Reply by email

GitLab can be set up to allow users to comment on issues and merge requests by replying to notification emails.

Requirement

Make sure incoming email is set up.

How it works?

1. GitLab sends a notification email

When GitLab sends a notification and Reply by email is enabled, the Reply-To header is set to the address defined in your GitLab configuration, with the %{key} placeholder (if present) replaced by a specific “reply key”. In addition, this “reply key” is also added to the References header.

2. You reply to the notification email

When you reply to the notification email, your email client will:

  • send the email to the Reply-To address it got from the notification email
  • set the In-Reply-To header to the value of the Message-ID header from the notification email
  • set the References header to the value of the Message-ID plus the value of the notification email’s References header.

3. GitLab receives your reply to the notification email

When GitLab receives your reply, it will look for the “reply key” in the following headers, in this order:

  1. the To header
  2. the References header

If it finds a reply key, it will be able to leave your reply as a comment on the entity the notification was about (issue, merge request, commit…).

For more details about the Message-ID, In-Reply-To, and References headers, please consult RFC 5322.