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Elastic GitLab connector reference

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The Elastic GitLab connector is a connector for GitLab. This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch main, compatible with Elastic 9.3).

Important

As of Elastic 9.0, managed connectors on Elastic Cloud Hosted are no longer available. All connectors must be self-managed.

This connector is available as a self-managed connector.

This self-managed connector is compatible with Elastic versions 9.3.0+.

To use this connector, satisfy all self-managed connector requirements.

To create a new GitLab connector:

  1. In the Kibana UI, search for "connectors" using the global search field and choose the "Elasticsearch" connectors.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new GitLab self-managed connector.

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new self-managed GitLab self-managed connector.

For example:

				PUT _connector/my-gitlab-connector
					{
  "index_name": "my-elasticsearch-index",
  "name": "Content synced from GitLab",
  "service_type": "gitlab"
}
You'll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.
Note

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key, manage_connector and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the encoded return values from the response:

    				POST /_security/api_key
					{
  "name": "connector_name-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "connector_name-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor",
        "manage_connector"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "index_name",
            ".search-acl-filter-index_name",
            ".elastic-connectors*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

  2. Update your config.yml file with the API key encoded value.

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

To use this connector as a self-managed connector, see Self-managed connectors For additional usage operations, see Connectors UI in Kibana.

Configure a GitLab personal access token to fetch data from GitLab.

Follow these steps to generate a GitLab personal access token:

  • Go to User Settings → Access Tokens (or for project tokens: Settings → Access Tokens → Project Access Tokens).

  • Click Add new token.

  • Enter a token name and optional expiration date.

  • Select the following scopes:

    • api - Required for GraphQL API access (note: the connector only performs read-only operations)
    • read_api - Grants read access to REST API endpoints
    • read_repository - Grants read access to repository files

  • Click Create personal access token and copy the token.

This connector supports GitLab Cloud (gitlab.com) only. GitLab Self-Managed instances are not currently supported.

The following configuration fields are required:

token
GitLab personal access token to authenticate with the GitLab instance. The token must have api, read_api, and read_repository scopes.
projects

List of project paths to sync (e.g., group/project, username/project). Use * or leave empty ([]) to sync all projects where the token's user is a member.

Default value is [] (empty list, which syncs all projects).

Examples:

  • elastic/elasticsearch, elastic/kibana
  • *
  • [] (syncs all projects)
Tip

Project path format

Projects should be specified using their full path including the namespace (group or username).

In the examples provided here:

  • elastic/elasticsearch syncs the Elasticsearch project from the elastic group
  • elastic/kibana syncs the Kibana project from the elastic group

You can deploy the GitLab connector as a self-managed connector using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/app/connectors_service/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you're running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: gitlab
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA>
  1. Optional. If not provided, the connector will use the elasticsearch.api_key instead

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/integrations/elastic-connectors:9.2.2 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

Tip

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Projects
  • Issues (using Work Items API)
  • Merge Requests
  • Epics (using Work Items API, group-level, requires Premium/Ultimate tier)
  • Releases (project-level version releases with changelogs)
  • README Files (.md, .rst, .txt)

Only the following file extensions are ingested for README files:

  • .md
  • .rst
  • .txt
Note
  • Content of files bigger than 10 MB won't be extracted.
  • Epics are only available for Premium/Ultimate GitLab tiers and are synced at the group level.
  • Epic syncing behavior: Epics are fetched only for groups that contain synced projects.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elasticsearch Index.

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector does not currently support incremental syncs.

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default. For more information read Types of sync rule.

Advanced sync rules are not currently supported for this connector. This feature may be added in future releases.

Content Extraction

See Content extraction.

The connector framework enables operators to run functional tests against a real data source. Refer to Connector testing for more details.

To perform E2E testing for the GitLab connector, run the following command:

$ make ftest NAME=gitlab

For faster tests, add the DATA_SIZE=small flag:

make ftest NAME=gitlab DATA_SIZE=small

There are currently no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

See Troubleshooting.

See Security.