diff --git a/src/Composer/IO/BaseIO.php b/src/Composer/IO/BaseIO.php
index 8d684833e..1b6b0e94e 100644
--- a/src/Composer/IO/BaseIO.php
+++ b/src/Composer/IO/BaseIO.php
@@ -69,6 +69,12 @@ abstract class BaseIO implements IOInterface
             }
         }
 
+        if ($tokens = $config->get('gitlab-tokens')) {
+            foreach ($tokens as $domain => $token) {
+                $this->setAuthentication($domain, $token, 'gitlab-private-token');
+            }
+        }
+
         // reload http basic credentials from config if available
         if ($creds = $config->get('http-basic')) {
             foreach ($creds as $domain => $cred) {
diff --git a/src/Composer/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriver.php b/src/Composer/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriver.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42d11287b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Composer/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriver.php
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Composer\Repository\Vcs;
+
+use Composer\Config;
+use Composer\Cache;
+use Composer\IO\IOInterface;
+use Composer\Json\JsonFile;
+use Composer\Downloader\TransportException;
+
+/**
+ * Simplistic driver for GitLab currently only supports the api, not local checkouts.
+ */
+class GitLabDriver extends VcsDriver
+{
+    protected $owner;
+    protected $repository;
+    protected $originUrl;
+    protected $cache;
+    protected $rootIdentifier;
+    protected $infoCache = array();
+
+    /**
+     * Extracts information from the repository url.
+     *
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function initialize()
+    {
+        preg_match('#^(?:(?:https?|git)://([^/]+)/|git@([^:]+):)([^/]+)/(.+?)(?:\.git|/)?$#', $this->url, $match);
+
+        $this->owner        = $match[3];
+        $this->repository   = $match[4];
+        $this->originUrl    = !empty($match[1]) ? $match[1] : $match[2];
+        $this->cache        = new Cache($this->io, $this->config->get('cache-repo-dir').'/'.$this->originUrl.'/'.$this->owner.'/'.$this->repository);
+
+        $this->fetchRootIdentifier();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Fetches the composer.json file from the project by a identifier.
+     *
+     * if specific keys arent present it will try and infer them by default values.
+     *
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getComposerInformation($identifier)
+    {
+        if (isset($this->infoCache[$identifier])) {
+            return $this->infoCache[$identifier];
+        }
+
+        if (preg_match('{[a-f0-9]{40}}i', $identifier) && $res = $this->cache->read($identifier)) {
+            return $this->infoCache[$identifier] = JsonFile::parseJson($res, $res);
+        }
+
+        $composer = $this->fetchComposerFile($identifier);
+
+        if (empty($composer['content']) || $composer['encoding'] !== 'base64' || !($composer = base64_decode($composer['content']))) {
+            throw new \RuntimeException('Could not retrieve composer.json from GitLab#'.$identifier);
+        }
+
+        $composer = JsonFile::parseJson($composer);
+
+        if (!isset($composer['time'])) {
+            $resource = $this->getApiUrl().'/repository/commits/'.urlencode($identifier);
+            $commit = JsonFile::parseJson($this->getContents($resource), $resource);
+
+            $composer['time'] = $commit['committed_date'];
+        }
+
+        if (preg_match('{[a-f0-9]{40}}i', $identifier)) {
+            $this->cache->write($identifier, json_encode($composer));
+        }
+
+        $this->infoCache[$identifier] = $composer;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function hasComposerFile($identifier)
+    {
+        try {
+            $this->fetchComposerFile($identifier);
+
+            return true;
+        } catch (TransportException $e) {
+            if ($e->getCode() !== 404) {
+                throw $e;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getRepositoryUrl()
+    {
+        return 'https://'.$this->originUrl.'/'.$this->owner.'/'.$this->repository;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getUrl()
+    {
+        return $this->getRepositoryUrl() . '.git';
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getDist($identifier)
+    {
+        $url = $this->getApiUrl().'/repository/archive?sha='.$identifier;
+
+        return array('type' => 'zip', 'url' => $url, 'reference' => $identifier, 'shasum' => '');
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getSource($identifier)
+    {
+        return array('type' => 'git', 'url' => $this->getUrl(), 'reference' => $identifier);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getRootIdentifier()
+    {
+        return $this->rootIdentifier;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getBranches()
+    {
+        return $this->getReferences('branches');
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public function getTags()
+    {
+        return $this->getReferences('tags');
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Fetches composer.json file from the repository through api
+     *
+     * @param string $identifier
+     * @return array
+     */
+    protected function fetchComposerFile($identifier)
+    {
+        $resource = $this->getApiUrl() . '/repository/files?file_path=composer.json&ref='.$identifier;
+
+        return JsonFile::parseJson($this->getContents($resource), $resource);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Root url
+     *
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    protected function getApiUrl()
+    {
+        // this needs to be https, but our install is running http
+        return 'http://'.$this->originUrl.'/api/v3/projects/'.$this->owner.'%2F'.$this->repository;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param string $type
+     * @return string[] where keys are named references like tags or branches and the value a sha
+     */
+    protected function getReferences($type)
+    {
+        $resource = $this->getApiUrl().'/repository/'.$type;
+
+        $data = JsonFile::parseJson($this->getContents($resource), $resource);
+
+        $references = array();
+
+        foreach ($data as $datum) {
+            $references[$datum['name']] = $datum['commit']['id'];
+        }
+
+        return $references;
+    }
+
+    protected function fetchRootIdentifier()
+    {
+        // we need to fetch the default branch from the api
+        $resource = $this->getApiUrl();
+
+        $project = JsonFile::parseJson($this->getContents($resource), $resource);
+
+        $this->rootIdentifier = $project['default_branch'];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Uses the config `gitlab-domains` to see if the driver supports the url for the 
+     * repository given.
