Starting builds automatically with codemagic.yaml

How to setup builds to run on repository events

In order to fully automate your CI/CD pipeline, you can set up automatic build triggering by configuring which branches to track and when to trigger builds.

triggering: section in codemagic.yaml defines the events for automatic build triggering and watched branches. If no events are defined, you can start builds only manually.

For repositories added via SSH or HTTP/HTTPS, or if you are configuring your builds using codemagic.yaml, you would have to set up webhooks manually. Note that webhook triggers might not be supported for all repository providers.

Build triggers

In the events: section, specify which events in the repository trigger builds.

• push - a build will be started every time you commit code to any of the tracked branches.

• pull_request - a build will be started when a pull request is opened or updated to verify the resulting merge commit.

  For triggering pull requests, you can specify whether each branch pattern matches the source or the target branch of the pull request.

• pull_request_labeled - a build will be started every time you add a new label to a GitHub pull request.

• tag - Codemagic will automatically build the tagged commit whenever you create a tag for this app. Note that the watched branch settings do not affect tag builds.

  If enabled, you would be able to specify tag_patterns: to trigger builds. Similarly to Watched branch patterns, the first pattern in the list is applied first and each pattern will limit the set of tag labels further. In the case of conflicting patterns, the latter will prevail. Using wildcard symbols is supported.

To avoid running builds on outdated commits, you can set cancel_previous_builds to automatically cancel all ongoing and queued builds triggered by webhooks on push or pull request commit when a more recent build has been triggered for the same branch.

Tracking specific branches and tags

Instead of watching all branches and tags, you can limit automatic build triggering to branches or tags whose name matches a specific pattern.

The branches tracked for building are selected by configuring the branch_patterns section. The tracked tags can be configured in the tag_patterns section.

A pattern can match the name of a particular branch or tag. You can use wildcard symbols to create a pattern that matches several branches or tags, see the examples below.

Note that for pull request builds, you have to specify whether the watched branch is the source or the target of the pull request.

The first (i.e. topmost) pattern in the list is applied first. Each following pattern will limit the set of values further. In the case of conflicting patterns, the latter will prevail.

triggering:
  events:                       # List the events that trigger builds
    - push
    - pull_request
    - pull_request_labeled      #GitHub only
    - tag
  branch_patterns:              # Include or exclude watched branches
    - pattern: '*'
      include: true
      source: true
    - pattern: excluded-target
      include: false
      source: false
    - pattern: included-source
      include: true
      source: true
  tag_patterns:                 # Include or exclude watched tag labels
    - pattern: '*'
      include: true
    - pattern: excluded-tag
      include: false
    - pattern: included-tag
      include: true
  cancel_previous_builds: false  # Set to `true` to automatically cancel outdated webhook builds

Pattern examples

Please refer to Wildcard Match Documentation for more advanced matching patterns.

Working with Pull Requests

When dealing with pull requests, you have two options: you can either focus on the branch where the proposed changes are made, or you can target the destination branch after the pull request has been merged.

Example 1. When creating pull requests on the main branch from a feature branch, which is a way to propose and review changes before they’re integrated into main, remember to set source:false and pattern:main. This will ensure that the build runs on the proposed code changes within the feature branch when pull request is created or updated.

triggering:
  events:
    - pull_request
  branch_patterns:
    - pattern: 'main'
      include: true
      source: false  

Example 2. Setting source:true, pattern:main will trigger the build on the main branch once the pull request has been merged from the feature branch into the main branch.

triggering:
  events:
    - push
    - pull_request
  branch_patterns:
    - pattern: 'main'
      include: true
      source: true  

Example 3. Trigger a build when adding a label to your pull request.

triggering:
  events:
    - pull_request_labeled

Exit or ignore build on certain commit message

You can skip building automatically triggered workflows by adding [skip ci] or [ci skip] to your commit message. The workflow will still be started but it will exit without building.

If you want to exit a build when commit message does not include certain string, then you can add the following script at the top of your scripts section and it will take care of exiting the build or moving forward. In the following example, builds will proceed only if the commit message includes buildcd string.

  scripts:
    - name: Exit build if keyword not defined
      script: | 
        set -e
        set -x
        export COMMIT_MSG=$(git log -1 --pretty=%B)
        echo COMMIT_MSG
        if [[ $COMMIT_MSG != *"buildcd"* ]]
          then
            echo "Commit needs to include 'buildcd' in it's message."
            exit 1
          else 
            echo "Commit message includes 'buildcd', moving forward..."
        fi 

Using when to run or skip builds

In addition to build triggers and branch filtering, you can further specify and automate workflow behavior by using when keyword to run or skip a build depending on the specified changeset and condition states.

