• Prerequisites
• Prevent users from creating top-level groups
  • For new users
  • For existing users
• Prevent users from changing their usernames
• Prevent Guest users from promoting to a higher role

Modify global user settings

You can modify settings for every user in your GitLab instance.

Prerequisites

• You must be an administrator of a self-managed GitLab instance.

Prevent users from creating top-level groups

By default, new users can create top-level groups. How you prevent users from creating top-level groups differs between new and existing users.

For new users

To prevent new users from creating top-level groups:

• In GitLab 15.5 and later, use either:
  • The GitLab UI.
  • The Application settings API.
• In GitLab 15.4 and earlier, modify a configuration file:

For existing users

To prevent existing users from creating top-level groups, use either:

• The GitLab UI.
• The User API to modify the can_create_group setting.

Prevent users from changing their usernames

By default, users can change their usernames. To prevent users from changing their usernames:

Prevent Guest users from promoting to a higher role

On GitLab Ultimate, Guest users do not count toward paid seats. However, when a Guest user creates projects and namespaces, they are automatically promoted to a higher role than Guest and occupy a paid seat.

To prevent Guest users from being promoted to a higher role and occupying a paid seat, set the user as external.

External users cannot create personal projects or namespaces. If a user with the Guest role is promoted into a higher role by another user, the external user setting must be removed before they can create personal projects or namespaces. For a complete list of restrictions for external users, see External users.