Create a single GitLab commit that adds, updates, deletes, moves, or chmods multiple files in one API call, optionally creating a new branch at the same time.

Documented steps

1. Authenticate with a PRIVATE-TOKEN (or OAuth bearer) header carrying api scope write access to the target project.
2. Build a JSON payload with branch (target branch name, e.g. "main"), commit_message, and an actions[] array; each action has action: create|delete|move|update|chmod and file_path (e.g. "foo/bar").
3. For create/update/move actions include content (required for all actions except delete, chmod, and move-without-content-change); set encoding: "base64" for binary content (default encoding is "text").
4. For move actions set previous_path to the file's original path; for chmod actions set execute_filemode: true/false instead of content.
5. To create the branch in the same request, add start_branch (or start_sha, mutually exclusive) alongside branch — GitLab branches from start_branch/start_sha and commits onto the new branch in one call.
6. Send POST https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/:id/repository/commits with the JSON payload; id is the numeric project ID or URL-encoded namespace path (e.g. group%2Fproject).
7. On success GitLab returns 201 Created with the new commit's id, short_id, parent_ids, stats, and web_url.
8. Docs: https://docs.gitlab.com/api/commits/