Using changeset inside when

By using changeset setting, you can avoid unnecessary builds when functional components of your repository were not modified.

When using changeset filtering, a build will be run if any of the following is true:

• codemagic.yaml file was modified
• watched files/folders have changed since the last successful build

You should specify the files to watch in changeset by using the includes and excludes keys.

workflows:
  sample-workflow:
    name: Sample App workflow
    triggering:
      events:
        - push
    when:
      changeset:
        includes:
          - '.'
        excludes:
          - '**/*.md'

In this case, the build would be skipped if there were changes only to Markdown files .md.

Both the includes and excludes keys in changeset are optional. If the includes key is not specified, its value will default to '.' (track everything). The excludes key defaults to no exclusions.

If you use a monorepo, each workflow can be responsible for building a part of your application. Use conditional workflow triggering and specify the path to the application in the changeset as in the example below.

workflows:
  build-android:
    name: Build Android
    triggering:
      events:
        - push
    when:
      changeset:
        includes:
          - 'android/'

As a result, commits with changes outside of the android folder will skip a build.

Using condition inside when

Use condition to run or skip a build depending on the values of environment variables or webhook payload.

The condition you specify will be evaluated during the build. The build will be skipped if the condition evaluates to false.

You can use logical operators ==, not, and, or.

Environment variables are available under the env variable. You can check built-in or other environment variables.

Webhook payload is available under the event variable. You can check the structure of the webhook payloads that your git provider sends on the Webhooks tab in application settings. Note that event is not available if the build is started manually from the UI or by a schedule.

{
    "action": "labeled", // could be "opened", "synchronize", "reopened", or "ready_for_review"
    "number": 2,
    "pull_request": {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/username/repo/pulls/2",
      "id": 100000000,
      "issue_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/username/repo/issues/2",
      "number": 2,
      "state": "open",
      "title": "fix-2",
      "user": {
        "login": "username",
        "id": 100000000,
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/username",
        ...
      },
      "created_at": "2023-10-18T05:27:35Z",
      "updated_at": "2023-10-18T05:28:21Z",
      "assignee": null,
      "assignees": [],
      "requested_reviewers": [],
      "requested_teams": [],
      "labels": [
        {
          "id": 100000000,
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/username/repo/labels/label",
          "name": "label",
          "color": "6816E0",
          "default": false,
          "description": ""
        }
      ],
      "draft": false,
      "merged": false,
      "mergeable": true,
      "rebaseable": true,
      "mergeable_state": "clean",
      "merged_by": null,
      "comments": 0,
      "review_comments": 0,
      "maintainer_can_modify": false,
      "commits": 1,
      "additions": 2,
      "deletions": 4,
      "changed_files": 1,
      ...
    },
    "label": {
      "id": 100000000,
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/username/repo/labels/label",
      "name": "label",
      "color": "6816E0",
      "default": false,
      "description": ""
    },
    "repository": {
      "id": 100000000,
      "name": "repo",
      "full_name": "username/repo",
      "private": true,
      "html_url": "https://github.com/username/repo",
      "created_at": "2023-10-16T11:24:57Z",
      "updated_at": "2023-10-16T11:24:57Z",
      "pushed_at": "2023-10-18T05:27:35Z",
      "git_url": "git://github.com/username/repo.git",
      "visibility": "private",
      "default_branch": "main",
      ...
    },
    "sender": {
      "login": "username",
      "id": 100000000,
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/username",
      "type": "User",
      ...
    },
    ...
  }

Example 1. This build will continue if the triggering event was not a draft pull request update. In other words, it will skip the build if a pull request is marked as a draft:

workflows:
  build:
    name: Build on PR update
    triggering:
      events:
        - pull_request
    when:
      condition: not event.pull_request.draft

Example 2. This build is triggered on adding a label to a pull request but will continue only if the label added was anything else than “codemagicTest”:

workflows:
  build:
    name: Build on PR update
    triggering:
      events:
        - pull_request_labeled
    when:
      condition: not event.pull_request.labels[0].name == "codemagicTest"

Example 3. You can also combine triggering conditions, just make sure that each condition is wrapped in brackets:

workflows:
  build:
    name: Build on PR update
    triggering:
      events:
        - pull_request
        - pull_request_labeled
    when:
      condition: (not event.pull_request.draft) and (not event.pull_request.labels[0].name == "codemagicTest")

Using when to run or skip build steps

You may want to either run or skip some specific build steps in your workflow when building your application.

Both changeset and condition are supported for build steps.