Built-in Tasks

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What Are Built-in Tasks

A pipeline consists of multiple jobs(Open in new window). When a job needs to perform a common CI/CD action — such as adding reviewers to a pull request, closing an issue, or reporting unit test coverage — you do not have to write your own script or look for a plugin image. Built-in tasks are provided directly by Cloud Native Build: just declare the task type and its parameters in .cnb.yml.

What built-in tasks solve:

No scripts to write: common CI/CD actions work out of the box, with no shell script or plugin image to maintain
No credentials to configure: operations are performed inside the platform, so there is no token to request or pass around
Results can be passed on: task results can be exported as environment variables via exports for use in subsequent jobs

Usage

A built-in task is specified via the Stage's type field in the format <category>:<task> (such as git:reviewer, docker:cache). Parameters are passed through options, and task results can be exported as environment variables via exports for use in subsequent jobs.

.cnb.yml
main:
  pull_request:
    - stages:
        - name: add a random reviewer
          type: git:reviewer
          options:
            type: add-reviewer-from-repo-members
          exports:
            reviewersForAt: REVIEWERS_FOR_AT
        - name: notify reviewer
          script: 'echo "please review: $REVIEWERS_FOR_AT"'

In the example above, type selects the task, options passes parameters, and exports exposes the result.

Task List

All built-in tasks are listed below by category. Click a task to view its detailed reference.

Docker

docker:cache: Build Docker image cache to speed up dependency installation

cnb

cnb:await-resolve: Wait/notify mechanism for collaboration across multiple pipelines
cnb:apply: Trigger other pipelines within the current repository
cnb:trigger: Trigger a pipeline in a specified repository
cnb:read-file: Export file content as environment variables
cnb:destroy-token: Destroy the pipeline CNB_TOKEN

vscode

vscode:go: Control the availability of Workspaces environments

git

git:reviewer: Automatically add reviewers to pull requests
git:auto-merge: Automatically merge pull requests
git:issue-update: Update issue status
git:release: Release repository
git:pr-commit-message-preset: Set pre-defined commit message for PR
git:pr-update: Updating the title and labels of the pull request

testing

testing:coverage: Report unit test coverage

artifact

artifact:remove-tag: Remove CNB artifact tags

tapd

tapd:status-update: Update the status of TAPD-associated items (story, task, or bug)
tapd:comment: Submit TAPD associated item (story, task, or bug) comments

knowledge

knowledge:update: Build repository docs, issues, etc. into the knowledge base

npc

npc:go: Execute NPC tasks