# Groups

With GitLab Groups you can assemble related projects together
and grant members access to several projects at once.

Groups can also be nested in [subgroups](subgroups/index.md).

Find your groups by clicking **Groups > Your Groups** in the top navigation.

![GitLab Groups](img/groups.png)

> The groups dropdown in the top navigation was [introduced][ce-36234] in [GitLab 11.1](https://about.gitlab.com/2018/07/22/gitlab-11-1-released/#groups-dropdown-in-navigation).

The Groups page displays:

- All groups you are a member of.
- How many projects each group contains.
- How many members a group has.
- The group visibility.
- A link to the group settings if you have sufficient permissions.

By clicking the last button, you can leave that group.

## Use cases

You can create groups for numerous reasons. To name a couple:

- Grant access to multiple projects and multiple team members in fewer steps by organizing related projects under the same [namespace](#namespaces) and adding members to the top-level group.
- Make it easier to `@mention` all of your team at once in issues and merge requests by creating a group and including the appropriate members.

For example, you could create a group for your company members, and create a [subgroup](subgroups/index.md) for each individual team. Let's say you create a group called `company-team`, and you create subgroups in this group for the individual teams `backend-team`, `frontend-team`, and `production-team`.
    - When you start a new implementation from an issue, you add a comment:
        _"`@company-team`, let's do it! `@company-team/backend-team` you're good to go!"_
    - When your backend team needs help from frontend, they add a comment:
        _"`@company-team/frontend-team` could you help us here please?"_
    - When the frontend team completes their implementation, they comment:
        _"`@company-team/backend-team`, it's done! Let's ship it `@company-team/production-team`!"_

## Namespaces

In GitLab, a namespace is a unique name to be used as a user name, a group name, or a subgroup name.

- `http://gitlab.example.com/username`
- `http://gitlab.example.com/groupname`
- `http://gitlab.example.com/groupname/subgroup_name`

For example, consider a user named Alex:

1. Alex creates an account on GitLab.com with the username `alex`;
   their profile will be accessed under `https://gitlab.example.com/alex`
1. Alex creates a group for their team with the group name `alex-team`;
   the group and its projects will be accessed under `https://gitlab.example.com/alex-team`
1. Alex creates a subgroup of `alex-team` with the subgroup name `marketing`;
   this subgroup and its projects will be accessed under `https://gitlab.example.com/alex-team/marketing`

By doing so:

- Any team member mentions Alex with `@alex`
- Alex mentions everyone from their team with `@alex-team`
- Alex mentions only the marketing team with `@alex-team/marketing`

## Issues and merge requests within a group

Issues and merge requests are part of projects. For a given group, you can view all of the
[issues](../project/issues/index.md#issues-list) and [merge requests](../project/merge_requests/index.md#merge-requests-per-group) across all projects in that group,
together in a single list view.

## Create a new group

> For a list of words that are not allowed to be used as group names see the
> [reserved names](../reserved_names.md).

To create a new Group, either:

- In the top menu, click **Groups** and then **Your Groups**, and click the green button **New group**.

    ![new group from groups page](img/new_group_from_groups.png)

- Or, in the top menu, expand the `plus` sign and choose **New group**.

    ![new group from elsewhere](img/new_group_from_other_pages.png)

Add the following information:

![new group info](img/create_new_group_info.png)

1. The **Group name** will automatically populate the URL. Optionally, you can change it.
   This is the name that displays in group views.
   The name can contain only:
     - Alphanumeric characters
     - Underscores
     - Dashes and dots
     - Spaces
1. The **Group URL** is the namespace under which your projects will be hosted.
   The URL can contain only:
     - Alphanumeric characters
     - Underscores
     - Dashes and dots (it cannot start with dashes or end in a dot)
1. Optionally, you can add a brief description to tell others
   what this group is about.
1. Optionally, choose an avatar for your group.
1. Choose the [visibility level](../../public_access/public_access.md).

## Add users to a group

A benefit of putting multiple projects in one group is that you can
give a user to access to all projects in the group with one action.

Add members to a group by navigating to the group's dashboard and clicking **Members**.

![add members to group](img/add_new_members.png)

Select the [permission level](../permissions.md#permissions), and add the new member. You can also set the expiring date for that user; this is the date on which they will no longer have access to your group.

