Content types

Merge requests

Merge requests are code review and integration requests in GitLab projects. The connector indexes the merge request title, description, status, branch information, author, and review comments.

Fields synced

• Title — Merge request title. Indexed for full-text search; displayed as the result title.

• Description — Merge request description and body text. Indexed for full-text search.

• URL — Direct link to the merge request in GitLab. Used to generate the result link; not searchable.

• Repository — Parent project path (namespace/project). Displayed in result metadata; used for filtering.

• State — Open, merged, or closed status. Displayed in result metadata.

• Author — User who created the merge request. Displayed in result metadata; supports author filtering in search.

• Source / target branch — Branch names involved in the merge request. Displayed in result metadata.

• Created at / Updated at — Timestamps. Used for incremental sync and displayed in result metadata; supports date filtering in search.

Applicable filters

Issues

Issues are bug reports, tasks, and engineering work items tracked in GitLab projects.

Fields synced

• Title — Issue title. Indexed for full-text search; displayed as the result title.

• Description — Issue description and body text. Indexed for full-text search.

• URL — Direct link to the issue in GitLab. Used to generate the result link.

• Repository — Parent project path. Displayed in result metadata; used for filtering.

• State — Open or closed status. Displayed in result metadata.

• Labels — Issue labels/tags. Indexed for keyword search and filtering.

• Author — User who created the issue. Displayed in result metadata; supports author filtering in search.

• Assignees — Users assigned to the issue. Displayed in result metadata.

• Created at / Updated at — Timestamps. Used for incremental sync and displayed in result metadata; supports date filtering in search.

Applicable filters

Wikis

Wikis are project documentation pages maintained in GitLab. Wiki content is parsed and indexed for full-text search.

Fields synced

• Title — Wiki page title. Indexed for full-text search; displayed as the result title.

• Content — Wiki page body text. Indexed for full-text search.

• URL — Direct link to the wiki page in GitLab. Used to generate the result link.

• Repository — Parent project path. Displayed in result metadata; used for filtering.

• Format — Wiki markup format (e.g., markdown). Displayed in result metadata.

Applicable filters

Sync frequency

Incremental sync

Captures: new and updated merge requests and issues, and per-item permission changes for those types.

After the initial full sync, the connector runs incremental syncs every hour. Each incremental sync pulls merge requests and issues created or updated since the last sync.

Incremental sync does not process deletions. Deleted merge requests and issues are not removed from the search index during incremental sync. They are reconciled during the next full sync.

Full sync

A full sync re-indexes all accessible merge requests, issues, and wikis from GitLab. It runs automatically on first setup, then every week, and can be triggered manually from Enterprise Search → GitLab → Status.

Full syncs reconcile deletions, and wiki content that incremental sync cannot detect. Full syncs on large GitLab tenants may take several hours depending on project count and GitLab API rate limits. Incremental syncs resume automatically once the full sync completes.

User sync

User sync pulls the latest GitLab user identities (matched by email from the GitLab API), group memberships, and effective project access from GitLab and updates the search index accordingly. It runs every hour on a separate schedule. If a user's project access is revoked in GitLab, the change is reflected in Simpplr search results after the next sync completes.

Known limitations

• GitLab Enterprise account required — user email addresses used for permission sync are only available through the GitLab API on Enterprise accounts. Non-Enterprise editions are not supported. A separate user ID–to–email mapping file is not used.

• Incremental sync does not handle deletions — deleted merge requests and issues remain in search until the next full sync reconciles them. Trigger a manual full sync if stale items persist.

• Wikis support full sync only — new and updated wiki pages are not picked up by incremental sync. Expect up to one week before wiki changes appear in search.

• Wiki metadata gaps — GitLab does not expose author or last-modified timestamps for wiki pages. Author and date filters do not apply to wiki results. The content date (age) filter also does not apply to wikis.

• Attachments are not supported — file attachments on merge requests and issues are not indexed.

• Source code, commits, and repository files are not indexed — only merge requests, issues, and wikis are searchable in the current release.

• CI/CD pipeline data is not indexed — pipeline logs, build artifacts, and deployment job details are out of scope.

• Content scope is limited to the token account's visibility — projects the PAT owner cannot access are not indexed.

• GitLab API rate limits (2,000 authenticated requests per minute on GitLab.com) may slow syncs on large tenants. The connector retries automatically when rate limits are hit.