GitLab VS Code Extension
This extension integrates GitLab to VS Code. It helps you:
- View issues.
- Create and review merge requests.
- Validate your GitLab CI configuration.
- View the status of your pipeline.
- Create and paste snippets to, and from, your editor.
Minimum supported version
GitLab Workflow requires GitLab 13.4 or later. To find your GitLab version, visit /help
(like https://gitlab.com/help
).
Features
You need to set up your access token(s) to use these features, please see Setup section below.
Browse issues, review MRs
See your issues, MRs (including changed files) and other custom search results on a dedicated panel in the VS Code sidebar. Read more
Information about your branch - pipelines, MR, closing issue
See pipeline status, open MR and closing issue links in the status bar. Read more. This pipeline status automatically updates so you don't need to open GitLab to see your pipeline status.
Advanced pipeline actions allow you to view pipeline on GitLab, create a new pipeline, retry or cancel current pipeline. Read more.
Commands
You can use Command Palette to run the commands.
-
GitLab: Search project issues (Supports filters)
. Read more -
GitLab: Search project merge requests (Supports filters)
. Read more -
GitLab: Project Advanced Search (Issues, MR's, commits, comments...)
. Read more -
GitLab: Create snippet
- Create public, internal or private snippet from entire file or selection. Read more. -
GitLab: Insert snippet
- Insert a project snippet, supports multi-file snippets. Read more. -
GitLab: Compare current branch with master
- Compare your branch with master and view changes on GitLab. Read more. -
GitLab: Open active file on GitLab
- View active file on GitLab with highlighting active line number and selected text block. Read more. -
GitLab: Validate GitLab CI config
- Validate GitLab CI configuration file.gitlab-ci.yml
. Read more. GitLab: Open merge request for current branch
-
GitLab: Show issues assigned to me
- Open issues assigned to you on GitLab. -
GitLab: Show merge requests assigned to me
- Open MRs assigned to you on GitLab. GitLab: Open current pipeline on GitLab
GitLab: Open current project on GitLab
GitLab: Create new issue on current project
-
GitLab: Create new merge request on current project
- Open the merge request page to create a merge request.
Commands this extension extends/integrates with:
-
Git: Clone
- Search for and clone projects for every GitLab instance you set up. Read more, Official Documentation -
Git: Add Remote...
- Add existing projects as remote from every GitLab instance you set up.
Other features
Supports multiple GitLab instances Read more.
Published also on Open VSX Registry.
You can use autocompletion of GitLab CI variables in your .gitlab-ci.yml
pipeline file. If you have additional pipeline files you would like to use autocomplete with, it matches on any file beginning with .gitlab-ci
and ending with .yml
or .yaml
. For example: .gitlab-ci.production.yml
.
Setup
To use this extension, you need to create a GitLab Personal Access Token and give it to the extension.
Step 1: Create your Personal Access Token
- If you are using
- GitLab.com click to open Personal Access Tokens page.
- Self-managed GitLab instance go to Settings and select Access Tokens on the left navigation menu
- On Add a personal access token form:
- Give a name to your token.
- Select an expiry date.
- Select
api
andread_user
permissions. - Select Create personal access token.
- Copy the token. Remember you won't be able to see the value of this token ever again for security reasons.
Step 2: Add token to GitLab Workflow Extension
- Open up Command Palette by pressing
Cmd+Shift+P
. - Search for "GitLab: Set GitLab Personal Access Token" and hit Enter.
- Enter the URL to the GitLab instance the PAT should apply to and hit Enter.
- Extension will ask for your PAT. Paste your PAT and hit Enter. It won't be visible and accessible to others.
- If you want to connect to GitLab hosted on a custom domain, additionally set
gitlab.instanceUrl
in your user or workspace settings, otherwise the extension will try to connect to gitlab.com. See Extension settings for more information.
That's it.
You can start using this extension right away. If your project has a pipeline for last commit and a MR from your current branch, you should see them on VS Code status bar.
Multiple GitLab instances
If you want to use multiple GitLab instances you may want to configure each workspace separately. See the gitlab.instanceUrl
configuration option in Extension settings section.
