External issue trackers

  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

GitLab has its own issue tracker, but you can also configure an external issue tracker per GitLab project. You can then use:

  • The external issue tracker with the GitLab issue tracker
  • The external issue tracker only

With an external tracker, you can use the format CODE-123 to mention external issues in GitLab merge requests, commits, and comments where:

  • CODE is a unique code for the tracker.
  • 123 is the issue number in the tracker.

References are displayed as issue links.

Disable the GitLab issue tracker

To disable work items for a project, including the GitLab issue tracker:

  1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  2. Select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Visibility, project features, permissions.
  4. Under Work items, turn off the toggle.
  5. Select Save changes.

After you disable the work items setting, Work items is not visible in the left sidebar. If you’ve configured an external issue tracker, it remains in the left sidebar.

Configure an external issue tracker

You can configure any of the following external issue trackers: