Terminology

The following are common terms you will find throughout GitLab. For clear and consistent communication, it is important to use the correct terms.

Nouns

Projects & Groups

Project

A project is where you house your files (repository), plan your work (issues), and publish your documentation (wiki).

Group

Groups allow you to assemble related projects together and grant members access to several projects at once. Groups can also be nested in subgroups.

Members

Use the term members when discussing the people who are a part of a project or a group. Don't use the term users.

Roles

Users have different abilities depending on the access level they have in a particular group or project. These permission levels are defined under a set of roles. These roles include administrator, owner, master, developer, reporter, and guest.

Comments & Discussions

Comment

A comment is a written piece of text that users of GitLab can create. Comments have author and timestamp meta data. Comments can be added in a variety of contexts, such as issues, merge requests, and discussions.

Discussion

A discussion is a group of 1 or more comments. A discussion can include subdiscussions. Some discussions have the special capability of being able to be resolved. Both the comments in the discussion and the discussion itself can be resolved.

Issues & Merge Requests

Issues

Issues can have endless applications. They allow you, your team, and your collaborators to share and discuss proposals before and while implementing them.

Merge Requests

Merge requests allow you to exchange changes you made to source code and collaborate with other people on the same project.

Milestones

Milestones in GitLab are a way to track issues and merge requests created to achieve a broader goal in a certain period of time. Milestones allow you to organize issues and merge requests into a cohesive group, with an optional start date and an optional due date.

Activity

Activity refers to any action taken by a user that results in the creation of a system note. Commenting, resolving/opening an issue, resolving/opening a merge request, and creating/deleting a branch are all considered to be an activity.

Verbs and Adjectives

When using verbs or adjectives:

If the context clearly refers to the object, use them alone.

Example: Edit or Closed

If the context isn’t clear enough, use them with the object.

Example: Edit issue or Closed issues

Destruction buttons should be clear and always say what they are destroying.

Example: Delete page instead of just Delete

Todo: Add comprehensive list of terminology Do/Don't