GitLab Projects Scraper — Repos, Stars, Forks & Activity

Search and export public GitLab projects into clean JSON, CSV, Excel or XML. Pull repository metadata at scale — stars, forks, open issues, topics, default branch, visibility, license and activity dates — by keyword or by exact project path, without clicking through GitLab one project at a time.

Built for developer research, open-source tracking, competitive analysis and data pipelines that need structured GitLab project data in bulk.

What does the GitLab Projects Scraper do?

Give it a search keyword (like kubernetes or terraform) and/or a list of exact project paths (like gitlab-org/gitlab), pick how to order results, and the actor returns one clean row per project:

• Search mode — paginate public projects matching your keyword, ordered by stars, latest activity or creation date.
• Path lookup — fetch specific projects directly by their namespace/project path; each includes license and open-issue counts.

You can use either on its own or combine both in a single run.

What data can you get?

Each project record contains these fields:

Field	Type	Description
id	integer	GitLab's numeric project ID.
name	string	Project name, e.g. GitLab.
pathWithNamespace	string	Full path, e.g. gitlab-org/gitlab.
description	string	The project's short description.
starCount	integer	Number of stars.
forksCount	integer	Number of forks.
openIssuesCount	integer	Count of open issues.
defaultBranch	string	Default branch name, e.g. main or master.
visibility	string	Project visibility — public.
topics	array	List of topic tags on the project.
lastActivityAt	string (ISO date)	Timestamp of the most recent activity.
createdAt	string (ISO date)	When the project was created.
webUrl	string (URL)	Public GitLab URL of the project.
license	string	License identifier, when available.

Use cases

• Open-source research — find and rank the top public projects for a technology or topic.
• Competitive analysis — track stars, forks and activity across a curated set of projects over time.
• Developer intelligence — build lists of active projects in a namespace, language or ecosystem.
• Dashboards & pipelines — feed clean, structured project records into your own analytics or reporting tools.

How to use it

1. Add the GitLab Projects Scraper to your Apify account and open the input form.
2. Enter a Search query (e.g. kubernetes) and/or add exact Project paths (e.g. gitlab-org/gitlab).
3. Choose how to order search results — by stars, last activity or created date.
4. Set Max items to cap the export, then Run.
5. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML, or pull it via the Apify API.

Input

{
  "search": "kubernetes",
  "projectPaths": ["gitlab-org/gitlab"],
  "orderBy": "stars",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Field	Type	Description
search	string	Keyword to search public projects by name and description.
projectPaths	array	Optional list of exact namespace/project paths to fetch directly.
orderBy	string	Sort search results by stars, last_activity_at or created_at.
maxItems	integer	Maximum projects to return (default 100).

Output

{
  "id": 278964,
  "name": "GitLab",
  "pathWithNamespace": "gitlab-org/gitlab",
  "description": "GitLab is the open-source DevSecOps platform ...",
  "starCount": 6127,
  "forksCount": 12347,
  "openIssuesCount": 0,
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "visibility": "public",
  "topics": ["hacktoberfest", "javascript", "ruby", "vue.js"],
  "lastActivityAt": "2026-08-31T02:11:06.860Z",
  "createdAt": "2015-05-20T10:47:11.949Z",
  "webUrl": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab",
  "license": "MIT License"
}

FAQ

What can I search? Any public project on GitLab.com — by keyword, or by exact namespace/project path. Combine both in one run to mix a broad search with specific projects you already know.

How many projects can I get? As many as your search returns. Use Max items to cap a run and keep it cheap.

How does billing work? You pay only per project you get, so small, tightly filtered runs stay inexpensive.

What export formats are supported? JSON, CSV, Excel and XML, plus direct access via the Apify API.

Can I use this with n8n? Yes. Run the GitLab Projects Scraper from n8n with the Apify node — trigger a run, wait for it to finish, and read the dataset items straight into your workflow to enrich records, build dashboards or drive alerts. It also works with Make, Zapier and the Apify API.

Can I connect this to other tools? The GitLab Projects Scraper connects with almost any cloud service or web app through integrations on the Apify platform — Make, Zapier, Slack, Google Drive and many more, plus webhooks to trigger an action whenever a run finishes.

Is this only public data? Yes. It returns only publicly available GitLab project data. You are responsible for compliance with GitLab's terms of use.

Related Actors

Doing developer research or open-source tracking? Combine this with our other developer-data scrapers:

• GitHub Scraper — search repositories and user profiles with stars, topics, license and profile fields.
• npm Package Scraper — search and look up npm packages with metadata, dependencies and downloads.
• PyPI Package Scraper — metadata, dependencies, licenses and downloads for Python packages.
• Docker Hub Scraper — search Docker Hub images with pull counts, stars and tags.

Notes

Original clean-room implementation. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by GitLab B.V.; "GitLab" is a trademark of GitLab B.V. Reads only publicly available project data.