EMBL Bio-IT GitLab Help

This site is administered by the EMBL Git Admins and hosted by the EMBL Bio-IT Project. Please check the frequently asked questions below and, if your question isn't answered here or you need support for your use of git.embl.org, send an email to git-admins@embl.de.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Can I Give External Collaborators Access To A Project?

We are happy to create external accounts on request for collaborators on projects hosted at the EMBL GitLab. The request for a new external account must come from someone currently based at EMBL. Please email the admins via the address given above.

Once a user account has been created for them, external users can log in using the "Standard" login tab on the git.embl.org landing page. External users cannot create their own projects, and an EMBL user must manually invite them to join existing projects in the system.

Note that external accounts will be suspended after six months of inactivity. Accounts will be reactivated by request: users should contact the admins (address above) from the email address associated with the account.

What If I Want My Project To Be Truly Open Source?

If you'd like your project to be open for contributions from anyone, e.g. for users to file bug reports, create issues, submit fixes and new code/content, you may want to migrate to a more globally-accessible platform. GitLab.com and GitHub are popular platforms accessible in most parts of the world, with identical/similar features and interfaces, which will allow your project to be truly open source.

Can External Users Also Access The EMBL Mattermost Chat?

No. Although logins to chat.embl.org are handled by the EMBL Bio-IT GitLab, connection requests from outside EMBL (i.e. offsite, without VPN connection) must be authenticated against EMBL's internal user database. This means that external GitLab users can't access the chat.

This restriction is deliberate: we can't distinguish between internal and external logins to the Mattermost chat, and the EMBL Git Admins don't want to allow external users to view all EMBL-internal conversations that take place across channels.

I've Reached My Project Limit. Can The Limit Be Increased?

By default, internal users are given a limit of twenty projects. If you would like to discuss increasing your project limit, please contact the admins by the address above.