diff --git a/templates/gitlab/alerta_gitlab.py b/templates/gitlab/alerta_gitlab.py
index 717c59ba5c1d55d49b45d5606ad83b03f232a9ff..5a71e4381e142d27c2e0853e4db41b77d9d597b6 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab/alerta_gitlab.py
+++ b/templates/gitlab/alerta_gitlab.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ GITLAB_ACCESS_TOKEN = '{{ gitlab_issue.token }}'
 
 
 class GitlabIssue(PluginBase):
-
     name = 'alerta-gitlab'
 
     def __init__(self):
@@ -34,33 +33,46 @@ class GitlabIssue(PluginBase):
             """should return internal id of external system"""
 
             LOG.info('Create GitLab issue for %s' % alert.environment)
-            git = gitlab.Gitlab(GITLAB_URL, GITLAB_ACCESS_TOKEN, ssl_verify=True) # type: gitlab
+            git = gitlab.Gitlab(GITLAB_URL, GITLAB_ACCESS_TOKEN,
+                                ssl_verify=True)  # type: gitlab
             git.auth()
 
             if 'gitlab_project_id' in alert.attributes:
-                project = git.projects.get(alert.attributes['gitlab_project_id'])
+                project = git.projects.get(
+                    alert.attributes['gitlab_project_id'])
             else:
-                project = git.projects.get('ansible-inventories/hosts/{}/{}'.format(alert.environment, alert.origin.split('/').pop()))
+                origin = alert.origin.split('/').pop()
+                project = git.projects.get(
+                    'ansible-inventories/hosts/{}/{}'.format(alert.environment,
+                                                             origin))
+                if not project:
+                    projects = git.projects.list(search=origin)
+                    if projects:
+                        project = projects[0]
 
             if project:
                 LOG.info('Project ID %s' % project.id)
 
-
                 if 'issue_iid' not in alert.attributes:
                     # noinspection PyBroadException
                     try:
-                        raw_data = json.dumps(alert.raw_data, indent=2, sort_keys=True)
+                        raw_data = json.dumps(alert.raw_data, indent=2,
+                                              sort_keys=True)
                     except Exception as e:
                         LOG.info('Exception %s' % str(e))
                         raw_data = alert.raw_data
                     issue = project.issues.create({
                         'title': alert.text[0:128],
-                        'description': '{}/alert/{}\n\nService: {}\n\nOrigin: {}\n\n```\n{}\n```\n'.format(ALERTA_URL, alert.id, alert.service, alert.origin, raw_data)
-                    }) # type: Issue
+                        'description': '{}/alert/{}\n\nService: {}\n\nOrigin: '
+                                       '{}\n\n```\n{}\n```\n'.format(
+                            ALERTA_URL, alert.id, alert.service, alert.origin,
+                            raw_data)
+                    })  # type: Issue
                     alert.attributes['issue_iid'] = issue.id
-                    alert.attributes['gitlabUrl'] = '<a href="{}" target="_blank">Issue #{}</a>'.format(
-                        issue.web_url,
-                        issue.iid
-                    )
+                    alert.attributes['gitlabUrl'] = \
+                        '<a href="{}" target="_blank">Issue #{}</a>'.format(
+                            issue.web_url,
+                            issue.iid
+                        )
 
         return alert, action, text