diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index ee69fec..551dcb9 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: staged.dependencies
 Type: Package
 Title: Install R packages from Particular Git Branches
-Version: 0.3.0
+Version: 0.3.0.9001
 Authors@R: c(
   person("Adrian", "Waddell", email = "adrian.waddell@roche.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
   person("Maximilian", "Mordig", email = "maximilian_oliver.mordig@roche.com", role = "aut"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 77ff90e..9ca9f81 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# staged.dependecies 0.3.0.9001
+
+* Enhanced support of subdirectories for gitlab.
+
 # staged.dependecies 0.3.0
 
 * Support subdirectories in configuration.
diff --git a/R/caching.R b/R/caching.R
index 6503761..1a368fd 100644
--- a/R/caching.R
+++ b/R/caching.R
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ get_hashed_repo_to_dir_mapping <- function(local_repos) {
   } else {
     stopifnot(
       is.data.frame(local_repos),
-      setequal(colnames(local_repos), c("repo", "host", "directory"))
+      setequal(colnames(local_repos), c("repo", "host", "subdir", "directory"))
     )
     stats::setNames(local_repos$directory, hash_repo_and_host(local_repos))
   }
@@ -284,20 +284,21 @@ rec_checkout_internal_deps <- function(repos_to_process, ref,
       )
     }
 
-    repo_info$subdir <- parse_git_ref(repo_and_host$repo)$subdir
+    repo_info$subdir <- repo_and_host$subdir
+    repo_info$path <- fs::path_norm(fs::path_join(c(repo_info$dir, repo_info$subdir)))
 
     hashed_new_repos <- c()
     if (repo_info$accessible) {
       if (direction %in% c("upstream", "all")) {
-        hashed_upstream_repos <- lapply(get_yaml_deps_info(fs::path_join(c(repo_info$dir, repo_info$subdir)))$upstream_repos, hash_repo_and_host)
+        hashed_upstream_repos <- lapply(get_yaml_deps_info(repo_info$path)$upstream_repos, hash_repo_and_host)
         hashed_new_repos <- c(hashed_new_repos, hashed_upstream_repos)
       }
       if (direction %in% c("downstream", "all")) {
-        hashed_downstream_repos <- lapply(get_yaml_deps_info(fs::path_join(c(repo_info$dir, repo_info$subdir)))$downstream_repos, hash_repo_and_host)
+        hashed_downstream_repos <- lapply(get_yaml_deps_info(repo_info$path)$downstream_repos, hash_repo_and_host)
         hashed_new_repos <- c(hashed_new_repos, hashed_downstream_repos)
       }
     }
-    hashed_processed_repos[[hashed_repo_and_host]] <- fs::path_join(c(repo_info$dir, repo_info$subdir))
+    hashed_processed_repos[[hashed_repo_and_host]] <- repo_info$path
     hashed_repos_accessible[[hashed_repo_and_host]] <- repo_info$accessible
     hashed_repos_refs[[hashed_repo_and_host]] <- repo_info$ref
     hashed_repos_shas[[hashed_repo_and_host]] <- repo_info$sha
diff --git a/R/dependencies_helper.R b/R/dependencies_helper.R
index 9a79280..44866e0 100644
--- a/R/dependencies_helper.R
+++ b/R/dependencies_helper.R
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ add_project_to_local_repos <- function(project, local_repos) {
     data.frame(
       repo = repo_deps_info$current_repo$repo,
       host = repo_deps_info$current_repo$host,
+      subdir = ".",
       directory = normalize_path(project), stringsAsFactors = FALSE
     )
   )
@@ -359,7 +360,7 @@ yaml_from_dep_table <- function(dep_table) {
 }
 
 
-# take string x@y and split it into list(repo=x, host=y)
+# take string x@y and split it into list(repo=x, host=y, subdir=z)
 # error if multiple "@'s" in string, if no @'s then take
 # host = "https://github.com"
 parse_remote_project <- function(project) {
@@ -377,7 +378,7 @@ parse_remote_project <- function(project) {
   if (any(nchar(trimws(split_string)) == 0)) {
     stop(error_message)
   }
-  return(list(repo = split_string[1], host = split_string[2]))
+  return(list(repo = split_string[1], host = split_string[2], subdir = "."))
 }
 
