A GitHub Action for triggering a build on a Buildkite pipeline when a pull request comment contains a specific slash command.

This action uses the Buildkite Trigger Pipeline Action as a base to send the builds to Buildkite.

It supports two commands:

• /bk trigger <pipeline-slug>
• /bk pipeline <file.yml>

Create a Buildkite API Access Token with write_builds scope, and save it to your GitHub repository’s Settings → Secrets as BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN. Then you can configure your Actions workflow with your Buildkite org-slug and pipeline-slug.

Update your Pipeline YAML Steps to include the following in the UI steps editor:

env: 
  PIPELINE_FILE: "pipeline.yml" # you can change this value to whatever you usually name your pipeline files by default.

steps:
  - label: ":buildkite: :pipeline: Upload"
    command: buildkite-agent pipeline upload .buildkite/${PIPELINE_FILE}

Note: The above is required for /bk pipeline <file.yml> to work properly.

Create a Pull Request on your repository and add a comment using one of the two commands:

• /bk trigger <pipeline-slug> will trigger a build the PR with it's details on a new pipeline based on whatever pipeline-slug is provided, and is valid in your Organization.
• /bk pipeline <file.yml> will trigger a build the PR with it's details on the existing pipeline (via the buildkite_pipeline input parameter in the workflow) with a new yaml file specified in the command. The yaml file must exist either in the repo, or the PR.

The following workflow listens to your PR comments (either created, or edited) and then creates a new Buildkite build based on the command chosen.

Note: buildkite_pipeline is optional, however if you intend to use the /bk pipeline slash command, it is required.

name: Buildkite Pull Request Commands

on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created, edited]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: read

jobs:
  trigger-pipeline:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.issue.pull_request != null
    steps:
    - name: Checkout repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Trigger Buildkite Pipeline
      uses: buildkite/[email protected]
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        buildkite_api_token: ${{ secrets.BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN }}
        buildkite_org: your-org-slug
        buildkite_pipeline: your-pipeline-slug  # optional