> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mindsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GitLab

In this section, we present how to connect GitLab repository to MindsDB.
[GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/) is a DevSecOps Platform. Data from GitLab, including issues and MRs, can be utilized within MindsDB to make relevant predictions or automate the issue/MR creation.

## Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Install MindsDB locally via [Docker](/setup/self-hosted/docker) or [Docker Desktop](/setup/self-hosted/docker-desktop).
2. To connect GitLab to MindsDB, install the required dependencies following [this instruction](/setup/self-hosted/docker#install-dependencies).
3. Install or ensure access to GitLab.

## Connection

This handler was implemented using the [python-gitlab](https://github.com/python-gitlab/python-gitlab) library.
python-gitlab is a Python library that wraps GitLab API.

The GitLab handler is initialized with the following parameters:

* `repository`: a required name of a GitLab repository to connect to.
* `api_key`: an optional GitLab API key to use for authentication.

Here is how to connect MindsDB to a GitLab repository:

```sql theme={null}
CREATE DATABASE mindsdb_gitlab
WITH ENGINE = 'gitlab',
PARAMETERS = {
  "repository": "gitlab-org/gitlab",
  "api_key": "api_key",    -- optional GitLab API key
};
```

## Usage

The `mindsdb_gitlab` connection contains two tables: `issues` and `merge_requests`.

Now, you can use this established connection to query this table as:

```sql theme={null}
SELECT * FROM mindsdb_gitlab.issues;
```

You can run more advanced queries to fetch specific issues in a defined order:

```sql theme={null}
SELECT number, state, creator, assignee, title, created, labels 
  FROM mindsdb_gitlab.issues
  WHERE state="opened"
  ORDER BY created ASC, creator DESC
  LIMIT 10;
```

And the same goes for merge requests:

```sql theme={null}
SELECT number, state, creator, reviewers, title, created, has_conflicts
  FROM mindsdb_gitlab.merge_requests
  WHERE state="merged"
  ORDER BY created ASC, creator DESC
  LIMIT 10;
```

<Info>
  For more information about available actions and development plans, visit [this page](https://github.com/mindsdb/mindsdb/blob/main/mindsdb/integrations/handlers/gitlab_handler/README.md).
</Info>