 # filter packages according to some criteria
diff --git a/R/git_tools.R b/R/git_tools.R
index 09ef07d..b93686b 100644
--- a/R/git_tools.R
+++ b/R/git_tools.R
@@ -14,15 +14,7 @@ get_repo_url <- function(repo, host) {
     is_non_empty_char(repo),
     is_non_empty_char(host)
   )
-  file.path(host, paste0(do.call(file.path, parse_git_ref(repo)[1:2]), ".git"))
-}
-
-parse_git_ref <- function(ref) {
-  list(
-    username = strsplit(ref, "/")[[1]][1],
-    repo = strsplit(ref, "/")[[1]][2],
-    subdir = paste0(strsplit(ref, "/")[[1]][-(1:2)], collapse = "/")
-  )
+  file.path(host, paste0(repo, ".git"))
 }
 
 # gets the currently checked out branch
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 66410dc..febda53 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ hash_repo_and_host <- function(repo_and_host) {
   if (length(repo_and_host) == 0) {
     c()
   } else {
-    paste0(repo_and_host$repo, " @ ", repo_and_host$host)
+    paste0(repo_and_host$repo, " @ ", repo_and_host$host, " @ ", repo_and_host$subdir)
   }
 }
 
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ unhash_repo_and_host <- function(hashed_repo_and_host) {
   repo_and_host <- strsplit(hashed_repo_and_host, " @ ", fixed = TRUE)
   list(
     repo = extract_str_field(repo_and_host, 1),
-    host = extract_str_field(repo_and_host, 2)
+    host = extract_str_field(repo_and_host, 2),
+    subdir = extract_str_field(repo_and_host, 3)
   )
 }
 
@@ -196,6 +197,10 @@ get_yaml_deps_info <- function(repo_dir) {
   if (file.exists(yaml_file)) {
     content <- yaml::read_yaml(yaml_file)
     validate_staged_deps_yaml(content, file_name = yaml_file)
+    # fill in optional subdir field if missing
+    if (is.null(content$current_repo$subdir)) content$current_repo$subdir <- "."
+    for (i in seq_along(content$upstream_repos)) if (is.null(content$upstream_repos[[i]]$subdir)) content$upstream_repos[[i]]$subdir <- "."
+    for (i in seq_along(content$downstream_repos)) if (is.null(content$downstream_repos[[i]]$subdir)) content$downstream_repos[[i]]$subdir <- "."
     content
   } else {
     list(
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-caching.R b/tests/testthat/test-caching.R
index 5a876c5..dcdf4db 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-caching.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-caching.R
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ test_that("rec_checkout_internal_deps works (with mocking checkout)", {
   # check error if fallback_branch argument is incorrect
   expect_error(
     capture.output(rec_checkout_internal_deps(
-      list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com")),
+      list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".")),
       "unittest_branch1",
       direction = c("upstream"), local_repos = NULL, fallback_branch = "not_exist", verbose = 0
     )),
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ test_that("rec_checkout_internal_deps works (with mocking checkout)", {
   )
 
   output <- capture.output(res <- rec_checkout_internal_deps(
-    list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com")),
+    list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".")),
     "fix1@main",
     direction = c("upstream"), local_repos = NULL, verbose = 0
   ))
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ test_that("rec_checkout_internal_deps works for inaccessible repos (with mocking
   })
 
   res <- rec_checkout_internal_deps(
-    list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com")),
+    list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".")),
     "main",
     local_repos = NULL, verbose = 0, direction = "all"
   )
@@ -152,11 +152,12 @@ test_that("get_hashed_repo_to_dir_mapping works", {
       data.frame(
         repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food",
         host = "https://github.com",
+        subdir = ".",
         directory = "dummy_dir",
         stringsAsFactors = FALSE
       )
     ),
-    c(`openpharma/stageddeps.food @ https://github.com` = "dummy_dir")
+    c(`openpharma/stageddeps.food @ https://github.com @ .` = "dummy_dir")
   )
 })
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-dependencies.R b/tests/testthat/test-dependencies.R
index 5f05d00..1386fb3 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-dependencies.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-dependencies.R
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ local_pkgs <- c("stageddeps.elecinfra", "stageddeps.electricity", "stageddeps.fo
 mock_rec_checkout_internal_deps <- function(source_dir) {
   function(repos_to_process, ...) {
     cat(paste0("Mocking rec_checkout_internal_deps", "\n"))
-    expect_equal(repos_to_process, list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com")))
+    expect_equal(repos_to_process, list(list(repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".")))
 
