How to integrate Gitlab MCP with Pi

Connect Pi to Gitlab MCP. Create new gitlab group for qa team, open bug issue in frontend project, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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Gitlab is a web-based DevOps platform for managing source code, issues, and CI/CD pipelines. It streamlines software development with integrated collaboration and automation tools.

58 Tools

Introduction

Pi is a minimal, self-extensible coding agent that lives in your terminal — one agent loop over Claude, GPT-5, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, and 20+ other providers, with maximum extension surface and minimum product opinion. Its core ships four tools (read, write, edit, bash) and self-extends at runtime through skills, extensions, and packages.

This guide explains the easiest and most robust way to connect your Gitlab account to Pi. You can do this through either Composio Connect CLI or Composio Connect MCP. Because Pi already runs shell commands as first-class tools and ships no built-in MCP, the CLI is the recommended path — it's faster to set up, needs no server config, and chains multi-step tasks more reliably. The MCP path is also fully supported through Pi's official pi-mcp-adapter extension.

Also integrate Gitlab with

What is Composio Connect?

Composio Connect is a consumer offering that lets anyone plug 1,000+ applications directly into their agent harness — including Pi. It can:

  • Search and load tools from relevant toolkits on-demand, reducing context usage.
  • Chain multiple tools to accomplish complex workflows via a remote workbench, without excessive back-and-forth with the LLM.
  • Manage app authentication end-to-end with zero manual overhead.

Connect Gitlab to Pi with Composio

Prerequisites: Install Pi

Pi needs Node.js 18+ (Node 22 recommended). Install the agent globally with npm:

bash
npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

On Linux or macOS you can use the installer script instead:

bash
curl -fsSL https://pi.dev/install.sh | sh

Then run pi in any project directory and authenticate your model provider — use /login inside Pi for subscription providers (Claude Pro/Max, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot), or set an API key such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY before starting. Confirm it's working:

bash
pi --version

Full first-run details are in the Pi Quickstart.

Option 1: Composio CLI (recommended)

Pi runs shell commands as first-class tools, so the Composio Universal CLI is the most natural fit — no MCP server to configure and reliable multi-step tool chaining. Install and authenticate:

bash
# Install the Composio CLI
curl -fsSL https://composio.dev/install | bash

# Log in to Composio
composio login

Connect to Gitlab

Ask Pi to connect to Gitlab, or simply request any Gitlab-related task. Under the hood Pi calls Composio commands like any other shell tool:

bash
composio search "what can I do with Gitlab?"
composio link gitlab

On the first Gitlab call, composio link gitlab opens an OAuth prompt so you can authorize access. After that, every Gitlab command works with your stored credentials automatically — just talk to Pi and it will search, execute, and chain Gitlab tools as needed.

Option 2: Composio MCP

Pi's core intentionally ships no built-in MCP, but the official pi-mcp-adapter extension adds full MCP support — exposing every server through a single lightweight proxy tool (~200 tokens) instead of loading hundreds of tool definitions into context.

1. Install the MCP adapter extension

bash
pi install npm:pi-mcp-adapter

Restart Pi after installation.

2. Add the Composio MCP server

Create (or edit) a .mcp.json file in your project root, or ~/.config/mcp/mcp.json for a user-global setup:

bash
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "composio": {
      "url": "https://connect.composio.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The adapter connects lazily by default — the server won't start until Pi actually calls one of its tools, and cached metadata keeps search and describe working without a live connection.

3. Authenticate

Run /mcp-auth inside Pi to open the authentication modal and select composio from the list. Complete the sign-in in your browser, then on the consent screen click Allow access to authorize Composio. Once approved, the server shows as connected inside Pi:

Pi /mcp-auth modal listing the composio MCP server
Composio OAuth consent screen with the Allow access button
Composio MCP server connected inside Pi

4. Done!

Confirm the server is live with /mcp to open the interactive panel, then ask Pi to connect to Gitlab or request any Gitlab-related task — it will prompt you to authorize Gitlab on first use.

What is the Gitlab MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Gitlab MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Gitlab account. It provides structured and secure access to your repositories, projects, and issues, so your agent can perform actions like creating projects, managing issues, handling branches, and automating DevOps workflows on your behalf.

  • Project and group automation: Instantly create new Gitlab projects or organize your workspaces by setting up project groups—all without manual clicks.
  • Issue creation and tracking: Have your agent report bugs, request features, or open new issues in specific projects to keep your team on top of tasks.
  • Branch management: Let your agent create repository branches from any commit or base branch, making it easy to streamline your development process.
  • Project lifecycle management: Archive completed projects or delete unneeded ones, keeping your workspace clean and up to date with minimal effort.
  • Commit and job insights: Retrieve commit references, determine commit sequence in project history, or erase job artifacts and logs for deeper CI/CD control.

