# Permissions

Users have different abilities depending on the access level they have in a particular group or project.

If a user is both in a project group and in the project itself, the highest permission level is used.

If a user is a GitLab administrator they receive all permissions.

On public and internal projects the Guest role is not enforced.
All users will be able to create issues, leave comments, and pull or download the project code.

To add or import a user, you can follow the [project users and members
documentation](../workflow/add-user/add-user.md).

## Project

| Action                                | Guest   | Reporter   | Developer   | Master   | Owner  |
|---------------------------------------|---------|------------|-------------|----------|--------|
| Create new issue                      | ✓       | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Leave comments                        | ✓       | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| See a list of builds                  | ✓ [^1]  | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| See a build log                       | ✓ [^1]  | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Download and browse build artifacts   | ✓ [^1]  | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Pull project code                     |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Download project                      |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Create code snippets                  |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage issue tracker                  |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage labels                         |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| See a commit status                   |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| See a container registry              |         | ✓          | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage merge requests                 |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Create new merge request              |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Create new branches                   |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Push to non-protected branches        |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Force push to non-protected branches  |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Remove non-protected branches         |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Add tags                              |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Write a wiki                          |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Cancel and retry builds               |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Create or update commit status        |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Update a container registry           |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Remove a container registry image     |         |            | ✓           | ✓        | ✓      |
| Create new milestones                 |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Add new team members                  |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Push to protected branches            |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Enable/disable branch protection      |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Turn on/off prot. branch push for devs|         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Rewrite/remove git tags               |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Edit project                          |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Add deploy keys to project            |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Configure project hooks               |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage runners                        |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage build triggers                 |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Manage variables                      |         |            |             | ✓        | ✓      |
| Switch visibility level               |         |            |             |          | ✓      |
| Transfer project to another namespace |         |            |             |          | ✓      |
| Remove project                        |         |            |             |          | ✓      |
| Force push to protected branches [^2] |         |            |             |          |        |
| Remove protected branches [^2]        |         |            |             |          |        |

[^1]: If **Allow guest to access builds** is enabled in CI settings
[^2]: Not allowed for Guest, Reporter, Developer, Master, or Owner

## Group

In order for a group to appear as public and be browsable, it must contain at
least one public project.

Any user can remove themselves from a group, unless they are the last Owner of the group.

| Action                  | Guest | Reporter | Developer | Master | Owner |
|-------------------------|-------|----------|-----------|--------|-------|
| Browse group            | ✓     | ✓        | ✓         | ✓      | ✓     |
| Edit group              |       |          |           |        | ✓     |
| Create project in group |       |          |           | ✓      | ✓     |
| Manage group members    |       |          |           |        | ✓     |
| Remove group            |       |          |           |        | ✓     |

## External Users

In cases where it is desired that a user has access only to some internal or
private projects, there is the option of creating **External Users**. This
feature may be useful when for example a contractor is working on a given
project and should only have access to that project.

External users can only access projects to which they are explicitly granted
access, thus hiding all other internal or private ones from them. Access can be
granted by adding the user as member to the project or group.

They will, like usual users, receive a role in the project or group with all
the abilities that are mentioned in the table above. They cannot however create
groups or projects, and they have the same access as logged out users in all
other cases.

An administrator can flag a user as external [through the API](../api/users.md)
or by checking the checkbox on the admin panel. As an administrator, navigate
to **Admin > Users** to create a new user or edit an existing one. There, you
will find the option to flag the user as external.