     # stageddeps.food is local
     internal_deps <- data.frame(
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ test_that("dependency_table wih local_pkgs works", {
   local_repos <- data.frame(
     repo = paste0("openpharma/", local_pkgs),
     host = rep("https://github.com", 6),
+    subdir = ".",
     directory = file.path(copied_ecosystem, local_pkgs),
     stringsAsFactors = FALSE
   )
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-dependencies_helper.R b/tests/testthat/test-dependencies_helper.R
index 6b61789..e222bcd 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-dependencies_helper.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-dependencies_helper.R
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ test_that("add_project_to_local_repos works", {
   expect_equal(
     add_project_to_local_repos(project, local_repos = NULL),
     data.frame(
-      repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com",
+      repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.food", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".",
       directory = normalize_path(project),
       stringsAsFactors = FALSE
     )
@@ -93,13 +93,14 @@ test_that("add_project_to_local_repos works", {
     add_project_to_local_repos(
       project,
       local_repos = data.frame(
-        repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.electricity", host = "https://github.com",
+        repo = "openpharma/stageddeps.electricity", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".",
         directory = normalize_path(file.path(TESTS_GIT_REPOS, "stageddeps.electricity")), stringsAsFactors = FALSE
       )
     ),
     data.frame(
       repo = c("openpharma/stageddeps.electricity", "openpharma/stageddeps.food"),
       host = c("https://github.com", "https://github.com"),
+      subdir = ".",
       directory = c(
         normalize_path(file.path(TESTS_GIT_REPOS, "stageddeps.electricity")),
         normalize_path(project)
@@ -140,14 +141,14 @@ test_that("parse_remote_project works", {
   # repo@host
   expect_equal(
     parse_remote_project("x@y"),
-    list(repo = "x", host = "y")
+    list(repo = "x", host = "y", subdir = ".")
   )
 
 
   # missing host uses default
   expect_equal(
     parse_remote_project("x"),
-    list(repo = "x", host = "https://github.com")
+    list(repo = "x", host = "https://github.com", subdir = ".")
   )
 
   # more than 1 @ throws error
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-utils.R b/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
index a768882..6c0503e 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
@@ -27,25 +27,25 @@ test_that("hash_repo_and_host works", {
   expect_null(hash_repo_and_host(list()))
   # when lists contains one element
   expect_equal(
-    hash_repo_and_host(list(repo = "repo1", host = "host1")),
-    "repo1 @ host1"
+    hash_repo_and_host(list(repo = "repo1", host = "host1", subdir = "test1")),
+    "repo1 @ host1 @ test1"
   )
   # when lists contain two elements
   expect_equal(
-    hash_repo_and_host(list(repo = c("repo1", "repo2"), host = c("host1", "host2"))),
-    c("repo1 @ host1", "repo2 @ host2")
+    hash_repo_and_host(list(repo = c("repo1", "repo2"), host = c("host1", "host2"), subdir = c("test1", "test2"))),
+    c("repo1 @ host1 @ test1", "repo2 @ host2 @ test2")
   )
 })
 
 test_that("unhash_repo_and_host works", {
   # when empty
-  expect_equal(unhash_repo_and_host(character(0)), list(repo = character(0), host = character(0)))
+  expect_equal(unhash_repo_and_host(character(0)), list(repo = character(0), host = character(0), subdir = character(0)))
   # when of size 1
-  expect_equal(unhash_repo_and_host("repo1 @ host1"), list(repo = "repo1", host = "host1"))
+  expect_equal(unhash_repo_and_host("repo1 @ host1 @ test1"), list(repo = "repo1", host = "host1", subdir = "test1"))
   # when of size 2
   expect_equal(
-    unhash_repo_and_host(c("repo1 @ host1", "repo2 @ host2")),
-    list(repo = c("repo1", "repo2"), host = c("host1", "host2"))
+    unhash_repo_and_host(c("repo1 @ host1 @ test1", "repo2 @ host2 @ test2")),
+    list(repo = c("repo1", "repo2"), host = c("host1", "host2"), subdir = c("test1", "test2"))
   )
 })