GitLab

GitLab connects with a personal access token and gives you the full git-host feature set: merge requests, pipelines, and assigned issues in the Inbox. Both GitLab.com and self-managed instances are supported.

Note

GitLab calls them merge requests; Birch calls them PRs everywhere — in the UI, the Inbox, and the CLI. This page follows Birch’s naming.

Creating the token

In Settings → Integrations, click the GitLab tile and then Create a token on GitLab ↗. The link opens https://gitlab.com/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens — or the same page on your own instance if you have typed a custom base URL.

GitLab is the one provider whose form names its required scopes: the token field’s watermark reads glpat-… personal access token (scope: api, read_user). Create the token with the api and read_user scopes.

Adding the account

1. Open Settings → Integrations (⌘, / Ctrl+,) and click the GitLab tile.

2. Fill the form:

   Field	What to enter
   Personal access token	Your glpat-… token with the api and read_user scopes
   Custom base URL	Leave empty for gitlab.com. For self-managed GitLab, enter your instance’s root URL

3. Click Verify & connect. Birch verifies the token before storing it; on success the account appears with a Connected badge and Sync now / Remove buttons.

The token is stored in the system keychain, and multiple GitLab accounts can be connected side by side. See the providers overview for the shared connection model.

What you get

• PRs (merge requests) — on the repository page and the workspace PR card, with state and checks; pipeline status surfaces wherever Birch shows a PR’s checks. Review requests and activity on your PRs land in the Inbox.
• Assigned issues — synced into the Inbox Tasks tab, with images from issue descriptions downloaded as thumbnails and handed to the agent when you start a workspace from the task.
• Issue status updates on workspace launch / PR creation — see status transitions.
• AI code review of new PRs — see AI code review, an Anthropic API feature.

Supported PR operations

• Create a PR from a workspace (with Create as draft) or via birch pr create — see Create a pull request.
• Check out a PR into a new workspace: birch pr checkout <url-or-id>.
• Merge with birch pr merge <url-or-id> (--strategy, --delete-source).
• List PRs with birch pr list.

Full flag reference: CLI — pr.

Troubleshooting

• Verification fails — check the scopes first: the token needs api and read_user. A token with narrower read-only scopes verifies on some endpoints but cannot sync or write PRs.
• Wrong instance URL — leave the base URL empty for gitlab.com. For self-managed instances, enter the instance root (for example https://gitlab.example.com), not a group or project URL.
• Expired token — self-managed GitLab instances often enforce token expiry; recreate the token via the Create a token on GitLab ↗ link and reconnect.
• Rate limiting — Birch syncs on a ~10-minute cadence to keep request volume low; if your instance throttles anyway, the next sync cycle retries.