Extension settings
To learn how to change the VS Code Settings, read the official Settings documentation.
gitlab.instanceUrl
(required: false, default: "https://gitlab.com")
If you are using GitLab on a custom domain, you must add this to your user settings file. Example: "gitlab.instanceUrl": "https://my-gitlab-domain.com"
To enable GitLab Workflow extension to work with different GitLab instances, each token is assigned to a GitLab instance URL. For the extension to select the correct token for a specific workspace, the option gitlab.instanceUrl
can be used. This option can be set in the current workspace's .vscode/settings.json
file.
gitlab.showStatusBarLinks
(required: false, default: true)
If you don't want to see GitLab-related links on the status bar, you can set this option to false
. If you are using version 1.0.0 or later, you can also find the same links in sidebar. You should restart VS Code after updating this option.
gitlab.showIssueLinkOnStatusBar
(required: false, default: true)
If you are not using the GitLab issue tracker, you can set this option to false
to remove related issue links on the status bar. You should restart VS Code after updating this option.
gitlab.showMrStatusOnStatusBar
(required: false, default: true)
You can toggle visibility of the merge request link in your sidebar. You can always find a merge request link in GitLab Workflow sidebar. You should restart VS Code after updating this option.
gitlab.remoteName
(required: false, default: null)
The name of the Git remote link corresponding to the GitLab repository with your merge request and issues. If no setting is provided, the extension will detect it. For example: origin
.
gitlab.pipelineGitRemoteName
(required: false, default: null)
The name of the Git remote link corresponding to the GitLab repository with your pipelines. If no setting is provided, the extension will detect it. For example: origin
.
gitlab.customQueries
(required: false)
Defines the search queries that retrieves the items shown on the GitLab Panel. See Custom Queries documentation for more details.
Self-signed certificates
To use self-signed certificates to connect to your GitLab instance, configure them using the following settings. These are community contributed because the GitLab team uses a public CA.
These settings don't work with http.proxy
setting for VS Code (see open issue).
gitlab.ca
(required: false, default: null)
If your self-managed GitLab instance has a self-signed SSL certificate you would probably need to set this option in to point your certificate file. Implemented in this issue.
gitlab.cert
(required: false, default: null)
If your self-managed GitLab instance requires a custom cert/key pair you would probably need to set this option in to point your certificate file. Please also see gitlab.certKey
option. For more information, read this comment.
gitlab.certKey
(required: false, default: null)
If your self-managed GitLab instance requires a custom cert/key pair you would probably need to set this option in to point your certificate key file. Please also see gitlab.cert
option. For more information, read this comment.
gitlab.ignoreCertificateErrors
(required: false, default: false)
If you are using a self-managed GitLab instance with no SSL certificate or having certificate issues and unable to use the extension you may want to set this option to true
to ignore certificate errors. For more information, read this comment.
Features in-depth
Issue and Merge Request details and comments in VS Code
GitLab Workflow allows you to view issue details and comments right in the VS Code. Click an issue link from the sidebar and VS Code will open a new tab to show the issue details. You can also comment on the issue from VS Code.
You can use GitLab Slash Commands to perform actions directly from VS Code. For example, to assign an issue to @fatihacet
, simply add a comment /assign @fatihacet
inside VS Code.
Merge Request Reviews
GitLab Workflow enables you to review merge requests directly inside the editor:
- In the left-hand sidebar, go to Issues and Merge Requests.
- Select the appropriate merge request filter to view a list of merge requests.
- Expand a relevant merge request to view the description and files changed.
- Select a file to open it, and view the diff.
From the diff, you can:
- Review and create discussions.
- Resolve and unresolve these discussions.
- Delete and edit individual comments.
Sidebar - details
Extension will add a GitLab Workflow panel to sidebar of VS Code. The dedicated panel will allow you to see the list of your issues and MRs (you can decide the exact queries by using the custom queries). Also you will be able to see pipeline, MR and issue links for your current branch.
You can see the issue and MR details by clicking on the issue item or by expanding the MR item and clicking on "Description". When you expand the MR, you can see all the changed files. When you click on a changed file, the extension opens the MR diff.