Consider a group with two projects:

- On the **Group Members** page, you can now add a new user to the group.
- Now, because this user is a **Developer** member of the group, they automatically
  gets **Developer** access to **all projects** within that group.

To increase the access level of an existing user for a specific project,
add them again as a new member to the project with the desired permission level.

## Request access to a group

As a group owner, you can enable or disable the ability for non members to request access to
your group. Go to the group settings, and click **Allow users to request access**.

As a user, you can request to be a member of a group, if that setting is enabled. Go to the group for which you'd like to be a member, and click the **Request Access** button on the right
side of your screen.

![Request access button](img/request_access_button.png)

Group owners and maintainers will be notified of your request and will be able to approve or
decline it on the members page.

![Manage access requests](img/access_requests_management.png)

If you change your mind before your request is approved, just click the
**Withdraw Access Request** button.

![Withdraw access request button](img/withdraw_access_request_button.png)

## Add projects to a group

There are two different ways to add a new project to a group:

- Select a group, and then click **New project**. You can then continue [creating your project](../../gitlab-basics/create-project.md).

    ![New project](img/create_new_project_from_group.png)

- While you are creating a project, select a group namespace
  you've already created from the dropdown menu.

    ![Select group](img/select_group_dropdown.png)

### Default project-creation level

> [Introduced][ee-2534] in [GitLab Premium][ee] 10.5.
> Brought to [GitLab Starter][ee] in 10.7.
> [Moved](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/25975) to [GitLab Core](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) in 11.10.

Group owners and administrators can allow users with the
Developer role to create projects under groups.

By default, [Developers and Maintainers](../permissions.md#group-members-permissions) can create projects under a group. You can change this setting for a specific group within the group settings, or
you can set this option globally in the Admin area
at **Settings > General > Visibility and access controls** (you must be a GitLab administrator).

Available settings are `No one`, `Maintainers`, or `Developers + Maintainers`.

## Transfer projects into groups

Learn how to [transfer a project into a group](../project/settings/index.md#transferring-an-existing-project-into-another-namespace).

## Sharing a project with a group

You can [share your projects with a group](../project/members/share_project_with_groups.md)
and give all group members access to the project at once.

Alternatively, you can [lock the sharing with group feature](#share-with-group-lock).

## Manage group memberships via LDAP

In GitLab Enterprise Edition, it is possible to manage GitLab group memberships using LDAP groups.
See [the GitLab Enterprise Edition documentation](../../integration/ldap.md) for more information.

## Epics **[ULTIMATE]**

> Introduced in [GitLab Ultimate][ee] 10.2.

Epics let you manage your portfolio of projects more efficiently and with less
effort by tracking groups of issues that share a theme, across projects and
milestones.

[Learn more about Epics.](epics/index.md)

## Group Security Dashboard **[ULTIMATE]**

Get an overview of the vulnerabilities of all the projects in a group and its subgroups.

[Learn more about the Group Security Dashboard.](security_dashboard/index.md)

## Insights **[ULTIMATE]**

> Introduced in [GitLab Ultimate][ee] 11.9 behind the `insights` feature flag.

Configure the Insights that matter for your groups or projects, allowing users to explore data
such as: 

- Triage hygiene
- Issues created/closed per a given period
- Average time for merge requests to be merged
- Much more

[Learn more about Insights](insights/index.md).

## Transferring groups

From GitLab 10.5, you can transfer groups in the following ways:

- Transfer a subgroup to a new parent group.
- Convert a top-level group into a subgroup by transfering it to the desired group.
- Convert a subgroup into a top-level group by transfering it out of its current group.

When transferring groups, note:

- Changing a group's parent can have unintended side effects. See [Redirects when changing repository paths](../project/index.md#redirects-when-changing-repository-paths).
- You can only transfer groups to groups you manage.
- You must update your local repositories to point to the new location.
- If the parent group's visibility is lower than the group's current visibility, visibility levels for subgroups and projects will change to match the new parent group's visibility.
- Only explicit group membership is transferred, not inherited membership. If the group's owners have only inherited membership, this leaves the group without an owner. In this case, the user transferring the group becomes the group's owner.

## Group settings

After creating a group, you can manage its settings by navigating to
the group's dashboard, and clicking **Settings**.

![group settings](img/group_settings.png)

### General settings

In addition to editing any settings you previously
set when [creating the group](#create-a-new-group), you can also
access further configurations for your group.

