group_id = gl.groups.list(search=namespace)[0].id
    project = gl.projects.create(
        {
            'name': project_name,
            'path': repo_name,
            'namespace_id': group_id,
            'default_branch': 'master',
        }
    )

gitlab project create --name myproj --path myrepo --namespace-id GROUP_ID --default-branch master

def gitlab_project_repo_setup_content(project):
    try:
        project.files.get('README.md', ref='main')
    except GitlabGetError:
        print('Creating file in repo')
        project.files.create(
            {
                'file_path': 'README.md',
                'branch': 'main',
                'content': '# Placeholder file',
                'commit_message': 'Add README to initialize repository',
            }
        )

def gitlab_project_set_default_branch(project):
    """
    Workaround for gitlab default branch can only be changed after there is content added:
    if you set default_branch in the project.create(), it gets ignored, ie project.default_branch will
    still be 'main'. Same goes for command line. It appears that there HAS to be at least one
    file in the reop for the default branch to be changed.
    """
    # verify that that readme exists, this will raise exception if not:
    project.files.get('README.md', ref='main')

    project.branches.create({'branch': 'master', 'ref': 'main'})
    project.default_branch = 'master'
    project.save()

    project.protectedbranches.create({'name': 'master'})
    project.protectedbranches.delete('main')
    project.branches.delete('main')