Buildkite Agent hooks
Hooks extend or override the built-in behaviours of the Buildkite agent and Bootstrap binaries.
Hooks can be defined in the following locations:
- On the agent
- In your pipeline's repository
- In plugins applied to steps
For example, you could define an agent-wide checkout
hook which spins up a fresh git clone
on a new build
machine, a repository pre-command
hook which sets up repository-specific
environment variables, or a plugin environment
hook which fetches API keys
from a secrets' storage service.
There are two categories of hook:
- Agent Lifecycle
- Job Lifecycle
Agent lifecycle hooks are executed by the Buildkite agent as part of the
agent's lifecycle. For example, the pre-bootstrap
hook is executed before
starting a job's bootstrap process, and the agent-shutdown
hook is executed
before the agent process terminates.
Job lifecycle hooks are sourced by the Buildkite bootstrap in the different
job phases. They are run in a per-job shell environment, and any exported
environment variables are carried to the job's subsequent phases and hooks. For
example, the environment
hook can modify or export new environment variables
for the job's subsequent checkout and command phases. Shell options set by individual hooks, such as set -e -o pipefail
, are not carried over to other phases or hooks.
In August 2021 we changed how we refer to agent hooks to differentiate between
the hooks feature for both the agent and bootstrap processes, and the agent
hooks-path
configuration for the
directory that agent level hooks are defined.
Hook locations
Hooks can be defined in three locations:
- Agent hooks - these exist on the agent file system in a directory created by
your agent installer and configured by the
hooks-path
setting. You can define both agent lifecycle and job lifecycle hooks in the agent hooks location. Job lifecycle hooks defined here will be run for every job the agent receives, from any pipeline. - Repository hooks - these exist in your pipeline repository's
.buildkite/hooks
directory and can define job lifecycle hooks. Job lifecycle hooks defined here will be run for every pipeline that uses the repository. - Plugin hooks - these are provided by any plugins you've included in your pipeline steps and can define job lifecycle hooks. Job lifecycle hooks defined by a plugin will only be run for the step that includes them. Plugins can be vendored (if they are already present in the repository, and included using a relative path) or non-vendored (when they are included from elsewhere), which affects the order they are run in.
Agent hooks
Every agent installer creates a hooks directory containing a set of sample hooks. You can find the location of your agent hooks directory in your platform's installation documentation.
To get started with agent hooks copy the relevant example script and remove the
.sample
file extension.
See agent lifecycle hooks and job lifecycle hooks for the hook types that can be defined in the agent hooks directory.
Repository hooks
Repository hooks allow you to execute repository-specific scripts. Repository
hooks live alongside your repository's source code under the .buildkite/hooks
directory.
To get started, create a shell script in .buildkite/hooks
named
post-checkout
. It will be sourced and run after your repository has been
checked out as part of every job for any pipeline that uses this repository.
You can define any of the job lifecycle hooks whose
Order
includes Repository.
Plugin hooks
Plugin hooks allow plugins you've defined in your Pipeline Steps to override default behavior.
See the plugin documentation for how to implement plugin hooks and job lifecycle hooks for the list of hook types that a plugin can define.
Agent lifecycle hooks
Hook | Location Order | Description |
---|---|---|
pre-bootstrap |
Executed before any job is started. Useful for adding strict checks before jobs are permitted to run. The proposed job command and environment is written to a file and the path to this file provided in the BUILDKITE_ENV_FILE environment variable. Use the contents of this file to determine whether to permit the job to run on this agent.If the pre-bootstrap hook terminates with an exit code of 0 , the job is permitted to run. Any other exit code results in the job being rejected, and job failure being reported to the Buildkite API. |
|
agent-startup |
Executed at agent startup, immediately prior to the agent being registered with Buildkite. Useful for initialising resources that will be used by all jobs that an agent runs, outside of the job lifecycle. | |
agent-shutdown |
Executed when the agent shuts down. Useful for performing cleanup tasks for the entire agent, outside of the job lifecycle. |
Creating agent lifecycle hooks
The Buildkite agent executes agent lifecycle hooks.
