Let’s Congregate!
Is it time to say goodbye to AWS CodeCommit and start your migration journey to GitLab? Get in touch today to find out how we can work together and make it happen.
How to migrate from AWS CodeCommit to Congregate
Share on socials
How to migrate from AWS CodeCommit to Congregate
Jan Rockemann
4 April 2025
11 min read
Jan Rockemann
4 April 2025
11 min read
AWS CodeCommit support ends in July 2025. Congregate eases migration to GitLab. We highlight its benefits, our role, and key steps for transition.
With no new features and no support from July 2025, AWS CodeCommit is no longer a viable option for source code management (SCM). Luckily, Congregate makes migrating to GitLab a breeze, no matter how large or complex your repositories are.
Here, we explain what Congregate does, why it's useful, and how we helped develop the AWS CodeCommit migration feature. We also walk you through the key steps of migration so you can start preparing for your big move.
What is Congregate?
Large-scale migrations were a common theme for GitLab when onboarding new clients. To streamline the process, the organisation built a utility to automate migration – Congregate – which has been source-available since 2021.
Congregate can move your data and metadata from different SCM and continuous integration (CI) systems into GitLab. This automation wrapper gathers data from your systems, transforms and down-selects it to prepare for migration. Then it migrates the data into your destination GitLab instance.
It uses all of GitLab's published APIs but is optimised for performance to reduce the time it takes to gather and push your data. There's also a standard logging format included to support your migration audit trail.
Why is it useful?
Some smaller businesses might not require the benefits of Congregate. They can use GitLab’s import functionality to migrate themselves. But when you’re trying to migrate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of source code repositories and users to GitLab, it makes a real difference. It also means channel services partners, like Adaptavist, can leverage Congregate functionality to help our customers move their data too.
Here are the key benefits of using Congregate to migrate from your existing SCM or CI system to GitLab:
- Automates your migration – saves you time and resources by automating your migration process from tools like AWS CodeCommit, GitHub, or Bitbucket. Get to GitLab faster without the risk of human error.
- Designed for scalability – Congregate was designed with large-scale migrations in mind, which makes it ideal for complex customer environments where efficient data transfer is paramount.
- Preserves your data – ensures your crucial data, like user accounts, groups, projects, and all their associated pull requests, are migrated accurately.
- Controlled, standardised, and flexible – because Congregate leverages GitLab APIs, it can interact seamlessly with your new GitLab instances, making migrations more stable and by the book. It also supports various migration directions.
- Gets more out of GitLab – because it was built by GitLab, Congregate can migrate features that standard importers can’t.
AWS CodeCommit is coming to an end
Last summer, AWS announced that "after careful consideration, we have made the decision to close new customer access to AWS CodeCommit, effective July 25, 2024." No explicit reasons were given for the decision. And while existing customers can continue to use the service, AWS stated there were no plans to introduce new features or provide support.
CodeCommit has been a core part of the organisation's developer tool suite since 2015. So, the announcement has significant implications for customers who have come to rely on it for their source control needs – and you may be among them. AWS has provided guidance on migration to other providers, which is what most organisations are doing, with GitLab being a top choice for many.
How Adaptavist has contributed to Congregate
Because GitLab made Congregate source available, partners like Adaptavist have been able to modify the software and add new features. We’re proud to have been a part of making Congregate even more useful with the development of a feature that lets customers migrate data from AWS CodeCommit to GitLab. It's proven especially critical since the sunsetting announcement from AWS. And we'll continue to keep the code maintained based on customer needs until CodeCommit is formally read-only.
How it works: Replacing AWS CodeCommit with GitLab
If you’re looking to make the move from AWS CodeCommit to GitLab, Congregate is your new best friend. Here are the high-level steps you’ll need to take to make GitLab your new SCM home.
- The first thing you need to do is set up Congregate. You’ll find all the quick-start steps here.
- Then, you need to set up credentials to the source and target within the Congregate config file or by using the tool's interactive mode.
- Next, run the "list” command to pull metadata from the source system/s to show what's available and prepare it for the" next steps in migration. This requires the following credentials to be successful:
- CodeCommit username and password; AWS access key ID, secret access key, and session token with read rights to the CodeCommit resources.
- You will also need an API scope token for the target GitLab instance.
This step can take time, based on the amount of data in your source system.
- With your list run and all your data on the local file system, you can run the "stage" command. Choose which users, projects, and groups you're going to migrate. There are a few different ways to stage: by projects, by groups, or in waves.
- The last step is migration—initiating the data imports on GitLab based on the staged information. Use the "migrate" command to dry-run the log output to see what projects and groups will be migrated and to where. When you're happy, use "migrate—-commit" to run the migration for real.
What’s next?
The AWS announcement has prompted development teams that have been relying on CodeCommit for years to consider migrating to alternative Git providers, including GitLab. As outlined by AWS, several migration methods are available, including cloning your repository, mirroring, and migrating specific branches. It's worth doing the work ahead of the July deadline to find an alternative that meets your source-control needs. Then, it's a case of migrating solo or working with a partner to make migration as smooth as possible.
At Adaptavist, we know there's still work to do to maximise migration—from pull request comments to user structure mapping. We recognise that every organisation's CodeCommit structure is different, which is why we work with our customers to create a bespoke migration strategy based on their users and groups.
Partnership with Gitlab
If you’re an AWS CodeCommit user and need support to migrate to GitLab, we can help. No matter the size of your organisation or your vertical, if you’re using GitLab Premium or Ultimate on SaaS or Self-Hosted, our Congregate solution ensures you can keep hold of your valuable repository metadata.
As a GitLab Select and Professional Services partner, we have the expertise and experience to deliver end-to-end DevOps services for SCM as well as CI/CD, security, and AI. We can help you make a smooth transition from CodeCommit to GitLab, enhancing your workflows along the way.
Why contributing to Congregate is a win-win
Congregate is designed to handle some of the largest, most complex migrations to GitLab. By being part of its development, we've created significant time and resource savings for organisations wanting to move from AWS CodeCommit to GitLab. Thanks to our input and over 3,000 contributions from the wider community, GitLab is able to reach a larger quantity of customers and offer a higher-quality migration service.
Contributing to Congregate has not only meant we've participated in the development of a valuable tool and the growth of the GitLab community, but it's also provided us with valuable experience in migration processes, API interactions, and GitLab infrastructure, enhancing the expertise of our teams.
Written by
Senior DevOps Consultant
Jan is a systems builder with extensive experience across various IT disciplines and industries. As a solutions architect focusing on DevSecOps and cloud systems, at Adaptavist he enjoys guiding customers on their digital transformation journey.