Plugin Documentation: Skip Step (`skip`)

Overview

The skip plugin is a utility designed for managing and controlling the execution flow of your microCI pipeline steps. Its primary function is to temporarily or conditionally disable a specific step without needing to comment out or restructure the entire build definition. This makes it invaluable for debugging, testing partial pipelines, running smoke tests, or bypassing expensive/time-consuming stages in controlled environments.

If a step contains the plugin: name: skip directive, microCI will detect this and gracefully exit that specific step without running any associated commands or validations, allowing the pipeline to continue processing subsequent steps if configured otherwise.

Features

Skip Temporarily: Allows developers to bypass an entire build step instantly using a simple plugin declaration (name: skip). This is ideal for isolating failures or testing adjacent components without needing to comment out large blocks of YAML code.
Non-Intrusive Debugging: Facilitates debugging by allowing users to run the pipeline up to a specific point and then skip the problematic section, thereby validating preceding steps in isolation.

Setup & Configuration

The skip plugin is extremely simple to implement, as its core functionality is derived from its presence rather than complex parameters. You simply need to declare it within a step's plugin: block.

Required Parameters: None. The plugin relies solely on the presence of the name: skip directive.

Configuration Example (@new/skip.yml):

The configuration is applied directly in the pipeline definition:

# To ignore a step entirely, simply declare the plugin with no specific parameters.
plugin:
  name: skip

Examples

Example 1: Completely Bypassing an Entire Step

Use this example to show how to ignore a preparatory or validation step without affecting other parts of the build process.

steps: Block:

steps:
    # This step is designed to be ignored during rapid testing.
    - name: "Ignored setup step"
      description: "This step should be ignored temporarily."
      plugin:
        name: skip # <-- Execution will stop here for this step

    # This subsequent step will execute normally, proving the previous step was skipped.
    - name: "Standard Build Step"
      docker: "ubuntu:latest"
      script: |
        echo "This message confirms that 'Ignored setup step' was successfully bypassed."

Example 2: Skipping a Complex Block for Testing

When testing the functionality of steps after a complex build process, you might want to skip the entire build/install block if artifacts are already known to be present.

steps: Block (from @new/skip.yml):

steps:
    # ... other setup steps ...

    - name: "Another ignored step - build static version of microCI"
      description: "This complex block is skipped for testing purposes."
      plugin:
        name: skip # <-- Bypassing the full compile and test cycle here.

Note: The skip plugin does not require any credentials, API keys, or environment variables.

Plugin Documentation: Skip Step (skip)