In GitLab v2 , discovery calls now use a fixed setting of min_access_level=30 (Developer). Because of this, service or admin tokens cannot access projects unless they are added as members to each group or project. By contrast, In GitLab v1 , the filterOwnedProjects:false flag made it possible to include projects where the token was not an owner or member, using admin or auditor tokens with built-in read permissions. For enterprises managing thousands of projects, this change is not scalable due to: Security and privacy concerns – service accounts would become visible across all groups. Operational overhead – maintaining explicit membership for thousands of projects is not feasible. Proposed Solution : Re-introducing the filterOwnedProjects:false flag (which bypasses min_access_level), OR. Allowing users to configure min_access_level instead of enforcing it at Developer. This would enable users to use admin/auditor tokens without explicit project membership.