Customize the Help and sign-in page messages

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

In large organizations, it is useful to have information about who to contact or where to go for help. You can customize and display this information on the GitLab /help page and on the GitLab sign-in page.

Add a help message to the Help page

You can add a help message, which is shown at the top of the GitLab /help page (for example, https://gitlab.com/help):

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Sign-in and Help page.
4. In Additional text to show on the Help page, enter the information you want to display on /help.
5. Select Save changes.

You can now see the message on /help.

NOTE: By default, /help is visible to unauthenticated users. However, if the Public visibility level is restricted, /help is visible only to authenticated users.

Add a help message to the sign-in page

You can add a help message, which is shown on the GitLab sign-in page. The message appears on the sign-in page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Sign-in and Help page.
4. In Additional text to show on the sign-in page, enter the information you want to display on the sign-in page.
5. Select Save changes.

You can now see the message on the sign-in page.

Hide marketing-related entries from the Help page

GitLab marketing-related entries are occasionally shown on the Help page. To hide these entries:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Sign-in and Help page.
4. Select the Hide marketing-related entries from the Help page checkbox.
5. Select Save changes.

Set a custom Support page URL

You can specify a custom URL to which users are directed when they:

• Select Help > Support.
• Select See our website for help on the Help page.

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Sign-in and Help page.
4. In the Support page URL field, enter the URL.
5. Select Save changes.

Redirect /help pages

• Introduced in GitLab 13.5.
• Feature flag help_page_documentation_redirect removed in GitLab 14.4.
• Generally available in GitLab 14.4.

You can redirect all /help links to a destination that meets the necessary requirements.

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin Area.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Sign-in and Help page.
4. In the Documentation pages URL field, enter the URL.
5. Select Save changes.

If the Documentation pages URL field is empty, the GitLab instance displays a basic version of the documentation sourced from the doc directory of GitLab.

Destination requirements

When redirecting /help, GitLab:

• Redirects requests to the specified URL.
• Appends ee and the documentation path, which includes the version number, to the URL.
• Appends .html to the URL, and removes .md if necessary.

For example, if the URL is set to https://docs.gitlab.com, requests for /help/administration/settings/help_page.md redirect to: https://docs.gitlab.com/${VERSION}/ee/administration/settings/help_page.html.