Deploy tokens | GitLab (2024)

• Creating a Deploy token
• Deploy token expiration
• Revoking a deploy token
• Limiting scopes of a deploy token
• Deploy token custom username
• Usage
  • Git clone a repository
  • Read Container Registry images
  • Push Container Registry images
  • Read or pull packages
  • Push or upload packages
  • Group deploy token
  • GitLab deploy token

Deploy tokens allow you to download (git clone) or push and pull packages andcontainer registry images of a project without having a user and a password.

Deploy tokens can be managed by maintainers only.

Deploy tokens cannot be used with the GitLab API.

If you have a key pair, you might want to use deploy keysinstead.

Creating a Deploy token

You can create as many deploy tokens as you need from the settings of yourproject. Alternatively, you can also create group-scoped deploy tokens.

1. Sign in to your GitLab account.
2. Go to the project (or group) you want to create deploy tokens for.
3. Go to Settings > Repository.
4. Expand the Deploy tokens section.
5. Choose a name, expiry date (optional), and username (optional) for the token.
6. Choose the desired scopes.
7. Select Create deploy token.
8. Save the deploy token somewhere safe. After you leave or refreshthe page, you can’t access it again.

Deploy token expiration

Deploy tokens expire at midnight UTC on the date you define.

Revoking a deploy token

To revoke a deploy token, under the Active deploy tokens area,select the respective Revoke button.

Limiting scopes of a deploy token

Deploy tokens can be created with different scopes that allow various actionsthat a given token can perform. The available scopes are depicted in thefollowing table along with GitLab version it was introduced in:

Deploy token custom username

The default username format is gitlab+deploy-token-{n}. Some tools orplatforms may not support this format; in this case you can specify a customusername to be used when creating the deploy token.

Usage

Git clone a repository

To download a repository using a deploy token:

1. Create a deploy token with read_repository as a scope.
2. Take note of your username and token.

3. git clone the project using the deploy token:

   git clone https://<username>:<deploy_token>@gitlab.example.com/tanuki/awesome_project.git

Replace <username> and <deploy_token> with the proper values.

Read Container Registry images

To read the container registry images, you must:

1. Create a deploy token with read_registry as a scope.
2. Take note of your username and token.
3. Sign in to the GitLab Container Registry using the deploy token:

docker login -u <username> -p <deploy_token> registry.example.com

Replace <username> and <deploy_token> with the proper values. You can nowpull images from your Container Registry.

Push Container Registry images

To push the container registry images, you must:

1. Create a deploy token with write_registry as a scope.
2. Take note of your username and token.

3. Sign in to the GitLab Container Registry using the deploy token:

   docker login -u <username> -p <deploy_token> registry.example.com

Replace <username> and <deploy_token> with the proper values. You can nowpush images to your Container Registry.

Read or pull packages

To pull packages in the GitLab package registry, you must:

1. Create a deploy token with read_package_registry as a scope.
2. Take note of your username and token.
3. For the package type of your choice, follow theauthentication instructions for deploy tokens.

Example request publishing a NuGet package using a deploy token:

nuget source Add -Name GitLab -Source "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/10/packages/nuget/index.json" -UserName deploy-token-username -Password 12345678asdfnuget push mypkg.nupkg -Source GitLab

Push or upload packages

To upload packages in the GitLab package registry, you must:

1. Create a deploy token with write_package_registry as a scope.
2. Take note of your username and token.
3. For the package type of your choice, follow theauthentication instructions for deploy tokens.

Group deploy token

A deploy token created at the group level can be used across all projects thatbelong either to the specific group or to one of its subgroups.

For an overview, see Group Deploy Tokens.

The Group deploy tokens UI is now accessible under Settings > Repository,not Settings > CI/CD as indicated in the video.

To use a group deploy token:

1. Create a deploy token for a group.
2. Use it the same way you use a project deploy token whencloning a repository.

The scopes applied to a group deploy token (such as read_repository)apply consistently when cloning the repository of related projects.

GitLab deploy token

There’s a special case when it comes to deploy tokens. If a user creates onenamed gitlab-deploy-token, the username and token of the deploy token isautomatically exposed to the CI/CD jobs as CI/CD variables: CI_DEPLOY_USERand CI_DEPLOY_PASSWORD, respectively.

After you create the token, you can sign in to the Container Registry by usingthose variables:

docker login -u $CI_DEPLOY_USER -p $CI_DEPLOY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY