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Workflow syntax

The Workflow section defines a list of steps to build, test and deploy your code. The steps are executed serially in the order in which they are defined. If a step returns a non-zero exit code, the workflow and therefore the entire pipeline terminates immediately and returns an error status.

note

An exception to this rule are steps with a status: [failure] condition, which ensures that they are executed in the case of a failed run.

note

We support most of YAML 1.2, but preserve some behavior from 1.1 for backward compatibility. Read more at: https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml

Example steps:

steps:
  - name: backend
    image: golang
    commands:
      - go build
      - go test
  - name: frontend
    image: node
    commands:
      - npm install
      - npm run test
      - npm run build

In the above example we define two steps, frontend and backend. The names of these steps are completely arbitrary.

The name is optional, if not added the steps will be numerated.

Another way to name a step is by using dictionaries:

steps:
  backend:
    image: golang
    commands:
      - go build
      - go test
  frontend:
    image: node
    commands:
      - npm install
      - npm run test
      - npm run build

Skip Commits​

Woodpecker gives the ability to skip individual commits by adding [SKIP CI] or [CI SKIP] to the commit message. Note this is case-insensitive.

git commit -m "updated README [CI SKIP]"

Steps​

Every step of your workflow executes commands inside a specified container.
The defined steps are executed in sequence by default, if they should run in parallel you can use depends_on.
The associated commit is checked out with git to a workspace which is mounted to every step of the workflow as the working directory.

 steps:
   - name: backend
     image: golang
     commands:
+      - go build
+      - go test

File changes are incremental​

  • Woodpecker clones the source code in the beginning of the workflow
  • Changes to files are persisted through steps as the same volume is mounted to all steps
.woodpecker.yaml
steps:
  - name: build
    image: debian
    commands:
      - echo "test content" > myfile
  - name: a-test-step
    image: debian
    commands:
      - cat myfile

image​

Woodpecker pulls the defined image and uses it as environment to execute the workflow step commands, for plugins and for service containers.

When using the local backend, the image entry is used to specify the shell, such as Bash or Fish, that is used to run the commands.

 steps:
   - name: build
+    image: golang:1.6
     commands:
       - go build
       - go test

   - name: publish
+    image: woodpeckerci/plugin-kaniko
     repo: foo/bar

 services:
   - name: database
+    image: mysql

Woodpecker supports any valid Docker image from any Docker registry:

image: golang
image: golang:1.7
image: library/golang:1.7
image: index.docker.io/library/golang
image: index.docker.io/library/golang:1.7

Woodpecker does not automatically upgrade container images. Example configuration to always pull the latest image when updates are available:

 steps:
   - name: build
     image: golang:latest
+    pull: true

Learn more how you can use images from different registries.

commands​

Commands of every step are executed serially as if you would enter them into your local shell.

 steps:
   - name: backend
     image: golang
     commands:
+      - go build
+      - go test

There is no magic here. The above commands are converted to a simple shell script. The commands in the above example are roughly converted to the below script:

#!/bin/sh
set -e

go build
go test

The above shell script is then executed as the container entrypoint. The below docker command is an (incomplete) example of how the script is executed:

docker run --entrypoint=build.sh golang
note

Only build steps can define commands. You cannot use commands with plugins or services.

entrypoint​

Allows you to specify the entrypoint for containers. Note that this must be a list of the command and its arguments (e.g. ["/bin/sh", "-c"]).

If you define commands, the default entrypoint will be ["/bin/sh", "-c", "echo $CI_SCRIPT | base64 -d | /bin/sh -e"]. You can also use a custom shell with CI_SCRIPT (Base64-encoded) if you set commands.

environment​

Woodpecker provides the ability to pass environment variables to individual steps.

For more details, check the environment docs.

failure​

Some of the steps may be allowed to fail without causing the whole workflow and therefore pipeline to report a failure (e.g., a step executing a linting check). To enable this, add failure: ignore to your step. If Woodpecker encounters an error while executing the step, it will report it as failed but still executes the next steps of the workflow, if any, without affecting the status of the workflow.

 steps:
   - name: backend
     image: golang
     commands:
       - go build
       - go test
+    failure: ignore

when - Conditional Execution​

Woodpecker supports defining a list of conditions for a step by using a when block. If at least one of the conditions in the when block evaluate to true the step is executed, otherwise it is skipped. A condition is evaluated to true if all sub-conditions are true. A condition can be a check like:

 steps:
   - name: slack
     image: plugins/slack
     settings:
       channel: dev
+    when:
+      - event: pull_request
+        repo: test/test
+      - event: push
+        branch: main

The slack step is executed if one of these conditions is met:

  1. The pipeline is executed from a pull request in the repo test/test
  2. The pipeline is executed from a push to main

repo​

Example conditional execution by repository:

 steps:
   - name: slack
     image: plugins/slack
     settings:
       channel: dev
+    when:
+      - repo: test/test

branch​

note

Branch conditions are not applied to tags.

Example conditional execution by branch:

 steps:
   - name: slack
     image: plugins/slack
     settings:
       channel: dev
+    when:
+      - branch: main

The step now triggers on main branch, but also if the target branch of a pull request is main. Add an event condition to limit it further to pushes on main only.

Execute a step if the branch is main or develop:

when:
  - branch: [main, develop]

Execute a step if the branch starts with prefix/*:

when:
  - branch: prefix/*

The branch matching is done using doublestar, note that a pattern starting with * should be put between quotes and a literal / needs to be escaped. A few examples:

  • *\\/* to match patterns with exactly 1 /
  • *\\/** to match patters with at least 1 /
  • * to match patterns without /
  • ** to match everything

Execute a step using custom include and exclude logic:

when:
  - branch:
      include: [main, release/*]
      exclude: [release/1.0.0, release/1.1.*]

event​

The available events are:

  • push: triggered when a commit is pushed to a branch.
  • pull_request: triggered when a pull request is opened or a new commit is pushed to it.
  • pull_request_closed: triggered when a pull request is closed or merged.
  • tag: triggered when a tag is pushed.
  • release: triggered when a release, pre-release or draft is created. (You can apply further filters using evaluate with environment variables.)
  • deployment: triggered when a deployment is created in the repository. (This event can be triggered from Woodpecker directly. GitHub also supports webhook triggers.)
  • cron: triggered when a cron job is executed.
  • manual: triggered when a user manually triggers a pipeline.

Execute a step if the build event is a tag:

when:
  - event: tag

Execute a step if the pipeline event is a push to a specified branch:

when:
  - event: push
+   branch: main

Execute a step for multiple events:

when:
  - event: [push, tag, deployment]

cron​

This filter only applies to cron events and filters based on the name of a cron job.

Make sure to have a event: cron condition in the when-filters as well.

when:
  - event: cron
    cron: sync_* # name of your cron job

Read more about cron

ref​

The ref filter compares the git reference against which the workflow is executed. This allows you to filter, for example, tags that must start with v:

when:
  - event: tag
    ref: refs/tags/v*

status​

There are use cases for executing steps on failure, such as sending notifications for failed workflow / pipeline. Use the status constraint to execute steps even when the workflow fails:

 steps:
   - name: slack
     image: plugins/slack
     settings:
       channel: dev
+    when:
+      - status: [ success, failure ]

platform​

note

This condition should be used in conjunction with a matrix workflow as a regular workflow will only be executed by a single agent which only has one arch.

Execute a step for a specific platform:

when:
  - platform: linux/amd64

Execute a step for a specific platform using wildcards:

when:
  - platform: [linux/*, windows/amd64]

matrix​

Execute a step for a single matrix permutation:

when:
  - matrix:
      GO_VERSION: 1.5
      REDIS_VERSION: 2.8

instance​

Execute a step only on a certain Woodpecker instance matching the specified hostname:

when:
  - instance: stage.woodpecker.company.com

path​

info

Path conditions are applied only to push and pull_request events. It is currently only available for GitHub, GitLab and Gitea (version 1.18.0 and newer)

Execute a step only on a pipeline with certain files being changed:

when:
  - path: 'src/*'

You can use glob patterns to match the changed files and specify if the step should run if a file matching that pattern has been changed include or if some files have not been changed exclude.

For pipelines without file changes (empty commits or on events without file changes like tag), you can use on_empty to set whether this condition should be true (default) or false in these cases.

when:
  - path:
      include: ['.woodpecker/*.yaml', '*.ini']
      exclude: ['*.md', 'docs/**']
      ignore_message: '[ALL]'
      on_empty: true
info

Passing a defined ignore-message like [ALL] inside the commit message will ignore all path conditions and the on_empty setting.

evaluate​

Execute a step only if the provided evaluate expression is equal to true. Both built-in CI_ and custom variables can be used inside the expression.

The expression syntax can be found in the docs of the underlying library.

Run on pushes to the default branch for the repository owner/repo:

when:
  - evaluate: 'CI_PIPELINE_EVENT == "push" && CI_REPO == "owner/repo" && CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == CI_REPO_DEFAULT_BRANCH'

Run on commits created by user woodpecker-ci:

when:
  - evaluate: 'CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR == "woodpecker-ci"'

Skip all commits containing please ignore me in the commit message:

when:
  - evaluate: 'not (CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE contains "please ignore me")'

Run on pull requests with the label deploy:

when:
  - evaluate: 'CI_COMMIT_PULL_REQUEST_LABELS contains "deploy"'

Skip step only if SKIP=true, run otherwise or if undefined:

when:
  - evaluate: 'SKIP != "true"'

depends_on​

Normally steps of a workflow are executed serially in the order in which they are defined. As soon as you set depends_on for a step a directed acyclic graph will be used and all steps of the workflow will be executed in parallel besides the steps that have a dependency set to another step using depends_on:

 steps:
   - name: build # build will be executed immediately
     image: golang
     commands:
       - go build

   - name: deploy
     image: woodpeckerci/plugin-kaniko
     settings:
       repo: foo/bar
+    depends_on: [build, test] # deploy will be executed after build and test finished

   - name: test # test will be executed immediately as no dependencies are set
     image: golang
     commands:
       - go test
note

You can define a step to start immediately without dependencies by adding an empty depends_on: []. By setting depends_on on a single step all other steps will be immediately executed as well if no further dependencies are specified.

steps:
  - name: check code format
    image: mstruebing/editorconfig-checker
    depends_on: [] # enable parallel steps
  ...

volumes​

Woodpecker gives the ability to define Docker volumes in the YAML. You can use this parameter to mount files or folders on the host machine into your containers.

For more details check the volumes docs.

detach​

Woodpecker gives the ability to detach steps to run them in background until the workflow finishes.

For more details check the service docs.

directory​

Using directory, you can set a subdirectory of your repository or an absolute path inside the Docker container in which your commands will run.

services​

Woodpecker can provide service containers. They can for example be used to run databases or cache containers during the execution of workflow.

For more details check the services docs.

workspace​

The workspace defines the shared volume and working directory shared by all workflow steps. The default workspace base is /woodpecker and the path is extended with the repository URL (src/{url-without-schema}). So an example would be /woodpecker/src/github.com/octocat/hello-world.

The workspace can be customized using the workspace block in the YAML file:

+workspace:
+  base: /go
+  path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world

 steps:
   - name: build
     image: golang:latest
     commands:
       - go get
       - go test
note

Plugins will always have the workspace base at /woodpecker

The base attribute defines a shared base volume available to all steps. This ensures your source code, dependencies and compiled binaries are persisted and shared between steps.

 workspace:
+  base: /go
   path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world

 steps:
   - name: deps
     image: golang:latest
     commands:
       - go get
       - go test
   - name: build
     image: node:latest
     commands:
       - go build

This would be equivalent to the following docker commands:

docker volume create my-named-volume

docker run --volume=my-named-volume:/go golang:latest
docker run --volume=my-named-volume:/go node:latest

The path attribute defines the working directory of your build. This is where your code is cloned and will be the default working directory of every step in your build process. The path must be relative and is combined with your base path.

 workspace:
   base: /go
+  path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world
git clone https://github.com/octocat/hello-world \
  /go/src/github.com/octocat/hello-world

matrix​

Woodpecker has integrated support for matrix builds. Woodpecker executes a separate build task for each combination in the matrix, allowing you to build and test a single commit against multiple configurations.

For more details check the matrix build docs.

labels​

You can set labels for your workflow to select an agent to execute the workflow on. An agent will pick up and run a workflow when every label assigned to it matches the agents labels.

To set additional agent labels, check the agent configuration options. Agents will have at least four default labels: platform=agent-os/agent-arch, hostname=my-agent, backend=docker (type of the agent backend) and repo=*. Agents can use a * as a wildcard for a label. For example repo=* will match every repo.

Workflow labels with an empty value will be ignored. By default, each workflow has at least the repo=your-user/your-repo-name label. If you have set the platform attribute for your workflow it will have a label like platform=your-os/your-arch as well.

You can add additional labels as a key value map:

+labels:
+  location: europe # only agents with `location=europe` or `location=*` will be used
+  weather: sun
+  hostname: "" # this label will be ignored as it is empty

 steps:
   - name: build
     image: golang
     commands:
       - go build
       - go test

Filter by platform​

To configure your workflow to only be executed on an agent with a specific platform, you can use the platform key. Have a look at the official go docs for the available platforms. The syntax of the platform is GOOS/GOARCH like linux/arm64 or linux/amd64.

Example:

Assuming we have two agents, one linux/arm and one linux/amd64. Previously this workflow would have executed on either agent, as Woodpecker is not fussy about where it runs the workflows. By setting the following option it will only be executed on an agent with the platform linux/arm64.

+labels:
+  platform: linux/arm64

 steps:
   [...]

variables​

Woodpecker supports using YAML anchors & aliases as variables in the workflow configuration.

For more details and examples check the Advanced usage docs

clone​

Woodpecker automatically configures a default clone step if not explicitly defined. When using the local backend, the plugin-git binary must be on your $PATH for the default clone step to work. If not, you can still write a manual clone step.

You can manually configure the clone step in your workflow for customization:

+clone:
+  git:
+    image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git

 steps:
   - name: build
     image: golang
     commands:
       - go build
       - go test

Example configuration to override depth:

 clone:
   - name: git
     image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git
+    settings:
+      partial: false
+      depth: 50

Example configuration to use a custom clone plugin:

 clone:
   - name: git
+    image: octocat/custom-git-plugin

Example configuration to clone Mercurial repository:

 clone:
   - name: hg
+    image: plugins/hg
+    settings:
+      path: bitbucket.org/foo/bar

Git Submodules​

To use the credentials that cloned the repository to clone it's submodules, update .gitmodules to use https instead of git:

 [submodule "my-module"]
 path = my-module
-url = git@github.com:octocat/my-module.git
+url = https://github.com/octocat/my-module.git

To use the ssh git url in .gitmodules for users cloning with ssh, and also use the https url in Woodpecker, add submodule_override:

 clone:
   - name: git
     image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git
     settings:
       recursive: true
+      submodule_override:
+        my-module: https://github.com/octocat/my-module.git

steps:
  ...

skip_clone​

By default Woodpecker is automatically adding a clone step. This clone step can be configured by the clone property. If you do not need a clone step at all you can skip it using:

skip_clone: true

when - Global workflow conditions​

Woodpecker gives the ability to skip whole workflows (not just steps) based on certain conditions by a when block. If all conditions in the when block evaluate to true the workflow is executed, otherwise it is skipped, but treated as successful and other workflows depending on it will still continue.

For more information about the specific filters, take a look at the step-specific when filters.

Example conditional execution by branch:

+when:
+  branch: main
+
 steps:
   - name: slack
     image: plugins/slack
     settings:
       channel: dev

The workflow now triggers on main, but also if the target branch of a pull request is main.

depends_on​

Woodpecker supports to define multiple workflows for a repository. Those workflows will run independent from each other. To depend them on each other you can use the depends_on keyword.

runs_on​

Workflows that should run even on failure should set the runs_on tag. See here for an example.

Privileged mode​

Woodpecker gives the ability to configure privileged mode in the YAML. You can use this parameter to launch containers with escalated capabilities.

info

Privileged mode is only available to trusted repositories and for security reasons should only be used in private environments. See project settings to enable trusted mode.

 steps:
   - name: build
     image: docker
     environment:
       - DOCKER_HOST=tcp://docker:2375
     commands:
       - docker --tls=false ps

 - name: services
   docker:
     image: docker:dind
     commands: dockerd-entrypoint.sh --storage-driver=vfs --tls=false
+    privileged: true