Buildkite Logs

Buildkite Logs

Authentication

All requests require BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN. The token is read-only for most operations; a read-write token is needed to trigger retries.

# Check for token
if [ -z "$BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN" ]; then
  echo "Set BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN before proceeding."
  exit 1
fi
BK_AUTH="Authorization: Bearer $BUILDKITE_API_TOKEN"
ORG="elastic"
PIPELINE="kibana-pull-request"
BASE="https://api.buildkite.com/v2"

If the token is missing, ask the user to export it:

You can create a token at https://buildkite.com/user/api-access-tokens (scope: read_builds, read_artifacts).

---

URL takes priority

If the user provides a Buildkite URL, always extract the build number from that URL and fetch it directly. Never fall back to "latest build for the PR" when the user has given an explicit URL.

Pattern: https://buildkite.com/elastic/kibana-pull-request/builds/<BUILD_NUMBER>[/...] Extract <BUILD_NUMBER> and use it immediately. Do not query by PR number instead.

---

Fetch build by number

BUILD_NUMBER=<number>
curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds/$BUILD_NUMBER" \
  | jq '{number,state,branch,commit,created_at,web_url,jobs:[.jobs[]|{id,name,state,exit_status,web_url}]}'

To get a build number from a Buildkite URL like https://buildkite.com/elastic/kibana-pull-request/builds/414685, extract 414685.

---

Fetch latest build for a PR

The API returns builds newest-first, so .[0] is always the most recent build.

PR=<number>
curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds?pull_request_id=$PR&per_page=1" \
  | jq '.[0] | {number,state,branch,web_url,jobs:[.jobs[]|{id,name,state,exit_status}]}'

When the user reports a failure without a URL, use the state filter to fetch only failed builds directly — no page-size guessing needed:

curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds?pull_request_id=$PR&state[]=failed&state[]=failing&per_page=1" \
  | jq '.[0] | {number,state,branch,web_url,jobs:[.jobs[]|{id,name,state,exit_status}]}'

Valid state values include: running, passed, failing, failed, canceled, finished (where finished matches passed, failed, blocked, canceled). Also supports arrays: state[]=failed&state[]=failing.

---

Fetch job log

Once you have a build number and job ID:

BUILD_NUMBER=<number>
JOB_ID=<uuid>
curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds/$BUILD_NUMBER/jobs/$JOB_ID/log" \
  | jq -r '.content'

Logs can be large. Pipe through tail -n 200 or search with grep/rg for relevant sections:

... | jq -r '.content' | grep -A 5 -i "error\|fail\|FAIL\|exception"

---

Workflow: diagnose a failing build

1. Get build overview (fetch build by number or PR, see above). 2. Identify failed jobs: filter jobs where state == "failed". 3. Fetch log for each failed job and search for the first error/failure. 4. Summarise: report job name, exit code, and the key error lines.

For large logs, focus on the last 200–500 lines plus any lines matching error, FAIL, AssertionError, TypeError, or ✖.

---

Workflow: understand job definition for PR build

1. Analyse .buildkite/pipelines/pull_request/base.yml 2. Analyse any relevant yml files in the folder

List and download artifacts

BUILD_NUMBER=<number>
# List artifacts for the build
curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds/$BUILD_NUMBER/artifacts" \
  | jq '.[] | {id,filename,file_size,download_url}'

# Download a specific artifact
ARTIFACT_ID=<uuid>
curl -sL -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds/$BUILD_NUMBER/artifacts/$ARTIFACT_ID/download" \
  -o <filename>

Artifacts for a single job:

JOB_ID=<uuid>
curl -sf -H "$BK_AUTH" \
  "$BASE/organizations/$ORG/pipelines/$PIPELINE/builds/$BUILD_NUMBER/jobs/$JOB_ID/artifacts" \
  | jq '.[] | {id,filename,file_size,download_url}'

---

Other pipelines

Kibana has multiple pipelines. Common slugs:

Substitute the PIPELINE variable as needed.