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GitLab

Profile preferences (FREE ALL)

You can update your preferences to change the look and feel of GitLab.

Change the color theme

You can change the color theme of the GitLab UI. These colors are displayed on the left sidebar. Using individual color themes might help you differentiate between your different GitLab instances.

To change the color theme:

  1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
  2. Select Preferences.
  3. In the Color theme section, select a theme.

Dark mode

Introduced in GitLab 13.1 as an Experiment.

Dark mode makes elements on the GitLab UI stand out on a dark background.

  • To turn on Dark mode, Select Preferences > Color theme > Dark Mode.

Dark mode works only with the Dark Syntax highlighting theme. You can report and view issues, send feedback, and track progress in epic 2092.

Change the syntax highlighting theme

Changing the default syntax highlighting theme for authenticated and unauthenticated users Introduced in GitLab 15.1.

Syntax highlighting is a feature in code editors and IDEs. The highlighter assigns a color to each type of code, such as strings and comments.

To change the syntax highlighting theme:

  1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
  2. Select Preferences.
  3. In the Syntax highlighting theme section, select a theme.
  4. Select Save changes.

To view the updated syntax highlighting theme, refresh your project's page.

To customize the syntax highlighting theme, you can also use the Application settings API. Use default_syntax_highlighting_theme to change the syntax highlighting colors on a more granular level.

If these steps do not work, your programming language might not be supported by the syntax highlighters. For more information, view Rouge Ruby Library for guidance on code files and Snippets. View Moncaco Editor and Monarch for guidance on the Web IDE.

Change the diff colors

Diffs use two different background colors to show changes between versions of code. By default, the original file in red and the changes made in green.

To change the diff colors:

  1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
  2. Select Preferences.
  3. Go to the Diff colors section.
  4. Complete the fields.
  5. Select Save changes.
  6. Optional. Type a color code in the fields.

Behavior

The following settings allow you to customize the behavior of the GitLab layout and default views of your dashboard and the projects' landing pages.

Layout width

GitLab can be set up to use different widths depending on your liking. Choose between the fixed (max. 1280px) and the fluid (100%) application layout.

NOTE: While 1280px is the standard max width when using fixed layout, some pages still use 100% width, depending on the content.

Homepage

This setting changes the behavior of the tanuki icon in the upper-left corner of GitLab.

Group overview content

The Group overview content dropdown list allows you to choose what information is displayed on a group's home page.

You can choose between 2 options:

Project overview content

The Project overview content setting allows you to choose what content you want to see on a project's home page.

If Files and Readme is selected, you can show or hide the shortcut buttons above the file list on the project overview with the Show shortcut buttons above files on project overview setting.

Tab width

You can set the displayed width of tab characters across various parts of GitLab, for example, blobs, diffs, and snippets.

NOTE: Some parts of GitLab do not respect this setting, including the WebIDE, file editor and Markdown editor.

Localization

Language

Select your preferred language from a list of supported languages.

This feature is experimental and translations are not complete yet.

First day of the week

The first day of the week can be customized for calendar views and date pickers.

You can choose one of the following options as the first day of the week:

  • Saturday
  • Sunday
  • Monday

If you select System Default, the first day of the week is set to the instance default.

Time preferences

Use relative times

Introduced in GitLab 14.1.

You can select your preferred time format for the GitLab user interface:

  • Relative times, for example, 30 minutes ago.
  • Absolute times, for example, May 18, 2021, 3:57 PM.

The times are formatted depending on your chosen language and browser locale.

To set your time preference:

  1. On the Preferences page, go to Time preferences.
  2. Select the Use relative times checkbox to use relative times, or clear the checkbox to use absolute times.
  3. Select Save changes.

NOTE: This feature is experimental, and choosing absolute times might break certain layouts. Open an issue if you notice that using absolute times breaks a layout.

User identities in CI job JSON web tokens

Introduced in GitLab 16.0. False by default.

You can select to include the list of your external identities in the JSON Web Token information that is generated for a CI job. For more information and examples, see Token Payload.

Integrations

Configure your preferences with third-party services which provide enhancements to your GitLab experience.

Sourcegraph

NOTE: This setting is only visible if Sourcegraph has been enabled by a GitLab administrator.

Manage the availability of integrated code intelligence features powered by Sourcegraph. View the Sourcegraph feature documentation for more information.

Gitpod

Enable and disable the GitLab-Gitpod integration. This is only visible after the integration is configured by a GitLab administrator. View the Gitpod feature documentation for more information.