Advanced search

Use advanced search to find exactly what you need across your entire GitLab instance.

With advanced search:

• Identify code patterns across all projects to refactor shared components more efficiently.
• Locate security vulnerabilities across your entire organization’s codebase and dependencies.
• Track usage of deprecated functions or libraries throughout all repositories.
• Find discussions buried in issues, merge requests, or comments.
• Discover existing solutions instead of reinventing functionality that already exists.

Advanced search works in:

• Code
• Comments
• Commits
• Groups
• Work items
• Merge requests
• Milestones
• Projects
• Users
• Wikis

Use advanced search

Prerequisites:

• Advanced search must be enabled:
  • For GitLab.com and GitLab Dedicated, advanced search is enabled by default in paid subscriptions.
  • For GitLab Self-Managed, an administrator must enable advanced search.

To use advanced search:

1. In the top bar, select Search or go to.
2. In the search box, enter your search term.

You can also use advanced search in a project or group.

Available scopes

Scopes describe the type of data you’re searching. The following scopes are available for advanced search:

Syntax

Advanced search uses simple_query_string, which supports both exact and fuzzy queries.

When you search for a user, the fuzzy query is used by default. You can refine user search with simple_query_string.