Autocomplete characters

The autocomplete characters provide a quick way of entering field values into Markdown fields. When you start typing a word in a Markdown field with one of the following characters, GitLab progressively autocompletes against a set of matching values. The string matching is not case sensitive.

Character Autocompletes
~ Labels
% Milestones
@ Users and groups
# Issues
! Merge requests
& Epics
$ Snippets
: Emoji
/ Quick Actions

Up to 5 of the most relevant matches are displayed in a popup list. When you select an item from the list, the value is entered in the field. The more characters you enter, the more precise the matches are.

Autocomplete characters are useful when combined with Quick Actions.

Example

Assume your GitLab instance includes the following users:

Username Name
alessandra Rosy Grant
lawrence.white Kelsey Kerluke
leanna Rosemarie Rogahn
logan_gutkowski Lee Wuckert
shelba Josefine Haley

In an Issue comment, entering @l results in the following popup list appearing. Note that user shelba is not included, because the list includes only the 5 users most relevant to the Issue.

Popup list which includes users whose username or name contains the letter

If you continue to type, @le, the popup list changes to the following. The popup now only includes users where le appears in their username, or a word in their name.

Popup list which includes users whose username or name contains the string