Members of a project (FREE)

Members are the users and groups who have access to your project.

Each member gets a role, which determines what they can do in the project.

Project members can:

1. Be direct members of the project.
2. Inherit membership of the project from the project's group.
3. Be a member of a group that was shared with the project.
4. Be a member of a group that was shared with the project's group.

flowchart RL
  subgraph Group A
    A(Direct member)
    B{{Shared member}}
    subgraph Project A
      H(1. Direct member)
      C{{2. Inherited member}}
      D{{4. Inherited member}}
      E{{3. Shared member}}
    end
    A-->|Direct membership of Group A\nInherited membership of Project A|C
  end
  subgraph Group C
    G(Direct member)
  end
  subgraph Group B
    F(Direct member)
  end
  F-->|Group B\nshared with\nGroup A|B
  B-->|Inherited membership of Project A|D
  G-->|Group C shared with Project A|E

Add users to a project

• Changed in GitLab 13.11 from a form to a modal window with a flag. Disabled by default.
• Modal window enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 14.8.
• Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag invite_members_group_modal removed.

Add users to a project so they become members and have permission to perform actions.

The maximum role (access level) you set depends on if you have the Owner or Maintainer role for the group. For example, the maximum role that can be set is:

• Owner (50), if you have the Owner role for the project.
• Maintainer (40), if you have the Maintainer role on the project.

In GitLab 14.8 and earlier, direct members of a project have a maximum role of Maintainer. The Owner role can only be added at the group level.

Prerequisite:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role:
  • To remove direct members with the Maintainer role and below, you must have the Maintainer role.
  • To remove members with the Owner role, you must have the Owner role.

To add a user to a project:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. Select Invite members.
4. Enter an email address and select a role.
5. Optional. Select an Access expiration date. On that date, the user can no longer access the project.
6. Select Invite.

If the user has a GitLab account, they are added to the members list. If you used an email address, the user receives an email.

If the invitation is not accepted, GitLab sends reminder emails two, five, and ten days later. Unaccepted invites are automatically deleted after 90 days.

If the user does not have a GitLab account, they are prompted to create an account using the email address the invitation was sent to.

Add groups to a project

• Changed in GitLab 13.11 from a form to a modal window with a flag. Disabled by default.
• Modal window enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 14.8.
• Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag invite_members_group_modal removed.

When you add a group to a project, each user in the group gets access to the project. Each user's access is based on:

• The role they're assigned in the group.
• The maximum role you choose when you invite the group.

Prerequisite:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role.
• Sharing the project with other groups must not be prevented.

To add groups to a project:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. Select Invite a group.
4. Select a group.
5. Select the highest role for users in the group.
6. Optional. Select an Access expiration date. On that date, the group can no longer access the project.
7. Select Invite.

The members of the group are not displayed on the Members tab. The Members tab shows:

• Members who are directly assigned to the project.
• If the project was created in a group namespace, members of that group.

Import users from another project

You can import another project's users to your own project. Users retain the same permissions as the project you import them from.

Prerequisite:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role.

To import users:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. Select Import from a project.
4. Select the project. You can view only the projects for which you're a maintainer.
5. Select Import project members.

After the success message displays, refresh the page to view the new members.

Inherited membership

When your project belongs to a group, group members inherit their role from the group.

In this example:

• Three members have access to the project.
• User 0 is a Reporter and has inherited their role from the demo group, which contains the project.
• User 1 belongs directly to the project. In the Source column, they are listed as a Direct member.
• Administrator is the Owner and member of all groups. They have inherited their role from the demo group.

If a user is a:

• Direct member of a project, the Expiration and Max role fields can be updated directly on the project.
• Inherited member from a parent group, the Expiration and Max role fields must be updated on the parent group.

Remove a member from a project

If a user is a direct member of a project, you can remove them. If membership is inherited from a parent group, then the member can be removed only from the parent group itself.

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role.
• Optional. Unassign the member from all issues and merge requests that are assigned to them.

To remove a member from a project:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. Next to the project member you want to remove, select Remove member.
4. Optional. In the confirmation box, select the Also unassign this user from related issues and merge requests checkbox.
5. To prevent leaks of sensitive information from private projects, verify the user has not forked the private repository or created webhooks. Existing forks continue to receive changes from the upstream project, and webhooks continue to receive updates. You may also want to configure your project to prevent projects in a group from being forked outside their group.
6. Select Remove member.

Filter and sort members

• Introduced in GitLab 12.6.
• Improved in GitLab 13.9.
• Feature flag removed in GitLab 13.10.

You can filter and sort members in a project.

Display inherited members

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. In the Filter members box, select Membership = Inherited.
4. Press Enter.

Display direct members

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Project information > Members.
3. In the Filter members box, select Membership = Direct.
4. Press Enter.

Search

You can search for members by name, username, or email.

Sort

You can sort members by Account, Access granted, Max role, or Last sign-in in ascending or descending order.

Request access to a project

GitLab users can request to become a member of a project.

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find the project you want to be a member of.
2. By the project name, select Request Access.

An email is sent to the most recently active project maintainers. Up to ten project maintainers are notified. Any project owner or maintainer can approve or decline the request. Project maintainers cannot approve Owner role access requests.

If a project does not have any direct owners or maintainers, the notification is sent to the most recently active owners of the project's group.

If you change your mind before your request is approved, select Withdraw Access Request.

Prevent users from requesting access to a project

You can prevent users from requesting access to a project.

Prerequisite:

• You must be the project owner.

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
3. Expand Visibility, project features, permissions.
4. Under Project visibility, select Users can request access.
5. Select Save changes.

Share a project with a group

Instead of adding users one by one, you can share a project with an entire group.