Sharing via gitlab://

TL;DR
Add gitlab:// in front of any raw-file URL that refuses to load in LiaScript.
We’ll translate it into a GitLab API v4 request behind the scenes, bypassing CORS for you.

LiaScript has a built-in URL-translation engine that lets you embed external resources—even when browsers would normally block them because of CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) limitations. The most common stumbling block is self-hosted GitLab, so let’s start there.

What api/v4 Means in GitLab

/api/v4/ is the root of GitLab’s REST API version 4—the current, stable API that’s been in place since GitLab 9.0 (2017).
Every stable GitLab release ships this endpoint, and all official docs and examples assume v4 unless noted otherwise. In practice, the path signals three things:

1. Versioning: Using v4 lets GitLab evolve its API without breaking older clients; if a future v5 appears, your v4 calls will still work.
2. REST semantics: Endpoints map cleanly to resources such as projects, repository files, issues, etc.
3. CORS-friendly headers: The API replies with the right CORS headers, so browsers are allowed to fetch the content.

In short, api/v4 is the safest way to programmatically grab anything from a GitLab server.

GitLab Integration in LiaScript

1. Public GitLab .com

When you paste a normal raw-file link, LiaScript silently rewrites it:

https://gitlab.com/user/repo/-/raw/main/README.md

becomes

https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/user%2Frepo/repository/files/README.md/raw?ref=main

So the file is fetched through the CORS-friendly API instead of the raw file server.

2. Self-Hosted GitLab (or Locked-Down Groups)

Some admins disable CORS entirely. In that case, prepend gitlab:// yourself:

gitlab://git.example.org/user/repo/-/raw/main/README.md

LiaScript detects the scheme, swaps it for an API v4 call, and URL-encodes the project path:

https://git.example.org/api/v4/projects/user%2Frepo/repository/files/README.md/raw?ref=main

That’s all—no extra setup, no browser plugins, no CORS errors.

Other Platforms Supported Out of the Box

The system also handles URLs from:

• GitHub
• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Codeberg
• NextCloud – nextcloud://

Each platform has its own pattern matching and transformation rules to ensure content can be properly embedded in LiaScript courses.