diff --git a/src/lib/api/gitlab.sh b/src/lib/api/gitlab.sh
index 649e205..e5f4237 100644
--- a/src/lib/api/gitlab.sh
+++ b/src/lib/api/gitlab.sh
@@ -81,16 +81,40 @@ gitlab_api_get_user() {
 	return 0
 }
 
+# Convert arbitrary project names to GitLab valid path names.
+#
+# GitLab has several limitations on project and group names and also maintains
+# a list of reserved keywords as documented on their docs.
+# https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/reserved_names.html
+#
+# 1. replace single '+' between word boundaries with '-'
+# 2. replace any other '+' with literal 'plus'
+# 3. replace any special chars other than '_', '-' and '.' with '-'
+# 4. replace consecutive '_-' chars with a single '-'
+# 5. replace 'tree' with 'unix-tree' due to GitLab reserved keyword
+gitlab_project_name_to_path() {
+	local name=$1
+	printf "%s" "${name}" \
+		| sed -E 's/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\+([a-zA-Z]+)/\1-\2/g' \
+		| sed -E 's/\+/plus/g' \
+		| sed -E 's/[^a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]/-/g' \
+		| sed -E 's/[_\-]{2,}/-/g' \
+		| sed -E 's/^tree$/unix-tree/g'
+}
+
 gitlab_api_create_project() {
 	local pkgbase=$1
-	local outfile data path
+	local outfile data path project_path
 
 	[[ -z ${WORKDIR:-} ]] && setup_workdir
 	outfile=$(mktemp --tmpdir="${WORKDIR}" pkgctl-gitlab-api.XXXXXXXXXX)
 
+	project_path=$(gitlab_project_name_to_path "${pkgbase}")
+
 	# create GitLab project
 	data='{
 		"name": "'"${pkgbase}"'",
+		"path": "'"${project_path}"'",
 		"namespace_id": "'"${GIT_PACKAGING_NAMESPACE_ID}"'",
 		"request_access_enabled": "false"
 	}'
diff --git a/src/lib/repo/clone.sh b/src/lib/repo/clone.sh
index 4b26fcf..dee4870 100644
--- a/src/lib/repo/clone.sh
+++ b/src/lib/repo/clone.sh
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ pkgctl_repo_clone() {
 	local CONFIGURE_OPTIONS=()
 	local pkgbases
 
+	# variables
+	local project_path
+
 	while (( $# )); do
 		case $1 in
 			-h|--help)
@@ -126,7 +129,8 @@ pkgctl_repo_clone() {
 	for pkgbase in "${pkgbases[@]}"; do
 		if [[ ! -d ${pkgbase} ]]; then
 			msg "Cloning ${pkgbase} ..."
-			remote_url="${GIT_REPO_BASE_URL}/${pkgbase}.git"
+			project_path=$(gitlab_project_name_to_path "${pkgbase}")
+			remote_url="${GIT_REPO_BASE_URL}/${project_path}.git"
 			git clone --origin origin "${remote_url}" "${pkgbase}"
 		else
 			warning "Skip cloning ${pkgbase}: Directory exists"
diff --git a/src/lib/repo/configure.sh b/src/lib/repo/configure.sh
index d6262b7..942876a 100644
--- a/src/lib/repo/configure.sh
+++ b/src/lib/repo/configure.sh
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ pkgctl_repo_configure() {
 	local paths=()
 
 	# variables
-	local path realpath pkgbase remote_url
+	local path realpath pkgbase remote_url project_path
 	local PACKAGER GPGKEY packager_name packager_email
 
 	while (( $# )); do
@@ -174,7 +174,8 @@ pkgctl_repo_configure() {
 
 		pushd "${path}" >/dev/null
 
-		remote_url="${GIT_REPO_BASE_URL}/${pkgbase}.git"
+		project_path=$(gitlab_project_name_to_path "${pkgbase}")
+		remote_url="${GIT_REPO_BASE_URL}/${project_path}.git"
 		if ! git remote add origin "${remote_url}" &>/dev/null; then
 			git remote set-url origin "${remote_url}"
 		fi