CI Build ID

Using CI Build ID for reporting to Currents

What is CI Build ID?

CI Build ID is a unique identifier used by Currents to collect test results. Think of it as a hard drive "folder". We call it a Run (see Runs).

For example, when multiple CI machines run tests in parallel, their combined results are combined if they use the same CI Build ID.

• results with --ci-build-id build001 will go to build001 "folder"

• results with --ci-build-id build002 will go to build002 "folder"

Creating two distinct runs by using different CI Build ID

Creating a CI Build ID

You can choose between leveraging our auto-detection algorithm, or manually generating a CI Build ID.

Automatic Detection

Currents automatically detects CI Build ID for popular CI providers based on the presence of environment variables. Please refer to Build ID for Popular CI Providers to see the environment variables used for each provider.

Otherwise, if not explicitly provided, Currents generates a random unique id.

Explicit Value

You can also specify CI Build ID explicitly.

CLI

With the CLI, you can use the --ci-build-id flag, for example:

pwc run --ci-build-id CI_BUILD_ID --key xxx --project-id yyy

Reporter Configuration

Example on passing ciBuildId to Playwright Reporter configuration:

// playwright.config.ts
import { currentsReporter } from '@currents/playwright';

//...
reporter: [
  currentsReporter({
    //... 
    ciBuildId: process.env.CURRENTS_CI_BUILD_ID
  }),
]

Environment Variable

You can also set the CURRENTS_CI_BUILD_ID environment variable to provide an explicit CI Build ID value.

In order to manually construct a CI Build ID that is unique for each build (but similar across all the parallel machines) it is recommended to use your CI provider's environment variables that combine pipeline/workflow/build identifier and also an attempt number.

For example, for GitHub Actions:

--ci-build-id "${{ github.repository }}-${{ github.run_id }}-${{ github.run_attempt }}"

Refer to your CI provider documentation for the list of available environment variables.

Examples

Different CI Build ID, Different Builds

Imagine a CI pipeline running tests in parallel using multiple machines. Starting two builds with a different CI Build ID will create 2 distinct "Runs" in Currents dashboard.

The reporting will happen for each build independently from the other. That is usually the desired situation - each build should have a unique CI Build ID.

Same CI Build ID, Different builds

In contrast, consider a situation when 2 different builds use the same CI Build ID. That's an uncommon situation, but it's worth demonstrating for understanding the use of CI Build ID.

A single run is created when using a similar CI Build ID

We created two different builds with the same CI Build ID. That will result in 6 machines reporting their results to the same run.

Build ID for Popular CI Providers

Currents tries to automatically detect the CI provider by looking at the environment variables and picking the best combination.

Build ID for Popular CI Providers Table

Provider	Variables	Fallback
AppVeyor	APPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_HEAD_REPO_BRANCH APPVEYOR_BUILD_NUMBER	APPVEYOR_BUILD_NUMBER
Azure	BUILD_BUILDID
AWS Code Build	CODEBUILD_BUILD_ID CODEBUILD_SOURCE_VERSION	CODEBUILD_BUILD_ID
Bamboo	bamboo_buildKey bamboo_buildNumber	bamboo_buildKey
Bitbucket	BITBUCKET_REPO_SLUG BITBUCKET_BUILD_NUMBER	BITBUCKET_BUILD_NUMBER
Buildkite	BUILDKITE_BUILD_ID
CircleCI	CIRCLE_WORKFLOW_ID	CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM
Codeship	CI_REPO_NAME CI_BUILD_ID	CI_BUILD_ID
Concourse	BUILD_ID BUILD_NAME	BUILD_ID
CodeFresh	CF_BUILD_ID CF_CURRENT_ATTEMPT	CF_BUILD_ID
Drone	DRONE_PULL_REQUEST DRONE_BUILD_NUMBER	DRONE_BUILD_NUMBER
GitHub Actions	GITHUB_REPOSITORY GITHUB_RUN_ID GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT	GITHUB_RUN_ID
GitLab	CI_PIPELINE_ID
GoCD	GO_REVISION GO_PIPELINE_COUNTER	GO_REVISION
Google Cloud	REPO_NAME BUILD_ID	BUILD_ID
Jenkins	BUILD_NUMBER
Semaphore	SEMAPHORE_GIT_REPO_SLUG SEMAPHORE_PIPELINE_ID	SEMAPHORE_PIPELINE_ID
TeamFoundation	BUILD_BUILDID BUILD_BUILDNUMBER	BUILD_BUILDID
Travis	TRAVIS_REPO_SLUG TRAVIS_BUILD_ID	TRAVIS_BUILD_ID
Netlify	BUILD_ID

Next Steps

Now, after you're familiar with CI Build ID, explore Reporting Strategy to customizing your reporting to Currents.

FAQ

Retrying builds and CI Build ID

Imagine a situation

• You start a new build with CI Build ID build-001

  • Build completes and reports all the results to Currents Dashboard

  • Currents marks build-001 as "finished" and all the files as completed

• You restart the build (attempt B), but keep the same CI build ID build-001

  • Currents considers build-001 as already completed

  • Currents won't accept new results for build-001, because all the results were already reported

  • Currents will not send any new files for Cypress orchestration, because build-001 already ran all the spec files on the first attempt

To resolve this ambiguity, we need to have a different CI build ID for each rerun.

Most CI providers provide a different set of environment variables for different attempts and Currents dashboard can identify it automatically - it will create an entirely new run for retries.

You can also construct an explicit CI Build ID when retrying a build, for example, for GitHub Actions:

"${{ github.repository }}-${{ github.run_id }}-${{ github.run_attempt }}"

If you are generating CI Build ID manually, please make sure to include the retry/attempt identifier.

Please refer to your CI tool documentation to explore what environment variables are available for composing a valid CI Build ID.

Using commit SHA as CI Build ID

Using commit SHA as a CI Build ID is a valid approach and can work for many setups. However, please be aware that rerunning a build with the same commit SHA can result in a duplicate CI Build ID and prevent orchestration and reporting (see #faq-retrying-builds-and-ci-build-id)

How to rerun CI with only failed tests?

See Re-run Only Failed Tests