+     *
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    public static function supports(IOInterface $io, Config $config, $url, $deep = false)
+    {
+        if (!preg_match('#^((?:https?|git)://([^/]+)/|git@([^:]+):)([^/]+)/(.+?)(?:\.git|/)?$#', $url, $matches)) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        $originUrl = empty($matches[2]) ? $matches[3] : $matches[2];
+
+        if (!in_array($originUrl, (array) $config->get('gitlab-domains'))) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (!extension_loaded('openssl')) {
+            if ($io->isVerbose()) {
+                $io->write('Skipping GitLab driver for '.$url.' because the OpenSSL PHP extension is missing.');
+            }
+
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        return true;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Composer/Repository/VcsRepository.php b/src/Composer/Repository/VcsRepository.php
index 034260d0c..b6461e436 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Repository/VcsRepository.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Repository/VcsRepository.php
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class VcsRepository extends ArrayRepository
     {
         $this->drivers = $drivers ?: array(
             'github'        => 'Composer\Repository\Vcs\GitHubDriver',
+            'gitlab'        => 'Composer\Repository\Vcs\GitLabDriver',
             'git-bitbucket' => 'Composer\Repository\Vcs\GitBitbucketDriver',
             'git'           => 'Composer\Repository\Vcs\GitDriver',
             'hg-bitbucket'  => 'Composer\Repository\Vcs\HgBitbucketDriver',
diff --git a/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php b/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
index 9e6b50d74..78a2df45e 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Util/RemoteFilesystem.php
@@ -148,10 +148,17 @@ class RemoteFilesystem
         if ($this->io->isDebug()) {
             $this->io->writeError((substr($fileUrl, 0, 4) === 'http' ? 'Downloading ' : 'Reading ') . $fileUrl);
         }
+
         if (isset($options['github-token'])) {
             $fileUrl .= (false === strpos($fileUrl, '?') ? '?' : '&') . 'access_token='.$options['github-token'];
             unset($options['github-token']);
         }
+
+        if (isset($options['gitlab-token'])) {
+            $fileUrl .= (false === strpos($fileUrl, '?') ? '?' : '&') . 'private_token='.$options['gitlab-token'];
+            unset($options['gitlab-token']);
+        }
+
         if (isset($options['http'])) {
             $options['http']['ignore_errors'] = true;
         }
@@ -410,7 +417,9 @@ class RemoteFilesystem
             $auth = $this->io->getAuthentication($originUrl);
             if ('github.com' === $originUrl && 'x-oauth-basic' === $auth['password']) {
                 $options['github-token'] = $auth['username'];
-            } else {
+            } elseif ($auth['password'] === 'gitlab-private-token') {
+                $options['gitlab-token'] = $auth['username'];
+            }else {
                 $authStr = base64_encode($auth['username'] . ':' . $auth['password']);
                 $headers[] = 'Authorization: Basic '.$authStr;
             }
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriverTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriverTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..96c809358
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Repository/Vcs/GitLabDriverTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of Composer.
+ *
+ * (c) Nils Adermann <naderman@naderman.de>
+ *     Jordi Boggiano <j.boggiano@seld.be>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Composer\Test\Repository\Vcs;
+
+use Composer\Downloader\TransportException;
+use Composer\Repository\Vcs\GitLabDriver;
+use Composer\Util\Filesystem;
+use Composer\Config;
+
+class GitLabDriverTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
+{
+    public function setUp()
+    {
+        $this->config = new Config;
+
+        $this->io = $this->getMock('Composer\IO\IOInterface');
+
+        $this->process = $this->getMock('Composer\Util\ProcessExecutor');
+
+    }
+
+    public function testInterfaceIsComplete()
+    {
+        $remoteFilesystem = $this->getMockBuilder('Composer\Util\RemoteFilesystem')
+            ->setConstructorArgs(array($this->io))
+            ->getMock();
+
+        $driver  = new GitLabDriver(array('url' => 'http://google.com'), $this->io, $this->config, $this->process, $remoteFilesystem);
+    }
+}