Pipeline actions
One of the real power features of this extension is pipeline actions. This feature can be accessible from the status bar by clicking the pipeline status text or command palette and allows you to,
- View the latest pipeline on GitLab
- Create a new pipeline for your current branch
- Retry the last pipeline
- Cancel the last pipeline
Status bar - details
If your current project is a GitLab project, the extension will do the following things:
- Fetch pipeline of the last commit and show it on the status bar. Clicking this item will open the pipeline actions menu.
- Show open MR for current branch and show it on the status bar. Clicking this item will open MR on GitLab.
- Fetch closing issue of that MR and show it on the status bar. Clicking this item will open Issue on GitLab.
Search
GitLab Workflow extension provides you two types of search. Search with filters and Advanced Search.
Search with filters
It allows users to search issues/MRs against their title and description fields. In the search input, you can type your search term and hit Enter, for example, Inconsistent line endings for HEX files
or Pipelines should ignore retried builds
.
It can become more powerful by allowing you to filter issues/MRs by author, assignee, milestone, title etc. Below is the full list of supported filter tokens
Token | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
title | Search issues/MRs against their title and description. You don't need to add quotes around multiple words. See Important notes section. | discussions refactor |
labels | Comma separated label list for multiple labels. | labels: frontend, Discussion, performance |
label | To search with a single label. You can also have multiple label tokens. |
label: frontend or label:frontend label: Discussion
|
milestone | Milestone title without % . |
milestone: 9.5 |
scope | Searches issues/MRs for the given scope. Values can be created-by-me , assigned-to-me or all . Defaults to created-by-me . |
scope: created-by-me or scope: assigned-to-me or scope: all . |
author | Username of the author without @ . |
author: fatihacet |
assignee | Username of the assignee without @ . |
assignee: timzallmann |
Examples
title: new merge request widget author: fatihacet assignee: jschatz1 labels: frontend, performance milestone: 10.5
title: multiple group page author: annabeldunstone assignee: timzallmann label: frontend
Important notes
-
:
after the token name is necessary.label :
is not a valid token name and may return parsing error. Hencelabel:
should be used. However, space after the token name is optional. Bothlabel: frontend
andlabel:frontend
is valid. This rule is valid for all tokens above. - You don't need to add quotes around multiple words for
title
token.title:"new merge request widget"
may return parsing error.title: new merge request widget
should be used. - You can have
labels
andlabel
tokens at the same time.labels: fronted discussion label: performance
is a valid query and all labels will be included in your search query. It's equal withlabels: fronted discussion performance
. You can also have multiplelabel
tokens.label: frontend label: discussion label: performance
is valid and equals tolabels: fronted discussion performance
.
Search with Advanced Search
GitLab provides Advanced Search feature which is backed by Elasticsearch. Please see Advanced Search syntax for more details.
Create snippet
You can create a snippet from selection or entire file. You can also select visibility level of your snippet.
Insert snippet
You can insert public and private project snippets. The insert supports multi-file snippets.
Compare with master
You can see changes in your branch by comparing with master
and see them on GitLab.
Soon, the extension will support comparing your current branch with other branches.
Open active file
This command allows you to see active file on GitLab. Extension sends active line number and selected text block to GitLab UI so you can see them highlighted.
Validate GitLab CI Configuration
Using this command, you can quickly validate GitLab CI configuration.
CI variable autocompletion
Quickly find the CI variable you are looking for with the CI variable autocompletion.
Clone GitLab projects
This extension integrates with the built-in Git Extension and allows you to search for and clone projects from GitLab (command Git: Clone
).
- You can search for projects on each GitLab instance for which you added an access-token.
- Only projects where you are a member of are displayed.
- You can clone with SSH or HTTPS
- With HTTPS your access-token will be used for cloning the repository and fetching/pushing commits. This is also the case for all GitLab projects that are cloned manually with HTTPS and then opened in VS Code.
Note: Using the access-token for cloning with HTTPS does not work with VS Code version 1.53.x (See discussion)
Contribution
This extension is open source and hosted on GitLab. Contributions are more than welcome. Feel free to fork and add new features or submit bug reports.
A list of the great people who contributed this project, and made it even more awesome, is available. Thank you all!