These hooks can only be defined in the agent hooks-path
directory.
Agent lifecycle hooks can be executables written in any programming language.
On Unix-like systems (such as Linux and macOS), hooks must be files that are executable by the user the agent is running as.
Use agent lifecycle hooks to prepare for or clean up after all jobs that may run.
For example, use pre-bootstrap
to block unwanted jobs from running or use agent-shutdown
to tear down a service after all jobs are finished.
If your hook uses details about any individual job to run, prefer job lifecycle hooks for those tasks instead.
The agent exports few environment variables to agent lifecycle hooks. Read the agent lifecycle hooks table for details on the interface between the agent and each hook type.
Job lifecycle hooks
The following is a complete list of available job hooks, and the order in which they are run as part of each job:
Hook | Location Order | Description |
---|---|---|
environment |
|
Runs before all other hooks. Useful for exporting secret keys. |
pre-checkout |
|
Runs before checkout. |
checkout |
|
Overrides the default git checkout behavior. Note: As of Agent v3.15.0, if multiple checkout hooks are found, only the first will be run. |
post-checkout |
|
Runs after checkout. |
environment |
Unlike other plugins, environment hooks for vendored plugins run after checkout. | |
pre-command |
|
Runs before the build command |
command |
|
Overrides the default command running behavior. If multiple command hooks are found, only the first will be run. |
post-command |
|
Runs after the command. |
pre-artifact |
|
Runs before artifacts are uploaded, if an artifact upload pattern was defined for the job. |
post-artifact |
|
Runs after artifacts have been uploaded, if an artifact upload pattern was defined for the job. |
pre-exit |
|
Runs before the job finishes. Useful for performing cleanup tasks. |
Creating job lifecycle hooks
Job lifecycle hooks are sourced for every job an agent accepts.
Use job lifecycle hooks to prepare for jobs, override default behavior, or clean up after jobs that have finished.
For example, use the environment
hook to set a job's environment variables or the pre-exit
hook to delete temporary files and remove containers.
If your hook is related to the startup or shutdown of the agent, consider agent lifecycle hooks for those tasks instead.
Job lifecycle hooks have access to all the standard Buildkite environment variables.
Job lifecycle hooks are copied to $TMPDIR
directory and sourced by the agent's default shell.
This has a few implications:
-
$BASH_SOURCE
contains the location the hook is sourced from -
$0
contains the location of the copy of the script that is running from$TMPDIR
- the shebang line of the hook script has no effect
🚧 "Permission denied" error when trying to execute hooks
If your hooks don't execute, and throw a Permission denied
error, it might mean that they were copied to a temporary directory on the agent that isn't executable. Configure the directory that hooks are copied to before execution using the $TMPDIR
environment variable on the Buildkite agent, or make sure the existing directory is marked as executable.
To write job lifecycle hooks in another programming language, you need to execute them from within the shell script, and explicitly pass any Buildkite environment variables you need to the script when you call it.
The following is an example of an environment
hook which exports a GitHub API
key for the pipeline's release build step:
set -eu
echo '--- :house_with_garden: Setting up the environment'
export GITHUB_RELEASE_ACCESS_KEY='xxx'
Job hooks on Windows
Buildkite defaults to using the Batch shell on Windows. Buildkite agents running on Windows require that either:
- The hooks files have a
.bat
extension, and be written in Windows Batch, or - The agent
shell
option points to the PowerShell or PowerShell Core executable, and the hooks files are written in PowerShell. PowerShell hooks are supported in Buildkite agent version 3.32.3 and above.
An example of a Windows environment.bat
hook:
@ECHO OFF
ECHO "--- :house_with_garden: Setting up the environment"
SET GITHUB_RELEASE_ACCESS_KEY='xxx'