Install Qodo on GitLab Server

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Prerequisites

• Access to your Qodo portal.
• The GitLab access that matches how the Qodo service account is created:
  • Automatic setup: Instance Admin access, needed for Qodo to create its service account and set up webhooks.
  • Manual setup: The Owner role on each group you connect, or the Maintainer role on each repository. Your GitLab administrator creates an instance service account for Qodo.
• Network access from Qodo to your GitLab URL.

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Access the GitLab integration

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Install Qodo on GitLab Server

1

Connect GitLab

Enter your GitLab URL (for example, https://gitlab.example.com), then choose how the Qodo service account is created.

• Automatic setup (Recommended)
• Manual setup

Qodo creates the service account for you, using an instance Admin’s access token.

1

Under How should the Qodo service account be created?, select Automatic setup.Qodo uses your token to:

• Create a dedicated Qodo service account on your instance.
• Give it access only to the groups or repositories you select.
• Configure the required webhooks.

2

Sign in as an instance Admin and click Create a token in GitLab to open your GitLab instance’s access token settings directly. If your instance is on GitLab 16.6 or earlier, use Create a token in GitLab 16.6 or earlier instead.The api scope is required and preselected. Leave it selected when you create the token.

This token is used once, to create the Qodo service account, and is never stored. You can set a short expiry, for example 1 day, and revoke it once installation completes.

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Paste the token under Your personal access token and click Next.

Your GitLab administrator creates the service account, so you don’t need instance Admin access.

1

Under How should the Qodo service account be created?, select Manual setup.

2

Before continuing, ask your GitLab administrator to:

• In Admin > Service accounts, create a dedicated instance service account for Qodo that isn’t an administrator. On GitLab Community Edition, which has no service accounts, create a dedicated regular user instead.
• Create a personal access token for that account with the api scope, expiring at least two days from today.
• Share the token with you.

Use an instance service account, not a group or project one. GitLab limits group and project service accounts to their own group or project. Qodo reuses the same account whenever you connect more groups or repositories, and connecting outside that group or project can fail.

Service account token requirements

Qodo checks each of the following when you connect. Any failure blocks the connection.

• The token is a personal access token on the service account itself, not a group or project access token.
• The token has the api scope, is active, and expires at least two days from today.
• The token doesn’t belong to an instance administrator, or to the account you sign in with.
• On GitLab Enterprise Edition, the token belongs to an actual service account, not a person’s account.

Qodo can’t check whether the account is an instance service account. Make sure your administrator creates one, as described above.

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Enter your own personal access token and the service account’s token. Your token needs the api scope, and you need the Owner role on each group you connect, or the Maintainer role on each repository.Qodo asks for your token again when you later add or remove groups and repositories, or uninstall Qodo. You need the same role then.Qodo adds the service account to the groups or repositories you select, so it needs no other access.

Use this service account and its token for Qodo only.

How Qodo manages the service account

• Qodo renews the token before it expires, which invalidates your copy. When Qodo is uninstalled, it revokes the token and leaves the account in place.
• If the instance already has an installation, Qodo keeps using its existing service account. A new token for that account replaces the stored one. A token for a different account is ignored.
• If the service account stops working and you can’t create a working token for it, uninstall and reinstall Qodo, unless you can sign in with an instance Admin account.

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Click Next.

2

Select repositories

1

Find and select what to connect:

• Use the search bar to find a specific group or repository, or browse the list of top-level groups you have access to.
• Select a group to connect every repository within it, or drill into a group to select individual repositories.
• Select Select all to connect everything you have access to in one step.

On GitLab Community Edition and free-tier instances, which don’t support group hooks, this step appears as “Select repositories” and Qodo creates a hook for each repository you select. On tiers with group hooks, it appears as “Select groups and repositories”, and selecting a group creates a group hook.

Repositories in personal namespaces aren’t supported.

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Click Next.

3

Verify connection

Qodo confirms it’s connected to your selected repositories and groups, and starts pull request indexing in the background.Click Next.

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What happens after you connect

• Repository sync: Syncs each connected repository with Qodo.
• Pull request indexing: Indexes each repository’s pull request history.
• Cross-repo discovery: Finds relationships between your repositories.

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Verify the installation

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Troubleshooting

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Next steps

• Repositories page: Manage which repositories Qodo is active on, or remove an installation.
• Trigger a code review: Run a review automatically or on demand.
• Migration guide: Migrate an existing Qodo installation.