Monitor Pipeline

Monitor GitLab Pipeline

Name

gitlab:monitor-pipeline - Monitor a pipeline or job until completion with real-time status updates

Synopsis

/monitor-pipeline <project-id> <pipeline-id> [--job <job-id>] [--interval <seconds>]

Description

Continuously monitors a GitLab CI/CD pipeline or specific job until it reaches a terminal state (success, failed, or canceled). Reports status changes as they happen and immediately notifies the user of any failures with detailed error information.

Implementation

This skill uses a polling approach to monitor pipeline and job statuses:

1. Initial Status Check: Fetch current pipeline/job state
2. Polling Loop: Check status at regular intervals (default: 15 seconds)
3. Change Detection: Compare current state with previous state
4. Real-time Reporting: Output updates when jobs transition states
5. Failure Notification: Immediately report failures with job logs
6. Completion: Exit when pipeline reaches terminal state

Monitoring Algorithm

WHILE pipeline.status IN [pending, running, waiting_for_resource, preparing]
  WAIT interval seconds
  FETCH current pipeline status
  FETCH all job statuses

  FOR each job:
    IF job.status changed:
      REPORT status change
      IF job.status == "failed":
        FETCH job logs
        REPORT failure details immediately

  REPORT overall progress summary

REPORT final pipeline result

Usage

Monitor a Pipeline

/monitor-pipeline 456 1234

Monitor a Specific Job

/monitor-pipeline 456 1234 --job 5678

Custom Polling Interval

/monitor-pipeline 456 1234 --interval 30

What This Skill Does

1. Fetches initial pipeline state using GitLab API
2. Tracks job transitions from pending -> running -> success/failed
3. Reports immediately when any job fails
4. Fetches failure logs automatically for failed jobs
5. Provides progress updates showing completed vs remaining jobs
6. Exits cleanly when pipeline completes or is canceled

Prerequisites

• GitLab MCP server must be configured
• Access to the target project
• Valid pipeline ID (can be obtained from MR or project pipelines list)

Example Interaction

Successful Pipeline Monitoring

User: /monitor-pipeline 456 1234

Claude: Starting pipeline monitor for Pipeline #1234 in project 456...

## Pipeline Monitor Started

**Pipeline**: #1234
**Branch**: feature/add-authentication
**Started**: 2025-01-15 10:30:22
**Status**: Running

I'll monitor this pipeline and report status changes as they happen.

---

### Update [10:31:45]

**Stage: build**
- ✓ `compile` completed successfully (1m 18s)

Progress: 1/6 jobs complete

---

### Update [10:32:30]

**Stage: build**
- ✓ `bundle-assets` completed successfully (42s)

Progress: 2/6 jobs complete

---

### Update [10:34:15]

**Stage: test**
- ✓ `unit-tests` completed successfully (1m 45s)

Progress: 3/6 jobs complete

---

### Update [10:36:00]

**Stage: test**
- ✓ `integration-tests` completed successfully (1m 45s)

Progress: 4/6 jobs complete

---

### Update [10:37:30]

**Stage: lint**
- ✓ `eslint-check` completed successfully (1m 30s)
- ✓ `type-check` completed successfully (1m 28s)

Progress: 6/6 jobs complete

---

## Pipeline Complete

**Status**: ✓ Success
**Total Duration**: 7m 08s
**All 6 jobs passed**

The pipeline completed successfully. Your changes are ready for merge.

Pipeline with Failure

User: /monitor-pipeline 456 1234

Claude: Starting pipeline monitor for Pipeline #1234...

## Pipeline Monitor Started

**Pipeline**: #1234
**Branch**: feature/database-migration
**Status**: Running

---

### Update [10:31:45]

**Stage: build**
- ✓ `compile` completed successfully (1m 18s)

Progress: 1/6 jobs complete

---

### FAILURE ALERT [10:33:20]

**Job Failed**: `integration-tests` in stage `test`

**Duration**: 1m 35s
**Exit Code**: 1

**Error Log**:

FAILED tests/integration/auth.test.ts

● Authentication API › POST /login › should validate credentials

ConnectionError: Connection to database refused
at PostgresClient.connect (src/db/client.ts:45:12)
at setupTestDB (tests/setup.ts:23:8)

1 test failed, 12 passed

**Likely Causes**:
1. Database service not available in CI environment
2. Missing DATABASE_URL environment variable
3. Network connectivity issues in test container

---

## Pipeline Failed

**Status**: ✗ Failed
**Duration**: 3m 35s
**Failed Jobs**: 1 (integration-tests)
**Passed Jobs**: 2
**Canceled Jobs**: 3

The pipeline failed due to test failures. Review the error above and push a fix.

Would you like me to help debug the database connection issue?

Monitoring a Specific Job

User: /monitor-pipeline 456 1234 --job 5678

Claude: Starting job monitor for Job #5678 (deploy-production)...

## Job Monitor Started

**Job**: deploy-production (#5678)
**Stage**: deploy
**Status**: Running
**Started**: 2025-01-15 14:30:00

---

### Progress [14:31:00]

Deploying to production cluster...

• Pulling latest images... done
• Running database migrations... done
• Starting new containers...

---

### Progress [14:32:30]

• Health checks passing (3/3 replicas)
• Draining old instances...
• Deployment complete!

---

## Job Complete

**Status**: ✓ Success
**Duration**: 2m 45s

Production deployment successful!

Arguments

Terminal States

The monitor exits when the pipeline/job reaches one of these states:

Status Indicators

Tips

• Use shorter intervals (5-10s) for quick pipelines
• Use longer intervals (30-60s) for long-running deployments
• Monitor specific jobs when you only care about one stage
• The skill automatically fetches logs for failed jobs
• Cancel monitoring with Ctrl+C if needed

Error Handling

• API Errors: Retries with exponential backoff
• Network Issues: Reports connection problems, continues monitoring
• Invalid IDs: Exits immediately with helpful error message
• Permission Denied: Reports access issue, suggests checking permissions

Related Commands

• /view-pipeline: One-time snapshot of pipeline status
• /create-mr: Create MR that triggers a pipeline
• /review-mr: Review MR including pipeline status