Way Forward

With Gitlab connected, Pi can now act on your behalf whenever you ask it to.

From here, you can extend Pi further:

  • Connect more apps: Calendar, Slack, Notion, Linear, and hundreds of others are available through the same Composio Connect setup. Each new integration compounds what Pi can do for you.
  • Build workflows across tools: Once multiple apps are connected, Pi can chain actions together — turn an email into a calendar invite, a Slack message into a Linear ticket, or a meeting note into a follow-up draft.
  • Lean into Pi's extension surface: Wrap common Gitlab flows as Pi skills or prompt templates so recurring tasks become one-line commands, and use directTools in the MCP adapter to promote your most-used Gitlab tools into Pi's tool list directly.

If you run into trouble or want to share what you've built, join the community or check out the Docs for deeper configuration options.

TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Gitlab action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Archive Project

Tool to archive a project.

Create GitLab Group

Tool to create a new group in GitLab.

Create Project

Tool to create a new project in GitLab.

Create Project Issue

Tool to create a new issue in a GitLab project.

Create Repository Branch

Tool to create a new branch in a project.

Delete Project

Tool to delete a GitLab project by its ID.

Download Project Avatar

Tool to download a project's avatar image.

Erase Job

Tool to erase the content of a specified job within a project.

Get Commit References

Tool to get all references (branches or tags) a commit is pushed to.

Get Commit Sequence

Tool to get the sequence number of a commit in a project by following parent links from the given commit.

Get Group Details

Tool to retrieve information about a specific group by its ID.

Get Group Member

Tool to retrieve details for a specific group member.

Get Groups

Get Groups

Get Job Details

Tool to retrieve details of a single job by its ID within a specified project.

Get Merge Request Notes

Tool to fetch comments on a merge request.

Get Project

Tool to get a single project by ID or URL-encoded path.

Get Project Languages

Tool to list programming languages used in a project with percentages.

Get Project Member

Tool to retrieve details for a specific project member.

Get Project Member All

Tool to retrieve details for a specific project member (including inherited and invited members).

Get Project Merge Request

Tool to fetch full details for a single merge request when the MR IID is known.

Get Merge Request Commits

Tool to get commits of a merge request.

Get Project Merge Requests

Tool to retrieve a list of merge requests for a specific project.

Get Projects

Tool to list all projects accessible to the authenticated user.

List Merge Request Diffs

Tool to list all diff versions of a merge request.

Get Repository Branch

Tool to retrieve information about a specific branch in a project.

Get Repository Branches

Retrieves a list of repository branches for a project.

Get Single Commit

Tool to get a specific commit identified by the commit hash or name of a branch or tag.

Get Single Pipeline

Tool to retrieve details of a single pipeline by its ID within a specified project.

Get User

Tool to retrieve information about a specific user by their ID.

Get User Preferences

Tool to get the current user's preferences.

Get Users

Tool to retrieve a list of users from GitLab.

Get User Status

Tool to get a user's status by ID.

Get User Status

Tool to get the current user's status.

Get User Support PIN

Tool to get details of the current user's Support PIN.

Import project members

Tool to import members from one project to another.

List All Group Members

Tool to list all members of a group including direct, inherited, and invited members.

List All Project Members

Tool to list all members of a project (direct, inherited, invited).

List Billable Group Members

Tool to list billable members of a top-level group (including its subgroups and projects).

List Group Members

Tool to list direct members of a group.

List Group Projects

Tool to list projects within a GitLab group by group ID or full path.

List Pending Group Members

Tool to list pending members of a group and its subgroups and projects.

List Pipeline Jobs

Tool to retrieve a list of jobs for a specified pipeline within a project.

List Project Groups

Tool to list ancestor groups of a project.

List Project Invited Groups

Tool to list groups invited to a project.

List Project Issues

Tool to list issues for a project with filtering options (state, labels, search, assignee, author, etc.

List Project Pipelines

Tool to retrieve a list of pipelines for a specified project.

List Project Shareable Groups

Tool to list groups that can be shared with a project.

List Project Repository Tags

Tool to retrieve a list of repository tags for a specified project.

List Project Transfer Locations

Tool to list namespaces available for project transfer.

List project users

Tool to list users of a project.

List Repository Commits

Tool to get a list of repository commits in a project.

List User Projects

Tool to list projects owned by a specific user.

Create Support PIN

Tool to create a support PIN for your authenticated user.

Update User Preferences

Tool to update the current user's preferences.

Set User Status

Tool to set the current user's status.

Share Project With Group

Tool to share a project with a group.

Start Housekeeping Task

Tool to start the housekeeping task for a project.

Update Project Issue

Tool to update an existing issue in a GitLab project (title, description, labels, assignees, state, etc.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Gitlab MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Gitlab tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Gitlab and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Pi fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Gitlab tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Gitlab scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Gitlab data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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