#### Changing a group's path

Changing a group's path can have unintended side effects. Read
[how redirects will behave](../project/index.md#redirects-when-changing-repository-paths)
before proceeding.

If you are vacating the path so it can be claimed by another group or user,
you may need to rename the group, too, since both names and paths must
be unique.

To change your group path:

1. Navigate to your group's **Settings > General**.
1. Enter a new name under **Group path**.
1. Click **Save group**.

CAUTION: **Caution:**
It is currently not possible to rename a namespace if it contains a
project with [Container Registry](../project/container_registry.md) tags,
because the project cannot be moved.

TIP: **TIP:**
If you want to retain ownership over the original namespace and
protect the URL redirects, then instead of changing a group's path or renaming a
username, you can create a new group and transfer projects to it.

#### Enforce 2FA to group members

Add a security layer to your group by
[enforcing two-factor authentication (2FA)](../../security/two_factor_authentication.md#enforcing-2fa-for-all-users-in-a-group)
for all group members.

#### Share with group lock

Prevent projects in a group from [sharing
a project with another group](../project/members/share_project_with_groups.md) to enable tighter control over project access.

For example, let's say you have two distinct teams (Group A and Group B) working together in a project, and to inherit the group membership, you share the project between the
two groups A and B. **Share with group lock** prevents any project within
the group from being shared with another group,
guaranteeing that only the right group members have access to those projects.

To enable this feature, navigate to the group settings page. Select
**Share with group lock** and **Save the group**.

![Checkbox for share with group lock](img/share_with_group_lock.png)

#### Member Lock **[STARTER]**

Member lock lets a group owner prevent any new project membership to all of the
projects within a group, allowing tighter control over project membership.

For example, if you want to lock the group for an [Audit Event](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/audit_events.html),
enable Member lock to guarantee that project membership cannot be modified during that audit.

To enable this feature:

1. Navigate to the group's **Settings > General** page.
1. Expand the **Permissions, LFS, 2FA** section, and select **Member lock**.
1. Click **Save changes**.

![Checkbox for membership lock](img/member_lock.png)

This will disable the option for all users who previously had permissions to
operate project memberships, so no new users can be added. Furthermore, any
request to add a new user to a project through API will not be possible.

#### Group file templates **[PREMIUM]**

Group file templates allow you to share a set of templates for common file
types with every project in a group. It is analogous to the
[instance template repository](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/admin_area/settings/instance_template_repository.html)
feature, and the selected project should follow the same naming conventions as
are documented on that page.

You can only choose projects in the group as the template source.
This includes projects shared with the group, but it **excludes** projects in
subgroups or parent groups of the group being configured.

You can configure this feature for both subgroups and parent groups. A project
in a subgroup will have access to the templates for that subgroup, as well as
any parent groups.

![Group file template dropdown](img/group_file_template_dropdown.png)

To enable this feature, navigate to the group settings page, expand the
**Templates** section, choose a project to act as the template repository, and
**Save group**.

![Group file template settings](img/group_file_template_settings.png)

#### Group-level project templates **[PREMIUM]**

Define project templates at a group level by setting a group as the template source.
[Learn more about group-level project templates](custom_project_templates.md).

### Advanced settings

- **Projects**: View all projects within that group, add members to each project,
  access each project's settings, and remove any project, all from the same screen.
- **Webhooks**: Configure [webhooks](../project/integrations/webhooks.md) for your group.
- **Kubernetes cluster integration**: Connect your GitLab group with [Kubernetes clusters](clusters/index.md).
- **Audit Events**: View [Audit Events](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/audit_events.html)
  for the group. **[STARTER ONLY]**
- **Pipelines quota**: Keep track of the [pipeline quota](../admin_area/settings/continuous_integration.md) for the group.

## User contribution analysis **[STARTER]**

With [GitLab Contribution Analytics](contribution_analytics/index.md),
you have an overview of the contributions (pushes, merge requests,
and issues) performed by your group members.

## Issues analytics **[PREMIUM]**

With [GitLab Issues Analytics](issues_analytics/index.md), you can see a bar chart of the number of issues created each month in your groups.

## Dependency Proxy **[PREMIUM]**

Use GitLab as a [dependency proxy](dependency_proxy/index.md) for upstream Docker images.

[ee]: https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/
[ee-2534]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/2534
