Security categories

A security category groups the security attributes of a namespace and decides whether more than one of them can be applied to the same group or project. These actions create, update and delete categories. Deleting a category deletes its attributes too.

Sample questions

• “Create a security category named Business impact”
• “Rename security category 7”
• “Delete a custom security category and its attributes”

How to call it

• Dynamic, the default surface: call gitlab_execute_action with action set to the action’s ID, such as security_category.create, and its parameters in params. gitlab_find_action finds an ID from a description of the task.
• Meta (GITLAB_MCP_TOOL_SURFACE=meta): call gitlab_security_category with action set to the action’s name, such as create, and its parameters in params.
• Individual (GITLAB_MCP_TOOL_SURFACE=individual): call the action’s own tool, such as gitlab_create_security_category, with its parameters as the arguments.

Availability

How many of these actions an instance serves at each tier, out of a total of 3:

• Free: 0
• Premium: 0
• Ultimate: 3

Read-only actions: 0 of 3, the ones a deployment in read-only mode keeps. A token with read_api and not api is served 0 of the 3.

Actions

The description of each action, and of each of its parameters, is the text the server serves for it on the default surface, quoted as served. The token lines say what GitLab 19.4.1 requires of a token for the requests each action sends; on an instance with Admin Mode turned on, an action only an administrator may run also needs admin_mode. A destructive action runs only once confirmed, unless GITLAB_MCP_YOLO_MODE (or AUTOPILOT) skips that step: the dynamic surface needs confirm: true on gitlab_execute_action, and the other two take a confirm parameter or the client’s prompt (Destructive actions).

Action	Individual
security_category.create	gitlab_create_security_category
security_category.delete	gitlab_delete_security_category
security_category.update	gitlab_update_security_category

security_category.create

Create a GitLab security category in a namespace via GraphQL. Requires Premium or Ultimate. Returns: created security category. See also: security_attribute.create, group.get, project.get. API docs: https://docs.gitlab.com/api/graphql/reference/#mutationsecuritycategorycreate

• Meta-tool: gitlab_security_category, action create
• Individual tool: gitlab_create_security_category
• Tier: Ultimate
• Classic or OAuth token: api
• Fine-grained token: Not reachable at this release: GitLab declares no fine-grained permission for SecurityCategory in the answer, so the write commits and its answer is lost (permissions page)
• Behavior: writes, not idempotent

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
name	string	yes	Security category name
namespace_id	integer	yes	Numeric namespace ID
description	string	no	Security category description
multiple_selection	boolean	no	Whether multiple attributes can be selected for the category

security_category.delete

Delete a GitLab security category and its associated security attributes via GraphQL. Requires Premium or Ultimate. Returns: deletion confirmation and the IDs of the security attributes deleted with the category. See also: security_attribute.create, group.get, project.get. API docs: https://docs.gitlab.com/api/graphql/reference/#mutationsecuritycategorydestroy

• Meta-tool: gitlab_security_category, action delete
• Individual tool: gitlab_delete_security_category
• Tier: Ultimate
• Classic or OAuth token: api
• Fine-grained token: Security Attribute: Delete at group (permissions page)
• Behavior: writes, destructive (needs confirmation), idempotent

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
category_id	integer	yes	Numeric security category ID

security_category.update

Update a GitLab security category name or description via GraphQL. Requires Premium or Ultimate. Returns: updated security category. See also: security_attribute.create, group.get, project.get. API docs: https://docs.gitlab.com/api/graphql/reference/#mutationsecuritycategoryupdate

• Meta-tool: gitlab_security_category, action update
• Individual tool: gitlab_update_security_category
• Tier: Ultimate
• Classic or OAuth token: api
• Fine-grained token: Not reachable at this release: GitLab declares no fine-grained permission for SecurityCategory in the answer, so the write commits and its answer is lost (permissions page)
• Behavior: writes, idempotent

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
category_id	integer	yes	Numeric security category ID
namespace_id	integer	yes	Numeric namespace ID
description	string	no	New security category description
name	string	no	New security category name

Also needs at least one of: name; description.