gitlab:api

GitLab API

REST and GraphQL API access via glab api.

Placeholders

Auto-resolve to current project values:

• :fullpath - Full project path (e.g., group/project)
• :id - Project ID
• :branch - Current branch
• :user / :username - Current user

glab api projects/:fullpath/merge_requests

REST

glab api projects/:id/issues                          # GET
glab api projects/:id/issues -X POST -f title="..."   # POST with field
glab api projects/:id/issues --paginate               # All pages

No --jq/-q

Output filtering flags belong to gh api. Pipe to jq instead: glab api <endpoint> | jq '<filter>'. There is also no --json flag anywhere in glab. Use --output json.

Error Bodies Land on Stdout

A 404/4xx response is a JSON error body ({"message":"404 Not found"}), so glab api ... | jq '.field' turns the real HTTP error into misleading null output or a jq type error (Cannot index string, Cannot iterate over object). When a pipeline misbehaves, rerun the glab api call bare and read the body before touching the jq filter.

Pagination Pitfall

--paginate concatenates JSON arrays across pages as ][, producing invalid JSON (e.g., [{...}][{...}]). Fix by replacing ][ with , before parsing: .replace(/\]\s*\[/g, ",").

Nested Fields

-f and --raw-field silently drop bracket-nested keys like position[base_sha]=.... For nested objects, write JSON to a file and use --input:

echo '{"position":{"base_sha":"abc","head_sha":"def","old_path":"file.ts","new_path":"file.ts","position_type":"text","new_line":10}}' > /tmp/payload.json
glab api projects/:id/merge_requests/:iid/discussions -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --input /tmp/payload.json

Uploads

An image or video for an MR or issue body goes through project uploads, which take multipart form data. --form sends the file. -F reads the file and embeds its bytes in a JSON body field, which the endpoint rejects with HTTP 400.