GitLab
GitLab email integration
ForwardThis files what arrives by email into GitLab, as an issue on the project from your instructions or a comment on a merge request, and it can tell you whether a pipeline passed.
Setup in 30 seconds.
How it works
Connect GitLab
Create a free account and connect GitLab. It takes about 30 seconds, and you only do it once.
Forward an email
Forward any email to your ForwardThis address along with your instructions. One email can ask for several things at once.
Done.
ForwardThis replies when it's done, with a short summary and links to what it made. GitLab has no way to take these back, so anything that cannot be reversed is shown to you first.
Just forward it
to do@forwardthis.io
Fwd: Statement export times out on large accounts
Open an issue in kestrelbank/platform, label it bug, attach the trace, and tell me if the last pipeline on main passed.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Two of our bigger clients can't download their August statements at all - the page just spins and then errors. Smaller accounts are fine.
export-timeout.har1.2 MB
Opened kestrelbank/platform#284
Statement export times out on large accounts · bug · export-timeout.har attached
Latest pipeline on main
#98214 passed, 22 minutes ago
ForwardThis checks with you before it opens or comments. It cannot be undone afterwards.
Some other examples
- “Comment on kestrelbank/platform!212 asking them to rebase on main.”
- “Which merge requests in kestrelbank/platform are waiting on me to review?”
- “Close kestrelbank/platform#199 and set #284's milestone to 14.2.”
Everything ForwardThis can do in GitLab
Create task
Open an issue
Update task
Close, reopen or edit an issue
Change tags
Change an issue's labels
Add note
Comment on an issue or merge request
Attach file
Attach a file to an issue or merge request
Look up tasks
Look up issues
Look up records
Look up merge requests, pipelines, commits, releases or your to-dos
Add CRM record
Open a merge request
Update CRM record
Close, reopen or edit a merge request
Read a record
Read an issue or merge request in full
Try it with a real email.
Forward any email to the address below to see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.
Occasional product emails may follow.
Why you need ForwardThis
Email is messy, every message asking for something different. It means constantly leaving your inbox and juggling tabs. ForwardThis skips all of that: forward an email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Compatible with every email provider, and it works across the apps you’re already using.
Questions
- How does the GitLab email integration work?
- GitLab is where ForwardThis can read your pipelines as well as file the bug: the same forward that opens an issue can tell you whether the last pipeline on main passed, and it will never start, retry or play a pipeline itself. The issue lands in the project from your instructions with labels, a due date, an assignee and the email's attachment, and since only a project owner can delete a GitLab issue, the project, title and labels are shown to you before anything is opened. Forward the email to your ForwardThis address with a simple instruction, like "open an issue in kestrelbank/platform and label it bug", say yes, and the reply carries the link and the number. The first time, you'll need a free account with GitLab connected, which takes about 30 seconds, and that's the entire GitLab email integration. Creating a GitLab issue from an email has a page of its own.
- Can it work on merge requests too?
- Yes, up to a point. It can list the open merge requests in a project, pull out the ones where you're the reviewer, read one in full with its latest comments, comment on it, and change its labels. Telling someone to rebase is one of the most ordinary things you do from your inbox, so it belongs here. Approving and merging do not: it never approves a merge request and never merges one.
- Can it tell me whether the build passed?
- Yes. Ask about a project's pipelines and you get the status back by email, along with commits and releases if you want them. Reading a pipeline triggers nothing. It will never start a pipeline, play a job or retry one, whatever an email asks for, because running code from a forwarded email is the one line it does not cross.
- Is there an undo if it opens the wrong issue?
- No, and that's the reason it asks first. Only a project owner can delete a GitLab issue, and most people connect as a maintainer or developer, so an undo button here would work for some people and fail for others. Rather than promise one that breaks, everything it does in GitLab is shown to you before it happens, with the real project and the real issue named, and you can stop it there. A comment you posted can still be deleted by you in GitLab itself.
- How is this different from GitLab's Service Desk, or Zapier?
- Service Desk gives one project its own email address and turns whatever arrives into an issue in a fixed shape, which is right for customer reports and no use for the rest of your inbox. Zapier can do more, but you build a rule for each case first and it works best when the same email turns up the same way every time. ForwardThis uses one address for everything and reads your instructions, so this email opens a labelled bug in one project and the next one comments on a merge request in another. What it will never do is run CI, merge a branch, commit code, or touch project settings, members or permissions.