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# Members of a project

You can manage the groups and users and their access levels in all of your
projects. You can also personalize the access level you give each user,
per-project.

You should have Maintainer or Owner [permissions](../../permissions.md) to add
or import a new user to your project.

To view, edit, add, and remove project's members, go to your
project's **Members**.

## Inherited membership

When your project belongs to the group, group members inherit the membership and permission
level for the project from the group.

![Project members page](img/project_members.png)

From the image above, we can deduce the following things:

- There are 3 members that have access to the project.
- User0 is a Reporter and has inherited their permissions from group `demo`
  which contains current project.
- For User1 there is no indication of a group, therefore they belong directly
  to the project we're inspecting.
- Administrator is the Owner and member of **all** groups and for that reason,
  there is an indication of an ancestor group and inherited Owner permissions.

[From GitLab 12.6](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/21727), you can filter this list
using the dropdown on the right side:

![Project members filter](img/project_members_filter_v12_6.png)

- **Show only direct members** displays only User1.
- **Show only inherited members** displays User0 and Administrator.

## Add a user

Right next to **People**, start typing the name or username of the user you
want to add.

![Search for people](img/add_user_search_people.png)

Select the user and the [permission level](../../permissions.md)
that you'd like to give the user. Note that you can select more than one user.

![Give user permissions](img/add_user_give_permissions.png)

Once done, select **Add users to project** and they are immediately added to
your project with the permissions you gave them above.

![List members](img/add_user_list_members.png)

From there on, you can either remove an existing user or change their access
level to the project.

## Import users from another project

You can import another project's users in your own project by hitting the
**Import members** button on the upper right corner of the **Members** menu.

In the dropdown menu, you can see only the projects you are Maintainer on.

![Import members from another project](img/add_user_import_members_from_another_project.png)

Select the one you want and hit **Import project members**. A flash message
displays, notifying you that the import was successful, and the new members
are now in the project's members list. Notice that the permissions that they
had on the project you imported from are retained.

![Members list of new members](img/add_user_imported_members.png)

## Invite people using their e-mail address

If a user you want to give access to doesn't have an account on your GitLab
instance, you can invite them just by typing their e-mail address in the
user search field.

![Invite user by mail](img/add_user_email_search.png)

As you can imagine, you can mix inviting multiple people and adding existing
GitLab users to the project.

![Invite user by mail ready to submit](img/add_user_email_ready.png)

Once done, hit **Add users to project** and watch that there is a new member
with the e-mail address we used above. From there on, you can resend the
invitation, change their access level, or even delete them.

![Invite user members list](img/add_user_email_accept.png)

While unaccepted, the system automatically sends reminder emails on the second, fifth,
and tenth day after the invitation was initially sent.

After the user accepts the invitation, they are prompted to create a new
GitLab account using the same e-mail address the invitation was sent to.

NOTE:
Unaccepted invites are automatically deleted after 90 days.

## Project membership and requesting access

Project owners can :

- Allow non-members to request access to the project.
- Prevent non-members from requesting access.

To configure this, go to the project settings and click on **Allow users to request access**.

GitLab users can request to become a member of a project. Go to the project you'd
like to be a member of and click the **Request Access** button on the right
side of your screen.

![Request access button](img/request_access_button.png)

After access is requested:

- Up to ten project maintainers are notified of the request via email.
  Email is sent to the most recently active project maintainers.
- Any project maintainer can approve or decline the request on the members page.

NOTE:
If a project does not have any maintainers, the notification is sent to the
most recently active owners of the project's group.

![Manage access requests](img/access_requests_management.png)

If you change your mind before your request is approved, just click the
**Withdraw Access Request** button.

![Withdraw access request button](img/withdraw_access_request_button.png)

## Share project with group

Alternatively, you can [share a project with an entire group](share_project_with_groups.md) instead of adding users one by one.

## Remove a member from the project

Only users with permissions of [Owner](../../permissions.md#group-members-permissions) can manage
project members.

You can remove a user from the project if the given member has a direct membership in the project.
If membership is inherited from a parent group, then the member can be removed only from the parent
group itself.

When removing a member, you can decide whether to unassign the user from all issues and merge
requests they are currently assigned or leave the assignments as they are.

- **Unassigning the removed member** from all issues and merge requests might be helpful when a user
  is leaving a private project and you wish to revoke their access to any issues and merge requests
  they are assigned.
- **Keeping the issues and merge requests assigned** might be helpful for projects that accept public
  contributions where a user doesn't have to be a member to be able to contribute to issues and
  merge requests.

To remove a member from a project:

1. In a project, go to **{users}** **Members**.
1. Click the **Delete** **{remove}** button next to a project member you want to remove.
   A **Remove member** modal appears.
1. (Optional) Select the **Also unassign this user from related issues and merge requests** checkbox.
1. Click **Remove member**.
