": "12345",
    "target_namespace": "group/subgroup",
    "new_name": "NEW-NAME",
    "github_hostname": "https://github.example.com",
    "optional_stages": {
      "single_endpoint_notes_import": true,
      "attachments_import": true,
      "collaborators_import": true
    }
}'

The following keys are available for optional_stages:

single_endpoint_issue_events_import, for issue and pull request events import. This optional stage was removed in GitLab 16.9.
single_endpoint_notes_import, for an alternative and more thorough comments import.
attachments_import, for Markdown attachments import.
collaborators_import, for importing direct repository collaborators who are not outside collaborators.

For more information, see Select additional items to import.

Example response:

{
    "id": 27,
    "name": "my-repo",
    "full_path": "/root/my-repo",
    "full_name": "Administrator / my-repo",
    "refs_url": "/root/my-repo/refs",
    "import_source": "my-github/repo",
    "import_status": "scheduled",
    "human_import_status_name": "scheduled",
    "provider_link": "/my-github/repo",
    "relation_type": null,
    "import_warning": null
}

Import a public project through the API using a group access token

History

When you import a project from GitHub to GitLab through the API using a group access token:

The GitLab project inherits the original project’s visibility settings. As a result, the project is publicly accessible if the original project is public.
If the path or target_namespace does not exist, the project import fails.

Cancel GitHub project import

History

Cancel an in-progress GitHub project import using the API.

POST /import/github/cancel

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`project_id`	integer	yes	GitLab project ID

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/import/github/cancel" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --data '{
    "project_id": 12345
}'

Example response:

{
    "id": 160,
    "name": "my-repo",
    "full_path": "/root/my-repo",
    "full_name": "Administrator / my-repo",
    "import_source": "source/source-repo",
    "import_status": "canceled",
    "human_import_status_name": "canceled",
    "provider_link": "/source/source-repo"
}

Returns the following status codes:

200 OK: the project import is being canceled.
400 Bad Request: the project import cannot be canceled.
404 Not Found: the project associated with project_id does not exist.

Import GitHub gists into GitLab snippets

History

You can use the GitLab API to import personal GitHub gists (with up to 10 files) into personal GitLab snippets. GitHub gists with more than 10 files are skipped. You should manually migrate these GitHub gists.

If any gists couldn’t be imported, an email is sent with a list of gists that were not imported.

POST /import/github/gists

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`personal_access_token`	string	yes	GitHub personal access token

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/import/github/gists" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_gitlab_access_token>" \
  --data '{
    "personal_access_token": "<your_github_personal_access_token>"
}'

Returns the following status codes:

202 Accepted: the gists import is being started.
401 Unauthorized: user’s GitHub personal access token is invalid.
422 Unprocessable Entity: the gists import is already in progress.
429 Too Many Requests: the user has exceeded GitHub’s rate limit.

Import repository from Bitbucket Server

Import your projects from Bitbucket Server to GitLab using the API.

The Bitbucket Project Key is only used for finding the repository in Bitbucket. You must specify a target_namespace if you want to import the repository to a GitLab group. If you do not specify target_namespace, the project imports to your personal user namespace.

Prerequisites:

For more information, see prerequisites for Bitbucket Server importer.

POST /import/bitbucket_server

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`bitbucket_server_url`	string	yes	Bitbucket Server URL
`bitbucket_server_username`	string	yes	Bitbucket Server Username
`personal_access_token`	string	yes	Bitbucket Server personal access token/password
`bitbucket_server_project`	string	yes	Bitbucket Project Key
`bitbucket_server_repo`	string	yes	Bitbucket Repository Name
`new_name`	string	no	Name of the new project. Also used as the new path so must not start or end with a special character and must not contain consecutive special characters. Between GitLab 15.1 and GitLab 16.9, the project path was copied from Bitbucket instead. In GitLab 16.10, the behavior was changed back to the original behavior.
`target_namespace`	string	no	Namespace to import repository into. Supports subgroups like `/namespace/subgroup`
`timeout_strategy`	string	no	Strategy for handling import timeouts. Valid values are `optimistic` (continue to next stage of import) or `pessimistic` (fail immediately). Defaults to `pessimistic`. Introduced in GitLab 16.5.

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/import/bitbucket_server" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --data '{
    "bitbucket_server_url": "http://bitbucket.example.com",
    "bitbucket_server_username": "root",
    "personal_access_token": "Nzk4MDcxODY4MDAyOiP8y410zF3tGAyLnHRv/E0+3xYs",
    "bitbucket_server_project": "NEW",
    "bitbucket_server_repo": "my-repo",
    "new_name": "NEW-NAME"
}'

Import repository from Bitbucket Cloud

History

Import your projects from Bitbucket Cloud to GitLab using by the API.

Prerequisites:

POST /import/bitbucket

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`bitbucket_username`	string	yes	Bitbucket Cloud username
`bitbucket_app_password`	string	yes	Bitbucket Cloud app password
`repo_path`	string	yes	Path to repository
`target_namespace`	string	yes	Namespace to import repository into. Supports subgroups like `/namespace/subgroup`
`new_name`	string	no	Name of the new project. Also used as the new path so must not start or end with a special character and must not contain consecutive special characters.

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/import/bitbucket" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
  --data '{
    "bitbucket_username": "bitbucket_username",
    "bitbucket_app_password": "bitbucket_app_password",
    "repo_path": "username/my_project",
    "target_namespace": "my_group/my_subgroup",
    "new_name": "new_project_name"
}'

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Import API

Import repository from GitHub

Import a public project through the API using a group access token

Cancel GitHub project import

Import GitHub gists into GitLab snippets

Import repository from Bitbucket Server

Import repository from Bitbucket Cloud

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